More action and adventure as the 2009 Paddy Power Irish Open continues.

Some big names have fallen by the wayside including Roland De Wolfe, Dan Harrington, Andy Black and Donnacha O’Dea.

There are 138 players out of the starting 701 entries and with
€600,000 on offer for first place there is still fortune and glory to
play for.

The UK’s Andy Bradshaw returned today as one of the chip leaders but
has unfortunately gone out just before the dinner break. Actually
correction there – Mr Bradshaw is still going strong and is in fact on
the feature table as we speak (as of 14:39 Sunday 12th – well can’t be
right all the time )

The always-friendly Jon Kalmar has also gone along with around 100 others as we draw ever closer to crunch time.

Ciaran O’Leary has also hit the rail running into every tournament
players worst nightmare; the dreaded Aces vs. Kings scenario with all
the money in the middle pre-flop.

Read more about Ciaran’s exploits here at the Paddy Power Irish Open blog.

The €300 Omaha re-buy is in full swing with 115 players gambling
with reckless abandon including Ireland’s Andy Black and the UK’s Dave
Colclough.

Harrington on Hold ‘Em

Despite his exit from the tournament yesterday, I caught up with an
extremely friendly Dan Harrington this morning, who gave me a great
interview.

Harrington on Hold\’Em

Without too many spoilers it was a really good interview where he
revealed just what his fellow pro’s thought about him giving away
valuable poker trade secrets to the general public, how he’s had to
change his style since the release of his books, and why poker is just
like business.

I’ll be transcribing the interview up just as soon as I return to the UK so watch this space for updates.

I also had the pleasure of interviewing a young up-and-coming Danish player by the name of Albert Kirk Iversen who has been destroying the high-stakes heads-up online cash games.

What’s that you say? Another ridiculously aggressive Scandie… but
seriously this kid seems really focused and with three WSOP cashes
(including a 3rd in the $1000 NLHE event) and a 4th place finish in the
Budapest leg of the EPT it is only a matter of time before this guy
takes down a major tournament and wins himself some silverware.

As well as discussing how to deal with 400k down swings and talking
metagame, Albert revealed just how much work you have to put into the
game to be successful at the top level. He’s currently in the midst of
going deep in this years Irish Open so stay tuned for updates or check
out the action on the  Paddy Power blog.

On The Prowl For The Big Bad Wolf

With some great interviews bagged already, I’m obviously still eager
for more so am in the middle of attempting to collar the infamous
Roland De Wolfe for an interview – maybe even a ‘Pro on Pro’ interview
with Interpoker sponsored Finnish poker pro Juha Helppi.

I spotted Roland playing Chinese poker in the Citywest’s lobby earlier so will see what I can do.

Phil ‘Unabomber’ Laak is still in the main event with around 40k in
chips, so I’ll have to lurk on the sidelines to get an interview with
him, but will be trying my hardest.

Jamie Gold is around as well so I’ll see if I can work my Welsh wizardry and pin him down for interview.

WSOPE 2007 runner-up John Tabatabai (a fellow Cardiff boy no less ) has escaped my interview clutches this time around… next time gadget,
next time… by escaping back to London to terrorise the internet once
again, but as I’m in London next week for business it looks like I’ll
be able to get an interview sorted with him as well – he seemed very
amiable about the whole thing.

I’m off to grab me some of the Citywest’s fine cuisine so have to keep this blog entry like a pair of pants – brief.

Tune in tomorrow for more blogage.