WPT Barcelona Begins as Irish Pros Prepare to Fight

The WPT’s Barcelona Fiesta Begins

The WPT’s Spanish leg kicked off today with the first of its opening sessions. The €1,500 + €150 main event is part of the WPT’s nation series and is taking place inside the Gran Casino Barcelona.

All players start with 20,000 chips but are allowed to re-enter the event if the bust their stack on Day 1A.

The main event is flanked by a range of side events, including a €100 bounty event – and a bumper field is expected to visit the festival between now and October 29^th.

Irish Poker Players to Fight

Irish poker pro John O’Shea will square-off against friend and fellow player Ross Johnson in aid of motor neuron disease this December.

On the felt O’Shea has a considerable advantage over his rival with an impressive set of results totalling $887,933. Indeed, with a strong performance at this year’s WSOP John managed to jump six place to 5th on the GPI’s Irish leaderboard.

However, in the ring it appears that Johnson may have the upper-hand. According to Rob Smyth, the organiser of the boxing match, “Ross has the more powerful punch”.

The fight was originally going to take place in Las Vegas this summer, but strong performances in the WSOP Main Event by both players prevented it from happening.

The charity boxing match will now take place at Leopardstown Pavilion, Dublin, on December 1^st.

At present it looks as though O’Shea is the favourite as Ross – despite having a harder punch – is fighting to lose 11kg before the bout.

In the run-up to the fight O’Shea’s sponsors, BoylePoker and BoyleSports, will be offering odds on the match.

JP Poker’s Mini Series

If you’re a fan of short-handed tournaments, heads-up events and 8-game MTTs then the JP Poker Mini Series is the place to be.

Organised by Irish tournament director JP McCann, the low stakes event is designed to give players a deep structured main event for a small buy-in.

Kicking off on October 31^st and running through until NovembJP McCanner 4^th, the event will offer a range of tournaments with buy-ins starting at €60 and scaling up to €350.

The series’ organiser has added €50,000 to the main event prizepool, something which will certainly attract a host of Irish and European players.

Last year Oliver Boyce outlasted 211 runners to claim the trophy and over €10,000.

Isaac Haxton in High Stakes Showdown

Some of the GPI’s highest ranked pros will be taking a break from the tournament grind to prove their cash game prowess this weekend thanks to PokerStars latest online event.

Dubbed the All-Star Showdown, each player involved will put up $100,000 and play a series of heads-up matches over the course of seven days to determine who the best online player is.

With $550,000 on offer for the winner, the likes of Isaac Haxton, Phil Galfond and Ben Sulsky will be battling it out across the virtual felt.

Join the three highly rated pros are Tobias Kuder, Alexander Millar and Alexander Roumeliotis. However, with only six players and eight spaces available, PokerStars are currently accepting volunteers.

Maybe the GPI’s top two players, Jason Mercier and Bertrand Grospellier, could use some of the tournament winnings to test their mettle in the largest online showdown in history.

The first of the matches will take place on Saturday and the railbirds will be treated to one duel a day until November 4^th when a winner is finally crowned.