O’Kearney Off to High Roller Instead of Dinner Break

Dara O’Kearney was busy signing books with his friend Alex O’Brien for a couple of hours before the start of Day 2 of the Grand Event. Alex O’Brien had under 10 big blinds to start the day but is still in the field with 113 players remaining. However, the same can’t be said about O’Kearney, who we caught up with quickly as we were leaving for the dinner break.

“It was frustrating,” O’Kearney shared about his elimination. “I was up to 1 million at one point.

The GPI Award-Winning Chip Race podcast co-host alongside David Lappin and Unibet Ambassador shared the hand and we can fully understand his frustration.

O’Kearney shared he opened from middle position with eights and was called by both players in the blinds.

“It was a queen-eight-four flop,” O’Kearney said. “At this point I knew I was good as queens would have three-bet.”

O’Kearney continued for 30,000 after the players in the blinds checked and the player in the small blind called.

“A ten came on the turn bringing two clubs to the board and the small blind checked before I bet 80,000,” O’Kearney said. “The small blind then shoved and felt I was ahead as maybe he had jack-nine suited or potentially tens but he also had all the two pairs, potentially a set of fours, or something else I was ahead of.

O’Kearney eventually called to create a 2 million chip pot and his opponent had him beat with jack-nine offsuit. The board didn’t pair on the river to save O’Kearney and he was eliminated in 124th place.

The night isn’t over for the Irish poker legend as he will take a short break before entering the two-day €1,100 High Roller. Best of luck to O’Kearney in his quest for a Malta Poker Festival trophy.