Connor Drinan opened the action with a raise to 3,000 from the button. The small blind quickly released, but Jeff Rossiter, in the big blind, had bigger plans. He three-bet to 11,000, and Drinan called.
Rossiter fired 7,000 on the flop and another 15,000 on the turn. Drinan called on both streets, and the two of them saw the complete the board on the river. Rossiter bet another 22,000, and Drinan went into the tank. He thought about it for a good four minutes, with the calling chips already cut out in front of him, but eventually mucked his cards and Rossiter won the pot.
Action folded to Luuk Gieles in the small blind, and the Dutch high roller completed the bet. Pratyush Buddiga was in the big blind and bumped it up to 4,000. Gieles called.
Both players checked the flop and the turn. Gieles tossed a 5,000 chip to the middle after the completed the board, and Buddiga made the call. Buddiga mucked upon seeing Gieles' , and Gieles won the pot.
Daniel Dvoress raised to 2,800 from the button, and Kyle Frey defended his big blind with both players checking down the board all the way through. Frey showed the and the pair of sevens was good enough to scoop the pot.
One hand later, Chance Kornuth raised to 3,000, and Frey three-bet to 11,000 out of the small blind. Kornuth called, and they headed to the flop of . Frey continued for 14,500 and Kornuth tossed in the chips to make the call before Frey's next bet was worth 27,500 after the fell on the turn. Kornuth asked the dealer to confirm the amount, then made the call.
The hit on the river and Frey checked, as did Kornuth. Frey's for a busted straight draw ended up second best to the of Kornuth, and the latter increased his stack.
Before the action had gotten underway, Chance Kornuth welcomed EPT Season 12 Malta Main Event champion Niall Farrell at his table with a "how you doing, my friend?" and both players were joking and smiling after having met not long ago at the tables in Melbourne during the 2016 Aussie Millions.
As soon as the first cards were dealt, however, Kornuth put on his sunglasses and became silent. He then raised to 2,500 from under the gun and Farrell called from the big blind. On the flop of , Farrell check-called a bet of 2,500. Farrell then folded on the turn to a second barrel worth 5,600.
One hand later, Farrell raised to 3,500 from the small blind and claimed Kornuth's big blind and the antes. He then raised on the button the hand after that, but folded to a three-bet from Kornuth, who was in the small blind.
It's been a while since the European Poker Tour last visited the Irish capital of Dublin. The stop was a fixture on the schedule for the first four seasons, but has been missing ever since. Now it's back, and it's promising to be a big one. The UKIPT, that preceded the action here, has seen massive fields, and we expect nothing less for the EPT.
PokerNews kicks off its coverage of the 2016 PokerStars EPT Season 12 stop in Dublin with the €25,750 High Roller. Back in Season 4, when Reuben Peters won the Main Event for €532,620, there was no high roller event, making this is a first.
The tournament starts 12:30 p.m. local time.
Players will start with a stack of 250,000 and blinds of 500/1,000/100 for the first 60-minute level. The entire structure can be viewed here, and a total of eight levels are on the schedule for today, finishing the day around 9:30 p.m. local time. This is a single reentry event, and registration will be open till the start of Day 2.