Jack Salter fell foul of the controversial new rule that states your cards are mucked if you are not at the table when the first card comes off the deck.
Vehemently opposed by a number of players, most notably and vocally, Daniel Negranu, the rule is nevertheless in place and strictly enforced.
Salter was chatting to a friend while a hand played out at his table and was caught on the hop as the next deal commenced. He was in early position and was way too late to play the hand as his second card reached his empty seat.
The dealer insisted he surrender the cards, but before he did Salter flashed the bottom card, the , and immediately sheepishly apologised as the dealer exposed the card to the rest of the table.
“Probably pocket kings.” He reflected ruefully. Isn't it always?
No grumbling from the other players and Paul Fevers raised from the small blind and was met by a fold.
One of the best experiences of the Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway Festival is that participants get the chance to play against some tops pros. Of course that applies on the poker felt, but also to games of a different variety such as billiards, video games and air hockey.
Some people do not want to hang around here and they're getting stuck in fairly quickly.
Milan Tomasz Rabsz opened to 300 preflop from the hijack before Niall Farrell reraised to 1,000 in the cutoff, Jamie Burland folded, Ben Warrington then made it 2,550 in the small blind with a cold four-bet. We thought that might be the end of the action but then Michael Farrelly slid out a five-bet to 6,350 in the big blind. Rabsz and Farrell quickly gave up their hand, Warrington thought for a little longer before he too mucked.
Farrell, "Well, at least I know I had the second best hand..."
Warrington shot back with a smile, "You don't think I'm folding kings there?"
We happened upon a decent pot over at Table 8. We caught the action on the river with a board reading and about 4,100 in the pot. Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain had checked from the small blind and William Ranulf Dorey took the opportunity to bet 2,075 from the big. Blain, who burst onto the poker scene with a win in the 2009 APPT Macau Main Event for $540,000, gave it some thought but ultimately released his hand.
Despite duking it out in that hand, both Blain and Dorey have gotten off to good starts and are above the starting stack. Here's a look at the rest of the Table 8 lineup:
Full Tilt Ambassador Dermot Blain has picked a nice little pot for a good start. He was check-called on the turn of an board to the tune of 1,100 from the big blind. The came on the river and the big blind checked again, Blain bet out 2,500 this time and the scare card proved enough to force his opponent to fold.
There was little chatter as the casually dressed poker sharks strolled in to take their seats at one of the four tables in action so far. Registration is still open.
As one player collected his seat draw the tournament director was confirming the structure over the Tannoy.
“Twenty thousand starting stack, blinds start at 50/100. One re-entry allowed.”
“Oh, there’s a re-buy?” The player asked. It sounded like he’d have it to hand if needed.
As play got going, an open to 225 was taking down the blinds uncontested as the High Rollers begin to assess their competition. We saw a few flops in the opening half hour but only one go to the river with two players checking and showing ace rag for a chopped pot.
The action is relaxed but focused. One or two may be on i-pads, or in one case playing a Smurf game on their phone, but make no mistake with these players…
It's worth noting that the Irish Poker Open final table is playing out at the feature table as the High Roller gets under way. That event, which has a buy-in of €2,300+€200, attracted 52 entries and created a prize pool of €119,600. There are actually some notables still in contention in that event including Steve O'Dwyer and Max Silver. It's safe to assume that both of those players would be in action in our event if they weren't busy competing for a €39,450 first-place prize.
Here's a look at the players remaining at the IPC final table and their approximate chip counts:
Like a petrol tank, we're slowly filling up here at the Full Tilt Poker village in Galway. We started with just a few tables but they're already filling up with the likes of Kevin Williams who finished 77th at this year's WSOP Main Event and former UKIPT winner Sergio Aido Espina. The latter bagged over £200,000 at the UKIPT/EPT festival in London earlier this year including over £144,000 for winning the UKIPT main event, besting 1098 other players.
There's late registration for the next few hours, plus this tournament has a single re-entry if you suffer a painful outdraw.
, and immediately sheepishly apologised as the dealer exposed the card to the rest of the table.
![[user76023]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and about 4,100 in the pot. 
board to the tune of 1,100 from the big blind. The 
came on the river and the big blind checked again, Blain bet out 2,500 this time and the scare card proved enough to force his opponent to fold.
