All good things must come to an end, but great things live on in memories for years to come. The Northern Poker Festival definitely falls into the latter category. Helped by the glorious weather, players arrived with a spring in their step and a smile on their faces. Let’s have a look at the final day’s action…

Kicking off the day was the Northern Poker Festival Main Event Day 1E Hyper giving players one last chance to qualify for the final. In total a further 42 entries joined the fray, bringing the Main Event prize pool to €91,105. Another 20 players added their name to the roster. Bagging the biggest stack was Marius Tersanszki, 395,000.

The stage was set and the hopeful contenders made their way to the poker room floor. From 365 total entries we were left with 62 players of which 37 would be paid. As the day progressed players began to fall by the wayside and that all too bittersweet moment was upon us. The unfortunate bubble boy was Daragh Leslie. The rest of the field breathed a sigh of relief and play continued.

Next up was the Monsterstack 1A, a personal and player favourite. More chips in play which usually translates to more action at the table. There were 90 players that made up the field bringing the prize pool to €14,688. From this flight, 22 players made it through, with the biggest stack going to Geoffrey McClay, who bagged 906,000.

Later on in the day there was the Monsterstack Hyper flight which had 42 entries, bringing the total prize pool for this event to €21,545. From the Hyper, 20 players made it through with the biggest stack bagged by Marius Tersanszki – 395,000.

The Omaha 4/5 Cards had 25 entries which created a prize pool of €3,000. With one eye on the Main Event players fought it out to secure the trophy. One man who seems to be unstoppable this year decided to have his first go at a live Omaha event. Robbie Bryant was able to transfer his holdem skills to this format and took home his second trophy of the festival and banked €1,500. In third place was Jaunius Kavalciukas – €600 and in second was Robert Monaghan – €900.

Later in the evening the Monsterstack Final got underway, 42 players took their seats and the battle began. Eventually we were left with a final table, spurred on by his brother’s success in the Omaha, Ray Bryant was amongst those vying for the top spot. The fairytale run continued and after a 3-way deal Ray Bryant took down yet another Monsterstack and €3,649. In second was another MCC regular Frederico Hitner who banked €3,148 and in third place was Richard Neville – €3,148. Three trophies heading back to the Midland’s Card Club in Tullamore.

Back to the Main Event, which saw a great comeback from Paul Carr who was holding on for dear life at the bubble with around 60k and managed to build up his stack to 700k, alas it was not meant to be for Paul who exited the tournament in 11^th place with €1,400. When the Main Event got down to a final table the remaining 9 fought it out for some time. Then players began to exit the competition, when it got down to 5 players a deal was agreed upon which meant, Bogdan Chetrariu finished fifth for €7,276, Northern Ireland’s all-time leading live tournament money winner Paul Leckey took fourth for €11,105, Mahmood Rasheed finished third for €11,195, Eugene O’Kane claimed second for €12,504.

Taking home the trophy was the big-bearded Brazilian Helio Netto, who collected €15,175. Helio is also having a great year and recently finished 2^nd in the Main Event at The Monster event held at The Green Isle Hotel in Dublin.

Well, that’s it for another action-packed weekend of fun and poker. Stay tuned to Live Poker Updates for all the stories from the poker world on and off the tables….