Sam Macdonald Leads British Charge At WPT Ireland

January 06 2012, Matthew Pitt

There were many people, this humble scribbler amongst them, who questioned the timing of the inaugural World Poker Tour Ireland Main Event and thought that the field would be drastically reduced due to it clashing with the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and being just a few days before the Aussie Millions but they will all be eating humble pie this morning when they read that a bumper field of 338 players showed up at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.

Scores of Brits showed up on Ireland's shores all hoping to get 2012 off to the best possible start by winning a coveted WPT Main Event title and although we lost the like of Sam Trickett, John Eames, Matt Perrins, Dan Carter, Barny Boatman and James Akenhead before the end of the first nine levels of play, we do have a whole host of British players still in the field and they are being lead by the talented Sam Macdonald.

Macdonald finished Day 1 fifth in chips overall after turning his 30,000 starting stack into a most impressive 122,000. The youngster travelled to Dublin in good company, making the short trip from the UK with Triple Crown winner Jake Cody, "Little" Dave Nicholson and the aforementioned Perrins and although they are more household names in comparison he is leading them all in the €2,500 Main Event.

During Day 1 Macdonald spoke to the camera crew at WPT Ireland, check it out below:

Along with those players who we have mentioned already other Brits still in the field include Jon Kalmar, Charles Chatta, Ben Jackson, Ross Boatman, Jamie Burland, Jack Ellwood, Toby Lewis, Stuart Fox and James Sudworth. As you can see we still have plenty of big names amongst the 195 surviving players and let's hope the Poker Gods are kind to them today and they can all safely progress through to Day 3.

The man who they all have to catch when play resumes at 1400 is local player David Callaghan who bagged and tagged 186,900 chips when play finished for the day late last night. Callaghan has close to $450,000 in live tournament winnings most of which has come from Pot Limit Omaha games. Can he add a No Limit Hold'em cash to his already impressive CV?

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