William Champion Leads Day 1a of UKIPT Dublin Maine Event

William Champion bagged 129,700 in chips at the end of Day 1a, the first flight of the PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour Dublin Main Event at the CityWest Hotel. Champion is a fast-talking 46-year-old data storage engineer and father of four, hailing from Northern Ireland. He describes himself as poker enthusiast, noting that he plays live tournaments in Paris four to five nights a week, reading books on strategy when he’s not at the tables.

The majority of Champions chips came in a big hand versus Barny Boatman in which he turned top set and got paid on all three streets. Champions 129,700 in chips is well above the average of 32,802, but several other players are trailing close behind. Paul McCaffrey trails slightly with 112,000, Marc McDonnell is just behind him with 106,600, and Michael Farrelly and Graeme Crozier round out the fourth and fifth positions with 90,400 and 86,900 respectively.

Other big names still in the field at the end of Day 1a include Sam Razavi with 20,800, Robert Csire with 12,700, Richard Haile with 20,400, David O'Connor with 10,500, Max Silver with 21,100, Jason Tompkins with 34,100 and Dara O'Kearney with 20,700. Last years Main Event drew 718 players and generated a prize pool of €348,230, this years total is expected to be slightly larger.