Jaime Staples Bags Big in Day 1a of PartyPoker Tour Cork Mini Main Event

The first ever Irish stop of the PartyPoker Tour kicked off with a bang on November 9 at Macau Sporting Club & Casino in Cork, with Day 1a of the €150 buy-in, €50,000 guaranteed Mini Main Event starting the festival.

A healthy total of 134 entries were recorded for the first of four starting flights, and PartyPoker Tour ambassador Jaime Staples (546,000) was among the leading counts of 20 players who qualified.

Staples finished in the podium places after firing a couple of bullets, while James Morrissey of Ireland (640,000) topped the standings, with Michal Plichta (578,000) not far behind.

Morrissey rivered Steven Roche to bring on the bubble, which was burst when Aidan Foley spiked the river against Zeik Tuit.

PartyPoker Tour ambassadors Joe Beevers, Rebecca Hardisty and Niall Farrell all tried their luck, but failed to progress, and will no doubt be back at the felt today attempting to find a bag.

• Read more: PartyPoker Tour Kisses the Blarney Stone as Cork Stop On the Horizon
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End of Day 1a Mini Main Event Counts

The full list of qualifiers from Day 1a is as follows:

Position	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	James Morrissey	Ireland	640,000
2	Michal Plichta	Ireland	578,000
3	Jaime Staples	Canada	546,000
4	Wai Hang Wong	Ireland	468,000
5	Shawn Jose	Ireland	414,000
6	Cameron Soane	United Kingdom	399,000
7	Aidan Foley	Ireland	381,000
8	John Power	Ireland	309,000
9	Ross O'Donovan	Ireland	289,000
10	Mark Allen	Ireland	216,000
11	Tadhg Ryan	Ireland	156,000
12	Craig Burke	Ireland	145,000
13	John Carr	Ireland	145,000
14	Matt Bell	Ireland	136,000
15	Dion Burns	Ireland	130,000
16	Haki Bejko	Ireland	104,000
17	Alan Stanton	Ireland	95,000
18	Brian Downey	Ireland	88,000
19	Paul Walsh	Ireland	74,000
20	David Nolan	Ireland	32,000

2026 PartyPoker Tour Cork Schedule - Tuesday, November 10

Two further starting flights of the €150 Mini Main Event take place at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Players will sit down to a 40,000 starting stack at blind level 100/200, with the clock set to 30-minute levels in Day 1b, and 20-minute levels in Day 1c.

Late registration remains open until the start of Level 10, and a total of 15% of the field from each flight are scheduled to progress to Day 2, all of whom will be in the money.

The final starting flight is at noon on November 11, and features 15-minute levels, but otherwise follows the same structure as previous flights.

Day 2 kicks off at 6 p.m. on November 11, while the clock will be increased to 40-minute levels for Day 3, which gets underway at 4 p.m. on November 12.

The full schedule for today's action is detailed below.

poker.pro will be on the floor from 2 p.m. bringing you all the action from Day 1b of the Mini Main Event, so stay tuned for all your coverage of the PartyPoker Tour Cork!