Two opening flights brought a combined field of 582 players to the Boylepoker Summer Series at the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght, in Dublin and generated a prize pool of €75,660.

The final table saw John Howlett from Galway out in front with 2.6m chips, followed by John Lyons on 2m and Paul McCaffrey on 1.5m.

Peter Searle and Adrian Tracey took close to 1.4m with them to the final table, with David Murray and John Doherty having close to three-quarters of a million chips, with Jason Ward on 685,000. Robert Keane was at the bottom of the pile with 555,000 chips.

Ward was the first to exit, going all-in pre-flop with AQ against Peter Searle's pocket nines. A flop of 7-K-3 kept Searle in front and a jack on the turn and three on the river brought no help for Ward, who busted in ninth for €1,250.

He was followed to the rail by Keane, who appeared to be in good shape with pocket queens against Murray's sevens. Keane was still ahead after a 2D-10H-JC flop but a seven on the turn left him in a world of pain to which the river eight was no antidote. Keane left in eighth for €1,650.

With seven players remaining the average stack was 1.6m with blinds at 25k-50k and a 5k ante.

And the man to depart in seventh spot was Murray, who pocketed €2,100 after his shove from the small blind with JD-4D was called in the big blind by A-4. The board ran out 6-10-6-2-A and the tournament was now six-handed.

And that's how it finished when the remaining players hatched a deal that saw McCaffrey finish sixth for €5,735 and Tracey fifth for the same sum. Doherty placed fourth, Howlett third, Lyons second and Searle first, with each of them pocketing €7,000. Not the greatest end to the Summer Series, but one which left six players very happy.