Zak's Game

Zak's Game was a high-stakes poker game hosted in McCoy's Pub in November 2025. Zac Dillon organized the game, hoping himself to win enough funds to buy out Dolores Molloy's share of the pub.

Format

The game was 6-handed Sit'N'Go playing under the Texas Hold'em ruleset and the buy-in amount was 30,000 EUR + a 2000 EUR registration fee. All hands were streamed on a 1 hour delay to Oisin Brennan's Youtube channel. The winner of the game would also qualify directly for EPT Barcelona in 2026.

Notable hands

On hand #17, Ger Lynch min-opened UTG+1 with 72o and was quickly met with a 3bet overbet to 8 big blinds by Carol Foley in the small blind with AQo who wanted to price out Ger Lynch from seeing a flop. In a remarkably cool move, defying all pot odds, Ger flat called the overbet and peeled off a flop, presumably banking on an overinflated sense of implied odds that she might bluff Carol off the hand in later streets. The flop came A88, Carol had paired up with a healthy kicker while Ger was still airballing. After checking to the aggressor, Carol continued the pressure, c-betting with a 60% pot bet. Ger instantly re-raised - the check-raise had caught the attention of the room and had left Carol visibly shook. Carol flatted for pot control, and the room saw a turn. The turn card was inconsequential, the 3 of spades, and this time there was no doubt that the role of the aggressor had changed hands. Ger opened for 70% of the pot, a monstrous turn bet even by old school poker standards, with Carol, after tanking for several minutes, eventually making the tortured call with half her stack now in the middle. The final river card was another inconsequential one -- the 9 of diamonds -- and it was over to Ger yet again. Ger shoved for a roughly half-pot sized bet, representing a super strong hand at this stage, effectively polarizing her range to that of the nuts or near-nuts (A8, 88, K8, Q8) or that of a bluff without any showdown value. Carol was completely spooked and entered the tank for all of 13 minutes before Ger called the clock on her. Under time pressure from the clock and unable to reason beyond the squeaky clean table reputation built up by Ger in the opening hands, Carol found what she believed to be a disciplined lay down. Ger, conscious of the value of her table reputation, mucked the hand, but did offer a wink to the live stream. The hand was nominated for Hand Of The Year by the Hendon Mob Poker Database.