Noel Furlong: The 1999 World Champion of Poker Pays Tribute to a Dear Friend

There's something charming about an Irish brogue, and in the case of Noel Furlong, it doesn't stop with the accent. Admittedly shy by nature and somewhat reclusive by choice, the gracious Irish gentleman held informal counsel to a perpetual line of poker players, friends, and well-wishers just outside the entrance to the bingo-hall-turned-tournament-room at Binion's Horseshoe during the 2001 World Series of Poker. As we began our interview to the cacophony of poker chips click-clacking in the background, Padraig Parkinson, third-place finisher to Furlong at the 1999 WSOP, stopped by to say hello to his friend and fellow countryman, mentioning that he had seen Furlong on TV. "Would you mind doing this interview for me?" Furlong asked. "No, I'm not world-famous; I'm only the friend of a world-famous player," Parkinson replied with the smile for which the Irish are famous.

Sadly, Furlong's lifelong friend Terry Rogers was not able to greet him at the Series this year. A year after rejoicing in seeing one of his lifetime dreams come true when two Irishmen played the final table in the WSOP $10,000 championship event, Rogers died. We began by talking about the famous Irish bookmaker and pioneer in promoting global poker tournaments who accompanied Furlong on the "Irish Expedition" to the Series in 1999.

Noel Furlong: I got started playing poker in 1984 when I wandered into the Killiney Castle Hotel, where Terry Rogers was running a big tournament. I sat down in a cash game, and although I didn't know how to play poker very well, I won because I was "batting," just shoving out my money. After that, I began playing at the Eccentric Club, which Terry founded to promote the Irish Open tournaments. The first time I played in the Irish Open, I finished second with Terry advising me while I was playing. I then went on to win it three times, and finished second twice and third once in the late '80s and early '90s. I came to Las Vegas the first time with Terry in 1989 and got to the final table of the championship event, purely by luck. There might be a possibility that I know a little more about how to play poker now, but I definitely didn't know a lot about it then. I was the chip leader at one point and should've done better, but I finished in sixth place.

Dana Smith: And 10 years after placing sixth, you claimed the title in 1999. I heard that you don't really need that million that you won, so I was wondering, could you make me a small loan? Just joking, Noel …

NF: I don't think there's anyone who can't use a million dollars. I was delighted to get it, and it has been very useful. We don't pay taxes on gaming in Ireland, you know.

DS: When I interviewed Terry Rogers in 1996, he told me that he had traveled to the World Series with you.

NF: Terry brought me every year that I came. When I say that he "brought me," what I mean is that every year he would ring me six weeks beforehand and I would say, "Yes, I'll go, Terry." And then about a week before the Series, I would decline. In 1999 he rang me four days beforehand and said, "I've two first-class tickets. You have to come." So, I had to do it.

DS: It must have been gratifying for Terry to see three Irishmen finish so high in the money – you and Parkinson, who finished third, and George McKeever, who placed seventh. I saw Terry in the audience and thought that maybe you fellows had an extra incentive to take the title home to Ireland, a "win one for the Gipper" sort of thing.

NF: I think that Terry's biggest aim was to see some Irish fellow win it, because he had done so much to publicize the World Series – and without asking to get paid for his efforts. He did everything he could to promote the Series; he even ran satellites for it in Ireland. In the early days, Jack Binion used to announce the Irish Open during the World Series.

DS: In fact, Rogers did a lot to promote international competition in poker, didn't he?

NF: Yes, and he brought a lot of Irish out here every year, maybe five to 10 people in the early years; today you have 30 and 40 coming. He created that desire to be here.

DS: In that sense, Rogers was a true pioneer. Did you and he play poker together often in Ireland?

NF: No, we gambled together at horse racing, but we seldom played poker together. I'm in the carpeting distribution business – a fairly consequential business that takes a lot of running – so I don't play poker on a regular basis.

DS: Terry used to be the biggest bookie in Ireland, didn't he?

NF: Yes, he was a very big bookie – and a colorful one, at that. We have a "festival of racing" run at the end of July and the beginning of August that is possibly our most popular meeting. It is held at Galway Races in the most western city in Ireland. Very early, Terry appreciated that part of a successful firm is to get noticed. All of his staff members used to wear big, fluffy straw hats that looked something like sombreros. This was very unusual in Ireland and attracted a lot of attention.

In Ireland we have live hare coursing, where three dogs chase a hare. The eventual winner might run six or eight times in one day as he eliminates the competition. It's sometimes like playing head-to-head in poker. Three big cups are awarded at the premier meeting, which is Clonmell, and Terry was renowned for the odds that he gave for cross, doubles, and trebles. In other words, you had to pick two winners or three winners. I think that he was the only oddsmaker who understood the odds properly. He was totally in a class of his own at this.

DS: He offered something like a trifecta and daily double?

NF: Yes, all those things – and before computers were ever heard of. He was brilliant with numbers, and understood betting and the betting industry better than anybody I knew. He was commonly known by his nickname, "The Red Menace," because he had bright red hair as a younger man.

DS: And you were close friends with The Red Menace?

NF: Yes, possibly one of his best friends. He and I were born 100 yards apart in Dunlaoghaire County, Dublin. There was always a bit of friendly rivalry between us, we were two small-town boys.

DS: Now let's talk about you. How did you get into the carpeting business?

NF: I've been in it for the past 40 years. I started out with a carpet shop, and now I have a big distribution business that does $100 million a year, with two manufacturing plants, one making carpet and the other making yarn to weave the carpets.

DS: So, you buy the wool and make it into the yarn that you use to weave the carpets. I understand that sheepherding is very big in Ireland.

NF: Yes, there are 12 million sheep in Ireland and only 4.8 million people. Agriculture is still a big business, but the Irish economy in general has been absolutely booming in the last five years. Ireland is the I/T (information/technology) center of Europe. We have had the biggest growth rate in GNP (gross national product) in the world for the past five or six years, averaging 10 percent every year. So, Ireland has become a very successful country to live in, and a very expensive one to live in. There is a huge pressure on property, on houses. The one thing that Ireland was renowned for the past 150 years was emigration, people leaving the country. Now, we're seeing immigration back into the country, up to 150,000 people a year moving to Ireland. At this moment, there are unbelievable opportunities in Ireland.

DS: Did you receive a college education to prepare you for your business?

NF: Yes, I did. I went to the local primary schools and then to an all-Irish school where we didn't speak English. We studied every subject through the medium of Irish, which basically is a dead language, just as Latin is, so I had to become very proficient in it. That was a waste of time. Irish still is spoken in some of the smaller parts of Ireland, but in the early '50s, the big thing was to try to revive the language, and I was one of the victims. I left college at 17 and didn't go on to a university.

DS: Was your father in the carpet business? Was it a family thing?

NF: No, my father owned a large snooker hall. It was ideal to turn into a carpet barn, so when he retired, I converted it into one. The pool-hall business wasn't a great business in those days because people in Ireland were very poor at the time.

DS: Are your daughters involved in your business, or do women do that in Ireland?

NF: My oldest daughter is a qualified barrister. In Ireland, a lawyer does the research and a barrister presents the case in court, whereas in the United States, a lawyer can do both. Although she is a qualified barrister, she has her own carpet distribution company. She began by working for me part time and then decided to start her own business. My second daughter owns a taxi company, which now is a deregulated business. If Terry were alive now, he would be destroyed over the deregulation, because he had taxi plates that were worth $80,000 apiece last year before deregulation. You used to have to buy a taxi plate in order to run a taxi, but since they've deregulated the business, you can get them for practically nothing today.

DS: Do you play most of your poker during the World Series?

NF: Yes, 90 percent of it, and I play only the satellites and the tournaments. I haven't either the patience or the ability at the moment to play cash games.

DS: It seems that it would require more patience to play the tournaments.

NF: Perhaps, but the big tournament (the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em event) is the only one that I play. The prize at the end is worth being a little patient for.

DS: I assume that if you did play cash games, you would play ones with substantial stakes.

NF: Yes, but first I would have to learn how to play them. I actually don't know how to play cash games.

DS: When I interviewed Erik Seidel, I asked him about the '99 championship event, in which he played with you at the final table, and he told me that he thinks it was good for poker that you won the title. I agree; you are a man of sophistication, you dress well, you're handsome, and your manners are impeccable – all of which help to make you an excellent representative for the world of tournament poker. Are there comments that you'd like to make about that world?

NF: I think it is superb – it is very difficult to find fault with it. And I think that Bob Thompson has done a very fine job of controlling the World Series. Albrecht and McClelland did a good job, certainly, but it's a harder tournament to control these days – the numbers have gotten so much bigger. The first year that I got to the final table, I think there were 180 people in the tournament. Now we're talking about having more than 600 people in it.

DS: If, as you say, you don't play poker all that well, Noel, how did it happen that you won the championship event? You must've done something right.

NF: When something gets my full attention, I give it my complete concentration. Initially, while most people are playing very tight, I play very loose in the competitions to try to get a decent amount of chips. So, I'm either out very early or I'm there with a chance. If I can arrive at the final table, I've found some more chances to win.

DS: Did you gamble a little bit at the final table?

NF: Not much gamble, no, but I think that my reading of the players at the final table was excellent. I thought that I could hold my own, even with the likes of Erik Seidel and Huck Seed, who I believe are superb players. They are much steadier and are more likely to get to the last table than I am.

DS: But once you get there, you can play with them.

NF: Actually, I'd love to see a World Series every month. I appreciate all that the Binions have done for the World Series of Poker, making it a high point on my calendar. A $10,000 tournament every month – now that would have my full attention – and then I think I would have a chance of getting into their league.

DS: Sure, because you would have more practice. As it is, you don't practice playing poker very often.

NF: No, and unfortunately when I play in a satellite, I'm doing all sorts of wild things because it doesn't matter as much to me.

DS: You need a very big carrot at the end of the stick?

NF: That's the long and the short of it. I'd love to have 10 of those carrots every year.

DS: There are other big tournaments, such as the Poker Million on the Isle of Man.

NF: I played it, but I got knocked out very early. I'm not full of happiness when that happens, but it isn't soul-destroying to me, either – I've just gambled and I lost, that's all. Truthfully, I've never traveled to the continent for a tournament, and there are some fine tournaments on the continent now. As I get older and have more time, I will always be here for the World Series. And if I happen to win another one over the next 10 years, I will be delighted. I also am considering playing in the Irish tournaments again. They're very small, with $25,000 for the winner, but they are close by.

DS: You don't play any game except no-limit hold'em and the World Series, with the exception of the Irish tournaments?

NF: That's why I'm not a good subject for a magazine article – I'm not a professional poker player.

DS: You do not need to be a professional player to be a world champion. You have the appearance, the decorum, and the manners that represent the poker world best.

NF: No one has better manners than Erik Seidel.

DS: You seem to feel comfortable here in the States, but after you won the championship, were you uncomfortable with all the media attention? Was everyone accosting you for interviews and photographs, the whole nine yards?

NF: Yes, I feel very comfortable here, and yes they did. I think I've become somewhat of a recluse over the past eight or nine years. Basically, I'm a shy person. I like people, but I don't like to be probed. The easy way out is to keep to myself. I've never had a business card in my life. I've never had an answering machine on my phone. It's just a thing called privacy.

DS: Not even a cell phone?

NF: I did buy a mobile phone when they first came out, when they were very expensive. And I found that I was having to make every decision in the business because nobody would make a decision unless they called me first. And that wasn't what I was paying them for. Whether it would be white or pink toilet paper – it was getting down to that stage, so I got rid of the phone.

DS: I've heard that you are quite an equestrian enthusiast, so to speak.

NF: Yes, I keep a few horses (laughing). I train horses for myself, as well. Thoroughbreds. I have just bought a new place with stables, and I'm doing it up at this moment.

DS: Actually, you have been written about in two of Raymond Smith's books that are popular in Ireland: High Rollers of the Turf and Better One Day as a Lion. He mentioned you as being "famous for (your) £4 million double bid at Cheltendam in '91." I gather that you bet the horses as well as breed them.

NF: Well, you know, you have to keep busy. I suppose that's the gambler in me – I also see how my biggest fame comes from gambling, that's fairly obvious – and as long as I control it within reason, I can live with it.

DS: Self-control is important in almost anything, isn't it?

NF: Yes, it is. Oscar Wilde, the famous Irish playwright, once said that he reckoned that he could control everything except temptation.

Editor's note: Dana Smith is the owner of Cardsmith Publishing, the publisher of the Championship series of poker books by Tom McEvoy and T.J. Cloutier. You may contact her at [email protected] or www.pokerbooks.com.