Irish News

What a Corker!
The management at Cork's recently relocated Macau Casino continue to put poker at the very top of their agenda, and their efforts and considerable financial investment are clearly paying dividends.



In midsummer, Cork's Irish Classics minifestival saw field sizes approach 50 players, which was some achievement considering that just two Dublin-based players made the drive south – a pitiful lack of support.



However, despite clashing with events in Estonia, Brighton, Slovenia, Bregenez, and Dundee – ridiculous and pointless calendar congestion, I decree – there is every reason to expect the numbers to increase by anything up to 100 percent for the Christmas Poker Festival (Dec. 3-5), considering growing local popularity and the success of the aforementioned Irish Classics.



Beforehand, however, there's a 32-runner satellite tournament (The Irish Heads-Up Championship) offering entry into next year's World Heads-Up Championship.



Pencilled in for Oct. 15-17 with a ¤250 entry, the winner will scoop flights, hotel, and entry fee into the 2005 WHU renewal. Suffice it to say, the format for this satellite is no-limit heads-up hold'em, although there will be conventional supporting tournaments with ¤100 and ¤250 entry fees. Further information can be obtained by calling the Macau on: 00353 21 4530477.



Tournament Time at the Merrion

Punters at Dublin's Merrion Casino are counting the days until the Irish Winter Festival, which, of course, takes place in the autumn (Oct. 21-24, to be precise)!



The last two festivals at the Merrion have featured added prize money courtesy of Ladbrokespoker.com and Betfair. That's unlikely to change this time around, although Liam "The Gentleman" Flood has stepped down from his role as tournament director, with Thomas Kremser moving in to fill his shoes.



Meanwhile, Merrion patrons are currently being offered the chance to win ¤100,000 – a tidy sum that is on display in a vault on the gaming floor.



Poker players can earn a chance at cracking the "vault's" six-digit combination (and all the money) by playing

15 hours in cash games, by winning one of the five weekly tournaments, or by taking part in three competitions plus three hours of cash game play.



The Merrion's general manager, Dara Hanlon, says: "The vault may require a bit of cracking, but with the promotion also covering our gaming tables, punters will have numerous chances to break the code. If the prize is won within three months, we will be topping the vault up with another ¤100,000, although, I must stress, we will be changing the combination!"



Another promotion, the ever-popular "cash game league," which requires players to accumulate 100 hours of play over a six-month period, is expected to surpass a prize fund of ¤75,000, with ¤10,000 added by the casino.



Floor Two, Phase Two at Fitzwilliam
A few hundred yards away at the Fitz­william Casino, Cardroom Manager Luke Ivory reports that an inaugural festival event has been pencilled in for the start of 2005.



Space restrictions have so far prevented the Fitzwilliam, opened a little over 18 months ago, from staging a major tournament, but this has been remedied with the acquisition of the building's second floor.



"Taking over the second floor will allow us to double the number of card tables available and go ahead with a major festival," Ivory explains. "We are currently staging nine tournaments a week, with two on both Saturday and Sunday. Furthermore, we are now encouraging single-table sit 'n' go tournaments with varying entry fees, so the extra space is much needed."



For now, the final Thursday of the month is the date tournament players should etch into their diaries when a ¤250 no-limit hold'em freezeout attracts field sizes of a hundred or more.



£50,000 to the Winner Guaranteed!

North of the border in Belfast, The Cavendish Club offered a guaranteed £50,000 to the winner of the ladbrokespoker.com Northern Ireland Hold'em Championships (in aid of the NI Hospice Care), scheduled for Sept. 24.



Run as a private members club, all eyes will be on the new venue and how it copes with this baptism of fire.



Incidentally, the results of research issued by the sponsors at the turn of the year revealed that players in Northern ­Ireland are the most successful online players in the UK.



So, as you read this, there is every chance that the attractive prize has ­already stayed at home.



Serial tournament winner Roy 'The Boy' Brindley is sponsored by and writes for ladbrokespoker.com.