Irish News

The Envy of Europe

Live poker on our little island is currently undergoing something of a mini-boom. Indeed, it is surely the envy of much of Europe which can only dream of having such a vibrant, diverse, and competitive environment in which to play poker.

While Dublin has long been the focal point for regular big games, the rest of the country is making strides towards stealing the capital's thunder and it is proof, if any were needed, that if the game is good enough, the players will come.

Elsewhere in this issue you can read about the €2,000 buy-in PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship which generated a prize pool in excess of €500,000 in early January and by the time issue hits the casinos and card rooms of the Emerald Isle we'll have had the €1,500 Green Joker Poker European Deep Stack Championship held in Drogheda, €550 Lakes of Killarney Festival main event, and the Clonmel Cash Table Festivalwhich will witness some of the biggest cash games in the land.

Long may it continue!

Big Slick Team Event

Big Slick Poker, Waterford's most active poker tournament organisers, holds its Team Event between Feb. 22 and 25, 2008. The event sees teams of four pay €700 + €140 to play over three days. Each team has a captain and three other players. The structure is a points-based system so that if a team loses a player early it means they need to push to finish closer to the top places to make up for the loss.

The event has a one-hour clock and 10,000 starting chips. Numbers will be capped at 300 and teams can register by contacting Neill Kelly on at [email protected].

Support events include a €200 freezeout starting at 6 p.m. on Sat. 23 and a €150 freezeout starting at 4 p.m. on Sun. 24.

Rooms in the hotel can be booked for €55 per person sharing.

Irish Open Schedule Announced

Paddypowerpoker.com has announced the full schedule of the €3 million guaranteed

Irish Poker Open

2008 taking place in the Citywest Hotel, Dublin between Mar. 19 and 24, 2008. The centerpiece of the festival is the €4,500 buy-in Irish Open which will have a 1,000 player capacity split over two days.

The full schedule is:

Congratulations or Commiserations

The Ladbrokes Poker Million VI was a game of two halves for Irishmen Liam Flood and Marty Smyth. While Marty came second for a tidy $500,000 Liam had to settle for fourth place and a not unrespectable $175,000.

One accidental metaphor for their varying success at the Million may be that Marty was buying pints for all and sundry at the Irish Poker Championship in Galway a couple of weeks later while Liam 'borrowed' this scribe's Sunday newspaper and it was never seen again!

Nevertheless, Irish News holds no grudges and offers its sincere congratulations to both players.

Brendan Murray is the European bureau chief for Card Player.