Irish News

The Irish poker community was greatly saddened to hear of the death of popular and highly respected young player Sean Jethi recently. Sean, who was wheelchair bound and played with the assistance of his uncle was a formidable operator on the felt, having last year qualified online for and played at the European Poker Tour in London.

He was well-known, particularly on the Dublin scene, and in memory of this fine player, tournament organisers JP Poker decided to name its team event in early March after him.

The event was won by Team Flushdraw which lifted €5,000 while Team Argentina and Team Dave Masters Motors came second and third for €2,500 and €1,500 respectively. Team Fish came fourth for €1,000.

In a fitting gesture Ciaran McGivern from the winning team donated the trophy to Sean's father Raj who played in the event.

Organiser J.P. McCann said, "I would like to thank everyone who played their part, in what was a special two days of poker in memory of a very special person."

Macau August Festival

Word is filtering through from Cork that the venerable Macau Sporting Club will be hosting a sizable festival between Aug. 11-17. The centerpiece of the festival will be a €1,500 freezeout with €150,000 guaranteed. We'll bring you more details when the full schedule is released.

New Club for Newbridge

Co. Kildare has a new cardroom above Johnson's Liffey Arms in Newbridge. The cardroom manager is Mags Manton, formerly of the Merrion Club in Dublin while Amanda Fyles, who has dealt many TV tournaments, is among the dealing staff.
The €100 plus €10 freezeout is held every Friday at 8 p.m. and a €50 no-limit hold'em tournament with an optional rebuy is held each Monday.

Several well-known jockeys and racehorse trainers are amongst the clientele because of its proximity to the Curragh and Roy Brindley is also a regular so pop along as there's sure to be plenty of action.

Black is Back

Congratulations to Andy Black on his victory at the Party Poker Premier League in London. While Andy has won events before, this could be considered his first major (six figure) victory and while he's earned much greater sums for lesser finishes its likely this win will be his sweetest cash yet. Well done, Andy.

Big Slick Summer Fest

Big Slick Events is holding its Waterford Summer Festival in the Majestic Hotel, Tramore, Ireland from June 12-15. The main event is a three-day €550 no-limit hold'em tournament with a 15,000 starting stack and a one-hour long clock.

Last winter's event had 292 players but the summer event has a capacity of 200 players. This time around players should note that registration will open as day one (B) and if this fills the organisers will open day one (A). Event details can be found at bigslickevents.net.

Big Slick has arranged special prices at the hotel. The price will be €50 per person sharing or €90 for a single room. Please quote "Summer Poker Festival" when booking.

Irish Open News

Always the innovators, Paddy Power Poker has decided to give two virgin poker bloggers/live reports an opportunity to work at the Irish Open. The company advertised on popular Irish poker forum boards.ie for "two well-informed, literate and highly intelligent poker enthusiasts [to] experience the thrill and excitement of this major international poker event first hand and gain great experience in poker journalism."

So if you're reading this piece, while playing the event, and notice a cub reporter beavering away with notepad and pencil please be nice -- it's a tough job and someone's gotta do it!

Irish Masters

JP Poker holds its inaugural Irish Masters Festival of Poker at the Red Cow Hotel, Dublin, May 1-5.

The line-up of events for this juicy festival is:



Brendan Murray is the European bureau chief for Card Player.