Irish News

Irish Student Champion Crowned

James Scullion, a computer science student from Queens University, Belfast won the recent 2008 Irish National Student Poker Championship. The event, sponsored by Devilfish Poker, attracted 278 runners from all over the country to the Regency Airport Hotel, Dublin.

The €65 (plus €7 reg. fee) buy-in event was fully dealer dealt and created a total prize pool of €18,070. As Scullion, who did a three-way deal with second place David Downey and third place Paul Murphy, received the cash his friend was heard to utter "Woahhh! Four grand. That's life changing money."

"I'll put some of it away," said Scullion who travelled to the event with three housemates and about a dozen poker playing friends, "but probably use some to play similar sized buy-in events. I've never played in anything like this before or won anything like this before so it's great."

Twenty-seven players cashed at the event with the top 10 payouts being:



Event organizer and tournament Director Stephen McLean from PokerIreland.ie said, "I think all players, dealers and floor staff would agree that there was really a great atmosphere throughout the tournament. This is what poker should be all about, having fun, a good laugh and experiencing a really good competition."

Cork's Macau Hosts €150,000 Guaranteed Game

Cork's Macau Sporting Club will host the sixth annual Irish Poker Classic Festival from Aug. 11-17, 2008. The main event is a €150,000 guaranteed €1500 plus €100 no limit hold'em tournament taking place over three days from Aug. 15.

The main event has a 15,000 chip starting stack with 75-minute blinds and the Macau is guaranteeing eight tickets at the mega bonus satellite on Thursday, Aug. 14.

Already confirmed for the event are Roy "The Boy" Brindley, Mick McCloskey, Sylvester Geoghegan, Marty Smyth, Paul Lecky, Nicky Power, and John Keown.

The full line up for the festival is:



The Macau Sporting Club will hold weekly satellites for €75 plus €5 entry with one rebuy or add-on with one seat guaranteed and the bubble given a ticket for €75 on weekly events. €200 freezeout satellites start in May and continue through June and July after the Friday monthly €250 game.

The event attracted 122 players last year and has capacity for 250 this year.

Irish Winter Festival Announced

With the European Poker Tour Dublin now gone from the circuit it has been replaced by the Irish Winter Festival taking place over the October Bank Holiday from Oct. 25-27.

The centerpiece event is the €1,500 plus €150 buy-in Irish Masters main event with an estimated prize pool of €1 million. Capacity for the event is 800 players and the event takes place at Citywest hotel.

The full schedule is:



Weekly grand final satellites for a $3,500 package run every Sunday evening at 8 p.m. on paddypowerpoker.com where you can also find further details on the event.

Brindley Bounces Back

Card Player Poker + Sports writer Roy Brindley put his money where his mouth was ahead of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. The Ladbrokes-sponsored player offered a rake-free €200 satellite into the Irish Open in the new cardroom at the Liffey Arms, Newbridge, County Kildare, if Denman won the big race.

The much anticipated horse race saw Denman second favourite to Kauto Star, and Brindley said, "As much as I love Harry Findlay (Denman's owner), the form of his horse comes up way short to that of the great Kauto. I'm backing my judgement to the tune of €20 per entry."

Sadly Kauto Star didn't perform, Denman stormed home, and Brindley paid up. However, all was not lost for the tipster -- within weeks he'd tipped up both Curlin' in the Dubai World Cup and is on Pyro in the Kentucky Derby. Check Roy's betting blog at CardPlayerEurope.com for his latest bets.

News Sponsorships

Former Irish Open champion and Poker Millions finalist Marty Smyth is the new sponsored pro at Boyle Poker while the company says it plans more moves in the sponsorship market in coming months.

Elsewhere Donnacha O'Dea was spotted sporting a fetching BetDaq Poker shirt at the recent Irish Open -- could this be the start of something more permanent for both parties? Long-term deals between sites and players such as those common at Full Tilt and PokerStars have long been eschewed by Irish operators but things seem to be changing. Maybe sponsorship is the new … erm … sponsorship!

Brendan Murray is the European bureau chief for Card Player.