Niall Smyth Wins Irish Poker OpenYoung Irish Player Spins €10 Win On Horses Into €650,000 Payday After Epic Duel |
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The end was not swift nor clean and emerging bloodied but unbowed from the epic battle was young Irish player Niall Smyth who defeated veteran rounder Surinder Sunar to take down the 2011 paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open in Dublin in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Smyth collected €550,000 for his victory over the 615-strong field the Burlington Hotel over Easter weekend.
Not only that, he collected another €100,000 for being the last Sole Survivor standing but his remarkable tale doesn’t end there.
Smtyh’s rollercoaster ride to a €650,000 payday started a couple of weeks ago with a €20 bet on a horse in the famed English Grand National horse race. His horse won and he transferred the money, €200, from his PaddyPower.com account to his Paddy Power Poker account where he used it to win a seat into the €3,500 buy in event.
The rest is now history.
First he had to outlast two fellow Sole Survivors at the final table, Karl Rudwall and Rob Taylor, then he faced a duel in the trenches with the formibdable former World Poker Tour winner Sunar which lasted just under four hours.
Having held the chip lead at the start of heads up play Smyth lost it only to regain it and pressure Sunar’s short stack. However it still took a six-out river card to seal his fate and he was understandably elated but very tired at the 4 am finish.
“Unbelievable. I just can’t believe it,” he said.
“It started when I put €10 each way on the winner of the English Grand National, I won €200 euro and now I have €650,000. Surinder is such a great player, my support has been fantastic, and here I am!”
Sunar, who has been playing the Irish Open, Europe’s oldest poker tournament, since the early 1980s was magnanimous in defeat admitting his opponent had played well.
The final table payouts at the event, were 64 players got paid, were:
1: Niall Smyth (Ireland) – €550,000
2: Surinder Sunar (England) – €290,000
3: Martin Petri (Denmark) – €180,000
4: Seamus Cahill (Ireland) – €145,000
5: Aleksi Savela (Finand) – €115,000
6: Karl Rudwall (Sweden) – €85,000
7: Rob Taylor (Ireland) – €63,000
8: John Eames (UK) – €45,000
9: Niall McCann (Ireland) – €30,000
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