A young Dublin poker player is in line for a payday of at least $782,000 (€550,400) after playing his way onto the final table of the world’s richest poker tournament.
Eoghan O’Dea (26), a professional poker player from Dalkey, last night secured his place among the “November nine” at the main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
Each player is guaranteed a minimum prize of $782,115 for making the final table, and the prize rises as each competitor is eliminated. The eventual winner will take home a prize of $8,711,956.
Players will now be given a chance to practice ahead of the closing stages of the competition that take place between November 5th and 7th.
“I’m so happy to have made it this far," said O'Dea. "I haven’t had a great year to date in poker but this more than makes up for it."
A total of 6,865 players participated in the No Limit Texas Holdem tournament, which started 12 days ago, at the Rio Hotel and Casino. Each player either paid $10,000 to enter or won their way in through satellite competitions on internet card rooms or in casinos around the world.
O’Dea sits in second place in the tournament having amassed a stack of 33.9 million chips. Each competitor begins with 30,000 chips and is eliminated when they have none left.
Czech player Martin Staszko is the chip leader, and competitors from the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Belize and the United Kingdom have also reached the “November nine”.
O’Dea will not find advice about the competition hard to come by as his father, Donnacha, is a well-known professional player who reached the final table of the World Series of Poker main event in 1983 (6th place) and 1991 (9th).
Donnacha, who is back in Ireland after being eliminated from the competition in Las Vegas, said the tournament was much bigger now. “It was a different ball game back then because after the numbers exploded it became like a lottery,” he said.
“I hoped I’d win it myself some time, but having your son win would be just as good . . . I won’t be offering much advice . . . I’d just say to him to stay off the beer the night before.”
A number of Irish players have made the final table of the competition in the past. Among them are professional players Andrew Black (2005), Padraig Parkinson (1999), Scott Gray (2002) and Dublin businessman Noel Furlong, who won the 1999 main event.
