THE BIGGEST event on the Irish poker calendar was coming to a close in Dublin last night, with a fitter of window blinds from Limerick city battling with professional players from England and Finland to take home a cheque for €600,000.
After almost 40 gruelling hours of play, Moyross man Paul Carr (30), James Mitchell from Wimbledon in London and Santeri Valikoski (24) from Espoo, about 20 miles from Helsinki, were vying to claim the Paddy Power Irish Open title at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.
The No Limit Texas hold’em tournament had a freeze-out format, meaning that entrants received a stack of 10,000 chips in return for their entry fee, which they either added to or lost – meaning their elimination – over the course of the four-day event.
The Irish Open this year attracted a record-equalling field of 708 players, generating a prize pool of over €2.2 million, which was distributed among the top 72 finishers.
Among those who left empty-handed were former professional footballers Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino, snooker player Ken Doherty, and former EastEndersfavourite Michael Greco.
Three former world champions, including Dubliner Noel Furlong and American Jamie Gold, who scooped $12 million (€8.9 million) when he won the world championships in 2006, also failed to finish in the money.
At 8.30pm last night the 7 million odd chips in play were almost evenly distributed among the three remaining contenders.
Even though all three were guaranteed a massive return on their €3,500 entry fee, with second place taking €312,600 and third €205,200, Carr, who works in the blind-fitting business with his brother, said he’d only be happy to finish in first place. “It’s a big jump from third to first,” he said. “It’s over €400,000.”
A regular visitor to Limerick’s card rooms, Carr bought his ticket for the event from a friend who was unable to attend and, despite losing a large chunk of his chips in the early going on Friday, was always confident he’d finish in the money.
“I expected to win it coming up here,” he said. As did his large contingent of supporters who travelled from Moyross yesterday to buoy on his every move.
