Poker News

24 years old student, Michael O’Sullivan, wins €143,000 first prize at the Paddy Power Poker Irish Winter Festival

Michael O’Sullivan today won the Paddy Power Poker Irish Masters poker tournament, winning a first prize of €143,000 and outlasting the 397 other players taking part in the €1,650 buy-in No Limit Holdem main event.  The 24-year old Irish student is a well-known player who focuses on online cash, as well as having a respectable string of live tournament results to his name.

O’Sullivan started the Irish Masters slowly, but on Day 2 of the tournament started to accumulate chips at a rapid pace and was comfortably positioned by the time play ended.  On the final day, he made some big calls and some bigger laydowns, finally winning the bulk of the chips in play heads-up when his Ace-King overthrew Michael Murphy’s pair of Jacks when an Ace fell on the river.

O’Sullivan has no immediate plans for his winnings and commented that the victory “hasn’t sunk in yet.”  He plans to concentrate on completing his studies and to devote more time to athletics.

Murphy won €88,500 for his 2nd place finish, with Irishman Gary Mealy receiving €55,300 for third place and Slovenian Matej Kokalj winning €44,800 for finishing fourth.

Tenth place finisher Paul Dooley became Paddy Power Poker’s IWF Sole Survivor by outlasting 61 other Paddy Power Poker online qualifiers, winning a prize package worth €20,000.  The Irish Winter Festival Sole Survivor promotion was created solely for players who qualified for the Irish Masters via Paddy Power Poker’s online satellites. Each online qualifier was automatically entered into the Sole Survivor promotion; all they needed to do was outlasted all other online qualifiers in the Irish Masters to win a €20,000 package.

The tournament began on Saturday, 24th October and featured a total prizepool of €597,000.  The buy-in for the tournament was €1,650 and 40 players won cash prizes.  A live webcast and comprehensive updates were available throughout the weekend on the Irish Winter Festival blog.

List of poker professionals to attend Dublin tournament continues to grow

Paddy Power Poker today announces that Antanas ‘Tony G’ Gouga, Brian ‘sbrubgy’ Townsend and 2006 world champion Jamie Gold are the latest professional players to confirm their attendance at this year’s Irish Open. They join Marty Smyth, Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak, Ciaran ‘Big C’ O’Leary, Neil Channing and many other pre-registered professionals. The €3200 + €300 No-Limit Holdem tournament is taking place from April 10th – April 13th 2009.

Tony G is one of the most recognisable professional poker players, known for his over-the-top table talk and fearless play. He is also celebrated for the substantial charitable contributions he has made with his tournament winnings, including his large donation to various Asian and Australian causes after winning an Asian Poker Tour event.

Brian Townsend is an online poker player who has achieved legendary status among the internet poker community as a result of his cash game successes. He plays some of the highest stakes available online, specialising in short-handed and heads-up play, and is lead instructor for the popular CardRunners online poker training site.

Jamie Gold shot into poker super stardom after winning the WSOP* $10,000 Championship Event in 2006, capturing a record prize of $12,000,000 and the coveted gold bracelet. Mentored by poker legend Johnny Chan, Jamie is motivated by philanthropic ideals to devote much of his time to charitable causes via poker tournaments and other events.