Article on Open in Sunday Indo.

Coillte_Bhoy

As thread title says. Eamon Sweeney has a good colour piece and hey it's in the Sports section.:D

BigCityBanker

Heartbreak on a card's turn

Sunday April 15th 2007

THE END
TWO men are sitting at a table in the ballroom of the Burlington Hotel. One of them holds a ten of hearts and a three of hearts. The other holds a king of hearts and a nine of hearts. The former will bet everything on this hand.

They are the final two competitors in the Irish Poker Open. Five cards will be dealt face-up on the table between them. If a ten or a three come up chances are the Londoner will live to fight on. If not, he'll finish second to the man from Belfast. The first prize is €650,000. Second prize is €325,000.

The first three cards, The Flop, are dealt. Ace of hearts, Eight of spades, Six of hearts. The fourth, The Turn, Eight of diamonds. The fifth, The River, is . . .

THE BEGINNING
IT all begins on Good Friday 1981 in a room over an inner city bookie's shop in Dublin. The game is Terry Rogers' baby. The bookie has been to Las Vegas and has become enthralled by a form of poker known as Texas Hold 'Em, as yet unknown in Europe though subsequently to become all conquering. Colette Doherty walks off with a £22,000 first prize.

The following year the American high rollers turn up and Rogers picks them up from Dublin Airport in a yellow Rolls Royce. The year after that Amarillo Slim rides out of the airport on a white horse. That's the same year that Stuey Ungar, perhaps the greatest poker player of all, makes his only Irish appearance. He goes out on the first hand and spends the rest of the day throwing chips across the floor, betting on how close he can get them to a crack in the carpet.

A BIG DEAL
POKER is enjoying an unprecedented worldwide boom, thanks to internet and television coverage. On-line poker proved an immediate success once it got underway in 1998, but its real annus mirabilis was in 2003 when an on-line qualifier won the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, scooping a $2.5m first prize. This apparent proof that an ordinary guy could take on and beat the professionals sparked something akin to Gold Fever. In 2004 revenues from on-line poker tripled. They've been rising since. The name of the 2003 champion? Chris Moneymaker. Seriously.

Last year the Irish Open had a record number of entrants, 339. This year the number was 707. There is a €2.3m prize fund. There are the pros and then there are the hopefuls from the likes of the Jackpot Club in Dublin, the Macau in Cork, the Four Aces in Galway, Big Slick Poker in Carlow, The Gold Club in Letterkenny, The Favourites Club in Maynooth, the New Vic in Limerick, The Casa Club in Roscrea. These days everyone knows someone who plays poker.

FOUR ACES
DAVE 'Devilfish' Ulliott, Phil 'Unabomber' Laak, Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari, Mike Sexton, Mel Judah, Roland De Wolfe.

These are names to conjure with for the poker devotee, guys who've won millions of dollars on the World and European Poker Tours and starred on the late night shows currently proliferating on satellite TV.

There are Irish stars too, Andy Black, the Belfast man who quit the game for five years to concentrate on his Buddhist faith before coming fifth in last year's World Series and Pádraig Parkinson, third in the 1999 event when an Irishman, Noel Furlong, actually won. Odds are that one of the top pros will walk off with the €650,000. Then again, in 2001 a 72-year-old grandmother named Jenny Hegarty won out. You never know.

THE YOUNGSTER
NOEL HAYES wants to be Paddy Last. This doesn't denote any lack of ambition on the Banagher man's part, it just means he's one of the on-line qualifiers who play in a competition within the main competition. There are 60-odd of them, clad in orange and black shirts with the Paddy Power Logo emblazoned on the back. Last man standing wins an all expenses paid trip to the World Series of Poker in Vegas. Noel reckons he has nothing to lose.

"Well, it only cost me $24 to qualify on-line and it's a great experience to be here whatever happens. You're at the same table as guys you see playing on television, big names, world class players. It's like being a golfer who gets to play a round with Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson except it's better because if you get the cards you have a chance to beat the big players."

The AIB employee might be only 25 but he doesn't seem fazed by the competition. He started playing Hold 'Em at student free-rolls in the Merrion Club when he was studying for his Masters in Finance and Economics.

He hopes that training might stand to him. "A lot of decisions are based on economics," he says and goes forth into battle.

THE FOOTBALLER
DANNY McHUGH must be wondering if Lady Luck is trying to tell him something.

The night before he was to travel to Dublin, Supermacs in Ballinrobe, which he manages, went on fire. Luckily the local brigade were there within five minutes, otherwise he'd be at home examining the damage.

Then it turns out that the bank draft with his entry fee never made it as far as the tournament organisers. He's got proof of postage, but when he turns up at the Burlington at first he's not allowed to enter. Danny is all set to go home, but his mate Eamonn Walsh continues to argue the toss until McHugh gets to enter.

This is Danny's first Easter weekend off in 12 years since he started working with Supermacs, working his way up to become manager in Ballinrobe and Claremorris. Recently he's taken the plunge and become the owner of a shopping complex in Ballindine on the N17. A former Mayo U21 footballer who's been playing senior for Garrymore for over a decade, the 32-year-old's experience of poker is somewhat less extensive.

"I'm only playing the last year. A new pub, Hanleys, opened up in Claremorris and they decided to have poker nights. And sometimes at night I don't get off work till 3.0 or 4.0 and I relax by playing a small bit on-line. A couple of times I've made it into the top 100 when there's been 6,000 players starting off so that was alright. And we have a fairly good game in Hanleys."

DAY ONE: CARNAGE
LIAM FLOOD, buddy of the late Terry Rogers and inheritor of his mantle as Ireland's Mr Poker, gets proceedings under way with the words, "shuffle down and deal". By the end of the first day two-thirds of the entrants have bitten the dust. There is a predictable rhythm to these exits. The shout of "all in" is heard and people gather round the table to see who's made this bold move. Get it wrong and the next thing you hear is "player gone". The departed shakes hands with the remnant on their way out. Sometimes they reel away, sometimes they smile so you can't tell their hearts are breaking.

Danny McHugh is going well when he tries to take on Pádraig Parkinson and comes unstuck. Next time there's a break in play, Parkinson claps the Mayoman on the back and tells him not to panic, that he's playing well, that he has plenty of chips left. At the end of day one the novice from Claremorris is still there. Noel Hayes is hanging in too.

THE DEALER
DEIRDRE FENNELL holds the dreams of many men in her hands. Which is quite a burden if you're a 22-year-old from Gorey. Then again, she loves this game.

"I love poker. I play myself, but in small games, €50 games. I've worked in casinos and at the European Poker Tour event. You have to know the rules inside out and deal the cards in a friendly manner. Not everybody's going to be happy with you, some people tell you you're their favourite dealer, others nearly throw the chips in your face when they lose."

She dreams of seeing the tournament from the other side. "There's a tournament between all the dealers and there's talk that the winner might get free entry next year. Playing in the actual event would be something else."

DAY THREE: SURVIVORS
TWO days completed, only 41 players left. The Unabomber - Gone. Devilfish - Gone. The Magician - Gone. Andrew Black - Gone. Pádraig Parkinson - Gone. Only six Paddy Last boys remain and Noel Hayes is one of them. Danny McHugh is still there too.

The guy causing the big stir is Sorel Mizzi. If on-line is the new kingdom of poker, then Mizzi may be its monarch. He even has a suitably regal web moniker, Imper1um. Now the 19-year-old from Toronto is touring Europe. He wears a white tracksuit top with Ronaldinho written on the back and the hood pulled up over his head.

Poker pros often wear dark glasses, so you can't read their eyes, and listen to iPods, so they won't be distracted by anything you say. It makes some of them look like the light-fearing albino mutants from the classic 1970s sci-fi movie Omega Man. The atmosphere can be tense. Easter may be an appropriate time for the event, the story of a man who sits at a table, convinced someone here is going to betray him.

It can be tough. The play carries on till the early hours of the morning. And who is on top of their game in the early hours of the morning?

Professional poker players obviously. Supermacs managers?

THE PLOT THICKENS THE FIELD THINS
NOEL HAYES goes early on Sunday afternoon. His 35th place nets him €10,000 which, as he says himself, is not a bad return on $24, a 417/1 winner or thereabouts. There are still a few Paddy Last competitors left however, so the Offaly man won't be going to the World Series this year.

Top pro Paul Zimbler is known as The Marbella Kid, it's even written on the back of his jacket. He takes on McHugh and the Mayoman goes all in.

Zimbler has an ace and a ten, McHugh a jack and a king. With four cards drawn McHugh is still behind and heading out of the tournament. River card coming up. Jack. McHugh survives, Zimbler bows out shortly afterwards.

By the end of the penultimate day only seven players remain. Sorel Mizzi leads the chip count with €2.4m. Roland De Wolfe is still there, Paddy Last winner Thomas Finneran from Galway, two experienced Waterford players, Nicky Power and Brian 'The Fox' O'Keeffe, Belfast professional Marty Smyth. Oh, and Danny McHugh.

THE BIGGEST DEAL
WELL behind on chip count, De Wolfe, European Player of the Year, is the class performer in the field and communal nemesis on the final day of play.

Finneran is first to go, then Power, then O'Keeffe. There are four players left, three top pros and our friend from Mayo who started playing a year ago. It's time for a deal.

Poker players, you see, don't always let it all go down to the official prize money. An agreed share-out will reduce the risk for everybody. But what was interesting was the juncture at which this deal was made. Mizzi, De Wolfe and Smith are all pros, but they weren't going to discount Danny McHugh as a possible winner. They counted him in. Respect. When he eventually bows out McHugh has won not the €175,000 official fourth prize but a total of €291,000. Mizzi goes soon afterwards and the stage is set for the denouement, which is where we came in.

THE END: PART TWO
DE WOLFE really needs a ten or a three. The River card is the two of hearts. For a few seconds he must feel he's dodged the bullet because now he's able to make up five hearts, a flush. The only problem is that his opponent can do the same and his flush is higher than De Wolfe's, king to ten. Marty Smyth, professional poker player from North Belfast, is the Irish Open champion. The title and the guts of the €650,000 first prize are his.

THE LAST WORD
TUESDAY morning McHugh gets a text from his buddy Muscles Higgins back in Mayo. "I've been looking at the internet. You're ranked 83rd in the world, second in Ireland and 22nd on the Irish All-time list." Then the kicker.

"And you're seventh in the Claremorris Poker League."

Which, as Danny says, pretty much sums it up.

thephotograph@hotmail.com

© Irish Independent
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/

phantom_lord

BigCityBanker wrote:

TUESDAY morning McHugh gets a text from his buddy Muscles Higgins back in Mayo. "I've been looking at the internet. You're ranked 83rd in the world, second in Ireland and 22nd on the Irish All-time list." Then the river.

"And you're seventh in the Claremorris Poker League."

fyp

Jesus Wept

phantom_lord wrote:

fyp

fyp?

opr

The-Rigger wrote:

fyp?

Fixed your post.

Opr

impr0v

good article.

ocallagh

opr wrote:

Fixed your post.

Opr

Opr?

fiddlesticks

BigCityBanker wrote:

DAY ONE: CARNAGE
LIAM FLOOD, buddy of the late Terry Rogers and inheritor of his mantle as Ireland's Mr Poker, gets proceedings under way with the words, "shuffle down and deal".

lol