Brit Wins Irish Poker Festival
The four day Irish Poker Festival has ended with a young British man taking victory and claiming a €100,000 prize.
Thomas Rolfe, a 22 year old man from Nottingham in the UK beat the local opposition to secure the trophy in the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival which was held at the Irish National Events Centre (INEC) in Killarney, Co Kerry, Ireland.
The total prize pool for the Main Event was €250,000 with a €550 buy in. Each player started with 15,000 chips, and one hour blinds were played.
This is a big movement in Rolfe’s poker playing career. Prior to this event he had only reached one final table and finished in the money twice, with total winnings of a little under $10,000.
In the final hand he faced the local player Emmet Gough. Gough has been playing tournament poker for only one year and has finished in the money twice also with total winnings of around $10,000.
Rolfe was extremely pleased with the result and is planning to put his winnings into buying a new house.
The festival also included two side tournaments: a €270+30 tournament which lasted over two days and a one day €150+20 tournament. Altogether, over 750 players took part in the event. The tournament manager was Kate McLennan who confirmed that it was a huge success and she is already planning a similar show for next year.
However Kate failed to confirm or deny the rumour that had been circulating that Lady Gaga had received a personal invitation from Ladbrokes to attend. Although she is reportedly a great fan of poker, she failed to make an appearance at the festival. One celebrity who was spotted playing at the tournament was Shane Lynch, the singer from Boyzone, an Irish boy band.
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