Monday, Oct. 8, 2007

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Paddypowerpoker.com offers golden ticket

Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson.

By Arthur Crowson

Paddypowerpoker.com just gave its players some great motivation to win the 2007 Irish Open, as if there weren't enough already.

The online poker site recently announced its Paddy First, a new initiative to support players who qualify on Paddypowerpoker.com for the €3 million guarantee Irish Open.

Incredibly, if a Paddypowerpoker qualifier wins the 2007 Irish Open the company will award them their next five buy-ins to the Irish Open. That's equivalent to roughly $43,000 in addition to the $8,500 package the qualifiers already receive. That means that the player will basically be freerolling for the next five years.

Last year Paddypowerpoker qualifier Thomas Finneran outlasted 71 other qualifiers to win a €12,500 prize package to Las Vegas. Finneran finished a very respectable seventh place out of the 708 players at the Irish Open winning €75,000. Top-name poker professionals like Dan Harrington, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Mike Sexton, Antonio Esfandiari, Andy Black and Carlos Mortensen all took part in the tournament.

The eventual winner was Marty Smyth who beat Rolande De Wolfe in an epic heads-up match to take down the €650,000 first-place prize.

The Irish Poker Open is Europe's oldest No-Limit Hold'em tournament. Originally envisioned by late poker lover Terry Rogers, the tournament has gone on to become one of the most prestigious tournaments outside of Las Vegas.

This year's event promises to be the best yet with a €3 million guaranteed prize pool and capacity for 1,000 players.

The event will take place at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin March 19-24.

Be sure to keep checking Paddypowerpoker.com to see when you can play in one of the qualifying events and take a stab at the Paddy First Program.

Related Articles:

• Irish Open Qualifiers on Tap for paddypowerpoker.com
• 2008 Irish Open pot grows
• Two Million Reasons to Tune in to the Irish Poker Open
• 300 Plus and Counting For Irish Poker Open

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