That's right, folks. The Godfather of poker - Doyle Brunson - is on his way to Ireland to take part in the 2008 Irish Poker Open.
Brunson tends to stay close to his home in Las Vegas these days so what would entice him across the Atlantic? Well it might have something to do with the guaranteed prize pool of €3 million that's up for grabs this year. The payouts will likely be some of the very best in all of Europe this year and with a buy-in of €4,200 it's likely a number of the world's very best poker players will be on location.
Last year Marty Smyth outlasted 708 players that included Mike Sexton, Andy Black, Ram Vaswani and many more and then out-dueled Rolande De Wolfe in heads-up play to win €650,000 for his troubles.
This year Ciaran O'Leary, Michael McCool, Noel Furlong, Pascal Perrault, John Duthie and of course Brunson are confirmed to play in the epic event.
The Irish Open is the longest-running tournament in Europe and was the brainchild of the late, great Terry Rogers. Rogers often visited Vegas and developed friendships with people like Benny Binion, Johnny Moss and Brunson. He was an advocate of No-Limit Hold'em and helped introduce the game in Ireland and across Europe.
The 2008 Irish Poker Open will kickoff on March 20th and run through March 24th. This year's edition will be held in the world class conference centre of the Citywest Hotel, one of Ireland's premier Conference, Leisure and Golf Resort.
To learn more about the Irish Poker Open visit www.irishpokeropen.com.
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Huck Seed wins 2008 COPC
The 1996 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion is no stranger to heads-up tournaments. He came in third in this year's NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas. In 2007 he claimed ninth place in that tournament, third in 2006 and ninth in 2005.
Huck Seed also finished third two years ago at the inaugural Canadian Open Poker Championships. It took a return trip north of the border for Seed to finally capture a heads-up win.
It was by no means an easy tournament field to get through either. Players such as Joe Hachem, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak, Mel Juda, Bill Edler and Antonio Esfandiari had made the trip, plus Canadians Brad Booth, Greg Mueller and Gavin Smith were in the lineup.
In the end it came down to Seed versus Booth for a best-of-three match that lasted more than five hours before Seed finally triumphed.
"This was an amazing tournament in terms of both structure and quality of players," Seed said. "I love it when the cream rises to the top, and I get a chance to play with the best in the world. I am so happy that I finally won a heads-up tournament."
Seed takes home $100,000 for his win. The top eight players in the event were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Huck Seed | $100,000 |
| 2nd | Brad Booth | $50,160 |
| 3rd | Graeme Putt | $30,000 |
| 4th | Gavin Smith | $30,000 |
| 5th | Nghi Van Tran | $20,000 |
| 6th | Joe Hachem | $20,000 |
| 7th | Van Marcus | $20,000 |
| 8th | Shawn Buchanan | $20,000 |
Hachem, the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, was eliminated in the quarterfinal round of the CPOC main event, but still had good things to say about the tournament.
"This is by far the best heads-up tournament I have ever played in, and I will definitely be back next year," Hachem said. "The structure is much better than the World Series or NBC Invitational with the best-of-three format and terrific blind structure."
Along with the main event, the COPC features four other tournaments, including a charity event. The winners of those events were:
- $500 Charity Event: Jody Lewchuk
- $1,500 Event: Steve Paul-Ambrose
- $1,000 Event: Bradley Ginet
- $500 Event: Harey Hammoud
All told, more than 600 players turned out for the five events of the Canadian Open Poker Championships, creating more than $700,000 in prize money.
"I am very pleased with the success of the event," said Kelly B. Kellner, HeadsUp Entertainment president and CEO. "The staff at the Deerfoot Inn and Casino were amazing and that is reflected in the comments from all of the players."
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Full Tilt/PL.com award another WSOP seat
Schnellback, who plays online as QQ_More_Plz, admitted he got lucky in the freeroll offered by Full Tilt Poker. He won a $12,500 package that includes a seat into the WSOP* main event.
When asked about the overall playing level of the field the 31-year-old husband and father of two was humble.
"I am not exactly a judge of tournament skill, so I really couldn't tell you," he said. "I don't claim to be a skilled tournament player. I am quite new to them. I do think I had a lot of luck."
Schnellback hails from Northern Ontario and works as a computer technician but decided to take a year off to stay home with his kids. It might turn out to be one of the best decisions he ever made.
In the final hand of the tournament QQ_More_Plz had his opponent severely out-chipped and raised with A-K offsuit. His opponent moved all-in with J-7 and nothing developed on the board giving Schnellback the pot and the tournament.
Schnellback has only been playing poker for few months now but in the past spent time as a casino dealer where he always enjoyed dealing poker. Schnellback had tried playing poker at another online room but couldn't get into it. Finally he found a home at Full Tilt Poker.
"I created my account only a week ago so I am quite new to it but I like the volume of players that play there," he explained. "Always a great selection of games to choose from."
Schnellback has only been to Las Vegas once so he's in for an exciting summer.
"This freeroll grand prize is bigger than anything I have ever dreamed of winning in poker," he said. "I only played nickels before this. I haven't been able to stop thinking about [the Main Event] since I won the seat."
Schnellback went on to say that he's looking forward to possibly sitting down with big-name players like Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu but at the same time he's happy if he can avoid the really great players all-together.
"If the pro beats me I can say it took that kind of caliber a player to beat me and if I beat them my grandkids are going to hear about it!" he said.
To learn more about qualifying for this Summer's WSOP click here.
*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ('Harrahs'). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerListings.com or its products, services, promotions or tournaments
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