Irish Open 2010

The Irish Open is the second oldest poker tournament in the world (the first being the WSOP) and as anyone who's been to the Open can tell you - it's probably the best tournament in the world for atmosphere. But equally the tournament is as steeped in history as the WSOP main event is. The 2007 Irish Open Main Event was officially the largest poker tournament in Europe, attracting 708 player who competed for a prize pool of €2.3 Million, but it had much humbler beginnings.

Bookmaker and card player, Terry Rogers, started the Irish Open after stumbling across the World Series of Poker on a trip to Las Vegas in the late 1970's. Assisted by his friend, but one time bookmaking competitor, Liam Flood they went about setting up a texas hold'em poker tournament to take place on Good Friday - traditionally when the good folks were going to church, and the bad were trying to find an open pub! 36 men and women gathered in the upstairs of a small bookmaker's office in inner city Dublin, thus the Irish Open was born. The year was 1980. Despite a few years in 1990's when Terry was looking after his sick mother, Liam would sit down with friends, old and new, and play cards. Terry passed on. But his legend and legacy didn't.

This year the hype has come sooner however as Paddy Power Poker have an added extra included for their qualifiers. paddypowerpoker.com today launches its biggest ever Irish Open promotion, the €100,000 Sole Survivor. All paddypowerpoker.com qualifiers to the Irish Open 2009 will be eligible for participation, and the player that becomes the ‘Sole Survivor’ by outlasting all other paddypowerpoker.com qualifiers in the tournament will win a €100,000 package.

"We always try to offer our own qualifiers something special for outlasting their peers; and this year certainly won’t disappoint" said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for paddypowerpoker.com. "The €100,000 package will be in addition to whatever prize money they win at the event, so it will be a real windfall for whichever qualifier stays in the game long enough to become our Sole Survivor!"

Qualifiers are scheduled on paddypowerpoker.com from October 26th, with an expanded schedule being introduced in early November.

The 2009 Irish Open is set to break all records & through Paddy Power Pokers Sole Survivor promotion there is going to be even more excitement in the coming months!