IPC results

28 year-old Phd Biochemistry student Jude Ainsworth was a relaxed man when he paid the buy-in for the main event at the PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship.

He submitted a year’s worth of research back in December, decided to concentrate on poker for a while and then went home with the €180,000 first prize from the main event at the tournament held at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Galway, Ireland between the 4-6 January 2008.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” said Ainsworth. “To say that we are going to sink a few pints is an understatement! I couldn’t ask for much more than this, I’ve had great support all the way through. I was planning on taking a break after finishing my Phd at GNUIG in Galway. This makes everything a lot easier!”

Ainsworth has lived in Claregalway all his life and is married to Ashley with one child, May who was born last May. “My wife is in Hong Kong at the moment, she works for the local toy business. She’ll be delighted! I definitely plan to take us on holiday but I am also looking at playing in a few more tournaments and perhaps the WSOP in Vegas in the summer.” Before taking out a top field at the PartyPoker.com IPC, his biggest success was winning his local tournament, the Connaught Challenge Cup, and small stake online sit-and-gos.

The €2,000 (9 percent withheld) buy-in tournament organized by PokerEvents.ie and sponsored by PartyPoker.com attracted 298 runners on a day when snow engulfed Ireland and produced a final prize pool of €542,500.

Amongst the familiar faces at the tables were ‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton, 1999 WSOP Main Event Winner Noel Furlong, ‘Flying Dutchman’ Marcel Luske, Ciaran O’Leary, Michael Keiner, Robert Williamson III, Padraig Parkinson, Jon Kalmar, Scott Gray, Bruno Fitoussi, Jan Sørensen, Roy Brindley, Mad Marty Wilson, Marty Smith, Katharine Hartree, Jeff Duvall, Alan Vinson, Tom Franklin, Steve Wong, Neil Channing, Tony Cascarino and Rory Liffey.

The field also featured online qualifiers, many of whom qualified for as little as $3 on PartyPoker.com in addition to a big army of Irish players from every corner of the Emerald Isle after over 500 qualifying satellites were held in pubs and clubs. Two wildcard entries included Dutch pop star and PartyPoker Dutch Open winner Maud Mulder and Polish television star and boxing champion Agnieszka Rylik. At the start Luske was the well backed 25/1 favourite with www.PartyBets.com.

A spokesman for event sponsors PartyPoker.com said: “Jude was a very popular and deserving winner and we are pleased for him, his friends and family. There were a lot of international poker big guns in the field but the Irish certainly capitalized on home advantage and were more dominant than expected. We are delighted with all the positive feedback about our first major poker tournament sponsorship in Ireland.”

‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton said: “When you play poker in Ireland it is not only about playing the poker. There is a comradery here that you don’t find at all poker tournaments.”

Final results:
1. Jude Ainsworth (Galway) €180,000
2. Michael McCool (Nottingham, UK) €100,000
3. Tommy Watson (Athlone) €60,000
4. Trevor Dineen (Cork) €35,000
5. Michael Moran (London) €25,000
6. Keith McFadden (Donegal) €18,000
7. Glen McCabe (Lurgan) €15,000
8. Bernard Brady (Galway) €12,000