Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival 2009

Qualification is now underway for the 2009 Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival which takes place in Killarney, Ireland in October. Last year the Main Event attracted a record-breaking 832 players, making it the largest European ranking event ever staged. The Festival will again be held at The INEC, Killarney, with the main event commencing on Friday 2nd October. There will again be a last-chance super-satellite to the Main Event, which will be held at the venue on Thursday 1st October.

The Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival will also include two side tournaments, and throughout the festival’s duration players will have exclusive access to Ladbrokes hospitality facilities, which includes a games room with pool, darts and other activities.

Online qualifiers will win a €950 package, which includes the €550 Main Event buy-in and three nights accommodation at the Gleneagle Hotel. This package is available exclusively through Ladbrokes Poker with satellites starting from €5.

Ladbrokes.com has again guaranteed a €250,000 prize pool, but they are anticipating that the volume of entries will be on a par with last years’ event, which generated a prize pool of €400,000 and a mouth watering first prize of €100,000!

The three-day Main Event is a brilliant introduction to live poker and a great short break away. It combines great poker, a beautiful destination and the chance to sample the renowned Ladbrokes Poker hospitality.

Nigel Blower, Head of Events and Promotions at Ladbrokes said: “We’ve created a tournament that offers players a €5,000 structure for a €500 buy-in, allowing all players irrespective of bankroll to show their Deep Stack skills. We feel that we’ve ticked all of the boxes taking into account key factors such as:

Price: The package covers three nights accommodation and the €500 + €50 Main Event buy-in. The total cost of the Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival package wouldn’t even cover the Buy-in of the majority of live tournaments currently run in and around Europe.

Duration: The timing and length of the event mean that the Festival is basically a long weekend away. The main event starts on a Friday and ends on a Sunday – this has been done to avoid clashes with work or family commitments.

Location: Killarney is synonymous with great Irish hospitality and that’s what our players are going to get. The venue itself is Ireland’s National Event Centre, at the heart of a vibrant hotel and leisure complex, 100’s of tourist attractions and a great night-life associated with Irish music! Killarney is far enough away for most to warrant it being a great weekend away, but near enough to ensure a players journeys is only a couple of hours long.”