Irish Win At The £125,000 CelebPoker Classic
Alan Smurfit, celebrity Irish businessman, won the Palm Beach CelebPoker Classic No Limit Hold'em Tournament last night (Sunday) at the Palm Beach Casino in London's Mayfair.
(PRWEB) Aug. 2, 2005 -- Alan Smurfit, who sold his Dublin-based packaging
company for €3.9-billion two years ago, has renounced retirement in favour of
playing the international poker circuit - with spectacular success. He beat
roofing contractor David Clark in an exciting heads-up climax.
The pair
had outplayed a strong field of 125 experts and online qualifiers, including
snooker celebrities Jimmy White, Mark Williams and Ken Doherty, actor Michael
Greco, actor Terrence Maynard, PGA golf pro Sam Torrance, and a host of poker
professionals.
Smurfit's first prize was £51,700, presented by www.CelebPoker.com. Clark's
second prize was £25,800 and the third prize of £14,000 went to Charalambos
Xanthos, better known in the poker world as Bambos.
The key hand occurred
when Smurfit was low on chips when the table was four-handed. He went all-in
with 6-5 off-suit, and when the board gave him 7-9-8 for a straight, he was back
in contention.
"It was a thrill to win," he said afterwards. "Not so much
for the money, but for the excitement of winning!"
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Alan Smurfit,
63, lives in Dublin, and is best-known as an Omaha player, winning the recent
£50,000 Omaha tournament at the Victoria Sporting Club. He is just back from Las
Vegas, where he played in the World Series of Poker.
David Clark, 45,
from Little Maplestead, near Halsted, Essex, runs a roofing and scaffolding
company, but manages to play poker three or four times a week. He attempted to
qualify for the Palm Beach Classic online at www.celebpoker.com, but when he did not manage to win a place,
bought in for £1000.
Charalambos Xanthos, 61, better known as Bambos,
comes from Cyprus and ran a successful hotel business in Paddington. He is now a
full-time poker professional, playing every day, mostly at the Victoria Sporting
Club.
The prestigious event was sold out, and a queue of poker loving
players remained very disappointed because of its enormous
popularity!
Celebpoker.com recommends that players qualify or register
earlier for their forthcoming event on September 7th and 8th at Star City casino
in Birmingham, UK. This event guarantees a first prize of £100,000.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb267788.htm