The Irish dominance at the final table of the poker million, eventually won by Pot-Limit Omaha $10,000 World Championship winner Marty Smyth, meant that 2009's first major tournament is now even more fitting than before.
PartyPoker's IPC tour, offering qualifications to the tournament, finished with its eighth stop in Dublin last week. It saw Jay Renehan top the leaderboard, winning €5,000, with second getting second €2,000 and third €1,000.
2009's first major tournament, the €2,000 buy-in Irish Poker Championship, is set to be a big event with television coverage of high-ranked pros already arranged. The names so far confirmed for the event include: Poker Million winner Marty Smyth, Padraig Parkinson, Premier League II winner Andy Black, and last year's champion Jude Ainsworth. There will also be a big international contingent heading to Galway in search of victory including ‘Ambassador of Poker' Mike Sexton, Kenna James, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Benjamin Kang, Surinder
Sunar, Mad ‘Marty' Wilson, Mickey Wernick, Alan Vinson and 2008 Irish Open champion Neil Channing.