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02 August 2005
Irish Win At The £125,000
Celeb Poker Classic
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. 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."
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, 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.
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