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Player turns one-cent bet into €180k at Irish Poker Open 236iy20 March 2018(PRESS RELEASE) -- From a one-cent game on partypoker to €180,000 at the Irish Open, Cork man Ferdia O'Connell has landed a massive win by coming second in the Irish Poker Open Main Event, Europe's longest running and most prestigious poker tournament, which guaranteed a prize pool of €1,000,000 this year. CityWest Hotel, Dublin was the location for the Irish Open Festival, which had a total of 22 tournaments, including nine championship events. Today the Irish Poker Open festival concluded after crowning the winner of the main event last night. Ryan Mandara, a seasoned live poker player from England, took home first prize and the title of Irish Open Champion, overcoming a field of 1348 players, which created a prize pool of €1,347,157 and a first prize of €250,000. Usually the focus of media attention is on the winner of the event, but this year it was on Ferdia O'Connell, who had everyone talking when it became apparent he had won entry to the tournament for just one cent via the online poker site sponsoring the event this year, partypoker. Ferdia entered a partypoker centroll for just one cent, which landed him a $22 ticket that he used to gain entry to a $215 direct feeder that partypoker ran weekly for the the €1,150 Main event. After confirmation of this incredible story, we caught up with the second place finisher for an interview in which he told us how he had in fact been ill for three years, suffering with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and that his trip to the event coincided with a return to health in the last two months. Ferdia could not travel to the last poker event he won a ticket for due to illness, and this was his first venture out of his home to play live poker since taking ill, making this all the more miraculous. < Gaming News 3uy69 |