I hope that all loyal Blog readers are taking avantage of the chance we’re given you to humiliate Paddy Power Poker employees and make them cry into their keyboards? Yes, I mean our weekly Paddy Whacker tournament, in which one of our level 4 drone-bots logs on as player Paddywhacker0 and attempts to achieve poker greatness by outlasting all who try to knock him out! Why is everyone after him? Well, good ol’ Paddywhacker0 has a bounty of $100 on his head, that’s why! Not only that, but anyone who knocks him out and goes on to win the $10 + $1 NLH freezeout will get an additional bonus of $100 (so that’s a $200 total bonus in addition to the standard prize for winning the tournament)!

The Paddy Whacker tournaments take place every Thursday at 9pm - don’t miss your chance to get one over on us Has anyone had any luck in this tournament yet?

Just in case you were wondering what hand the Paddy Point had shoved all his chip in with…

They say that good music never grows old; I don’t know about that, but the Jackson 5 classic ‘ABC’ may have been the theme song to today’s 11am Fast Food Freeroll. ABC_Man moonwalked his way to victory past runners-up minxielady and trevzz, grabbing his crotch and shaking his Afro to the beat as he did it! You could even say (if you wanted to spell it out for the less groovy blog readers) that ABC_Man was the Michael of the tournament, while the rest of the field was made up of various Jermaines, La Toyas, Titos, Marlons and Janets! Ah hee hee hee, shamone!

Results of this morning’s 11am PPP Fast Food Freeroll
$50 freeroll. 444 players.

1. ABC_Man
2. minxielady
3. trevzz
4. oliverchips
5. JackDonkey
6. moisea
7. pooLdicA22
8. nogihno
9. 1986toliga
10. whynobutwhy

Turn your back for two minutes and those mischievous little Paddy Points have cleared your desk for a minature Irish Open!

Reply to this post with your funniest caption and we will reward the best one with a $23.50 Rio Jackpot tournament token!  You have until Sunday to submit your caption, and feel free to enter as many times as you like!

This morning’s Brekkie Roll Freeroll was won by toonarmywil, there was a hint of relegation at some points during the tournament but survival turned into top-of-the-table success by the time the ref’s whistle was blown! Runners-up pokerstarbailey and hen88 played end-to-end stuff for the duration of the Freeroll but this army’s march was unstoppable. TOON ARMY, TOON ARMY, TOON ARMY!

Results of this morning’s 6am PPP Brekkie Roll Freeroll
$50 freeroll. 144 players.

1. toonarmywil
2. pokerstarbailey
3. hen88
4. frcohen
5. homer3k
6. TheOnlyScal
7. king_tin
8. linksi888
9. logitechr14
10. joker090

Last Saturday night I headed into the popular Fitzwilliam Card Club in Dublin’s fair city for some hardcore live No Limit Holdem action, they run a well-structured €120+€5 tournament at 7pm on Saturdays and since I had come 2nd the one and only other time I played, I thought the game might suit me. The field was made up of 50% familiar faces and 50% random players - give me someone I know anytime over a stranger, much easier to play against! In any case, although with the decent blind levels and big stack there is no pressure to get too involved in big hands early on, I managed to almost double my stack over the first two levels.

Of particular pleasure was a hand where I was holding in late position and called a minimum raise in mid position made by a typical Dublin regular. He was extremely active early in the game when blinds were low, but I knew he would quieten down a few blind levels down the line. The blinds and an early position limper also called so five of us saw a flop. It was folded to the regular and he fired out a 1/2 pot bet. This screamed ‘continuation bet’ to me so I decided to flat call and re-assess on the turn should he fire another bullet. The turn was a , which he checked. At this point I feel I am in control of the hand (he either has nothing or could have a J) but decide to check again to see what the river brings, as he could call a bet knowing he was behind if he has any kind of draw (and the board is very draw heavy). The river was a , giving me a weak two pair but putting three diamonds on the board - if he checks again, given what I know of the player, he was basically giving up on the hand. He duly checked, I threw out a tiny value bet (maybe 1/5th the size of the pot), he announced ‘I’m not paying off your flush!’ and folded, and I couldn’t help but flash him the to needle him. Great move, as he went on tilt and was quite upset with me, losing 1/2 stack over the next level!

There were only three tables of players, but with the great stucture it took about 4 1/2 hours to get to the final table of 9. Five prizes were announced, with only the first 2 worth hanging around for in my opinion. Another one of the regulars suggested we think about doing a deal on the payouts (with 9 remaining of less than 30 runners!), but I shot her down. I came to the final table with an average stack, but after knocking out the 9th, 8th and 7th finishers I was a big chip leader! This is where poker is fun!

Marc Bolton, a fellow Paddy Power employee, was still rockin’ and rollin’ with a playable stack, a French player seemed half decent (despite auto-pushing over bets when he had a flush draw) and the rest of the table were Dublin regulars that didn’t worry me much. When we got down to four players my stack started to dwindle somewhat and my chip lead disappeared, and it took quite a while before the 4th place finisher was knocked out. With the clocks changing at 1am, it was suddenly 3am and since myself, Marc and the French guy all had playable stacks, so we decided to split the prize pool 3-ways (after taking some off the top for the good dealers of the Fitz), each taking home more than the 2nd placed finisher would have received if we had finished it out. It was great fun, in any case, though having an hour less in the sack on Sunday morning was a terrible cross to bear!

Last night I performed the unique juggling act that most of us have perhaps become accustomed to: watching the Champtions League match, playing online poker with my laptop on my knee and trying to eat my supper at the same time! Someday I’m sure the dinner will end up on the laptop or the laptop in the dinner - a post on the hidden dangers of online poker will have to wait until another day I’m afraid!

ANGRYBOY234 took down this morning’s Brekkie Roll Freeroll - proof of the power of agression! The Jimi Hendrix-inspired VoodooChilli couldn’t make the music needed to soothe the savage breast of the eventual winner, while taipingbang wasn’t explosive enough to finish better than 3rd. Still, free money is free money and I’ve always said that anger management courses were rubbish…in fact, I’m making myself mad just thinking about them…I think a ten-minute time out in the padded cell we have here on the poker floor of Paddy Tower is needed before I go on an Incredible Hulk-style rampage - you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…!

Results of this morning’s 6am PPP Brekkie Roll Freeroll
$50 freeroll. 119 players.

1. ANGRYBOY234
2. VoodooChilli
3. taipingbang
4. Celticghost
5. acehighlooser
6. 69chris69
7. momo68B
8. andy49
9. Adminguest
10. hen88

It goes without saying by those who attended or participated in the Irish Open that the six days of Poker enjoyed in Citywest, Dublin was a great success. Not only for Neil Channing, Donal Norton and all others who cashed in the main event or any of the side events, but for those of us who could not play but were on the rails (during our break, of course!) or just there to soak up the unique Irish Open atmosphere. I don’t think the Prison Love (our resident bluegrass band) take on Motorhead’s classic Ace Of Spades will be forgotten anytime soon!

So what’s next on the calendar for Paddy Power Poker? Well, in addition to exclusive online promotions we run on a regular basis for our players, we are proud to announce the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Winter Festival, scheduled for October Bank Holiday weekend (October 25th-27th). Online qualifiers to this exciting event will kick off on April 13th and players can participate in weekly Grand Final satellites. The festival will take place at Citywest, Dublin and is highlighted by a €1,500 + €150 main event that will feature an estimated €1,000,000 prize pool!

Neil Channing topped the tree and took the plaudits, but his was just the best of 72 great performances.  Congratulations to all who cashed in the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open main event!

Results of the 2008 Irish Open

1 Neil Channing €801,400.00
2 Donal Norton €420,000.00
3 Thomas Dunwoodie €275,000.00
4 Tim Blake €220,000.00
5 Danilo Paulsen €175,000.00
6 Edwin Tournier €135,000.00
7 Carsten Joh €100,000.00
8 Eric Larcheveque €75,000.00
9 John Keown €50,000.00
10 Mark Spellman €32,500.00
11 Peter Linton €32,500.00
12 Hassan Mohammed €32,500.00
13 Andrew Grimason €24,000.00
14 William Martin €24,000.00
15 Thomas Dempsey €24,000.00
16 Thomas Finneran €24,000.00
17 Surinder Sunar €24,000.00
18 Philip Starrs €24,000.00
19 John Kabbaj €18,000.00
20 William Haughey €18,000.00
21 Frederic Levy €18,000.00
22 Tony Salmon €18,000.00
23 Thomas Fourgeron €18,000.00
24 Conor Tate €18,000.00
25 Anthony Fagan €18,000.00
26 Padraig Parkinson €18,000.00
27 Nick Goodall €18,000.00
28 Bill O’Keefe €13,000.00
29 Mazhar Nawab €13,000.00
30 Charlie Harvey €13,000.00
31 Iam Van Trinh €13,000.00
32 Knut Rysstad €13,000.00
33 Julian Thew €13,000.00
34 Sorel Mizzi €13,000.00
35 Lars Hougaard €13,000.00
36 John Moran €13,000.00
37 Kiko Lacasa €9,000.00
38 Belkacem Laouar €9,000.00
39 Kristoffer Nyberg €9,000.00
40 Tominari Kobayashi €9,000.00
41 Kenneth Greaney €9,000.00
42 Emmett Davis €9,000.00
43 Nariman Faramarzi-Rad €9,000.00
44 Kieran Small €9,000.00
45 James Daly €9,000.00
46 John Conroy €6,500.00
47 David Dean €6,500.00
48 Willie Clynes €6,500.00
49 Jaka Faraz Quddus €6,500.00
50 Brian Antoniotti €6,500.00
51 Sebastien Caleechurn €6,500.00
52 Dominic Heaver €6,500.00
53 Alexander Fitzgerald €6,500.00
54 Magnus Hulden €6,500.00
55 John Paul Fox €5,500.00
56 Simon Hennessey €5,500.00
57 Dave Masters €5,500.00
58 Rumit Somaiya €5,500.00
59 Michael Finn €5,500.00
60 Andrew Cowan €5,500.00
61 Timothy Barany €5,500.00
62 Keith Littlewood €5,500.00
63 Daniel Walley €5,500.00
64 James Honeybone €4,500.00
65 Annette O’Carroll €4,500.00
66 Colin King €4,500.00
67 Abel Meijberg €4,500.00
68 Thomas Nyberg €4,500.00
69 David Albertsson €4,500.00
70 Gavin Moir €4,500.00
71 Michael Nolan €4,500.00
72 Anthony Wetherall €4,500.00

Congratulations to Neil on a fantastic performance against a field of 667 players including many of the best players in the world. He will be a more than worthy champion!