Irish Poker Open

Author: Tony Cascarino

In a land steeped in storytelling tradition, the tale of how the Irish Poker Open originated has, over the course of more than a quarter of a century, assumed mythical proportions.

Legend has it that back in the late Seventies, Terry Rogers, a famous Irish bookmaker and keen poker player, became a regular visitor to Las Vegas where he first encountered the World Series of Poker. Renowned for his outgoing nature, Terry befriended poker legends such as Benny Binion and Doyle Brunson and would later be credited as the man responsible for introducing no limit Texas Hold ‘Em to Europe.

Initially, however, his intention was to mix business with pleasure in Vegas. Assisted by a bookmaking colleague Liam Flood, he began offering odds on those Seventies WSOP games. Unfortunately for the pair, neither was in possession of a gaming licence, an oversight about which the local police force reminded them as Rogers and Flood were unceremoniously thrown into jail – although I hasten to add it was only for a few hours.

The experience may have resulted in the Las Vegas police force being dropped from each man’s Christmas card list, but having witnessed the WSOP at first hand, the next step was a logical one. In 1981, Rogers invited his American pals, including ‘Amarillo Slim’ Preston and Puggy Pearson to the Emerald Isle where they could compete against their Irish cousins, and so the Irish Poker Open was born.

For a while, they held another tournament at the same time, ‘The Eccentric Club Invitational’, but no-one seems to know what became of that. I tried unearthing some details of this tournament when I was in Ireland recently, but despite it’s wonderful title, no-one seems to know what became of it.

The Irish Poker Open, in which I played earlier this week, is the oldest poker tournament in Europe. Indeed, after the WSOP, it is the oldest high profile poker event in the world.

I was playing well and managed to get late into day two of the tournament when I picked up pocket tens. The blinds were 800-1,600 and I had around 23,000 in chips. I was on a table with a few people I knew and two others I’d never met, one of whom was slowing play down by taking an age to decide upon his moves.

As I waited for this guy to make his decision, I pondered over how I would play my pocket tens – after all, I knew I had plenty of time! Eventually, and much to my surprise, he opted to pass, which left me in a position where I thought I could afford to be quite aggressive, so I went in with slightly more than the minimum raise.

Most of my opponents folded, but one looked at me and I could see he thought I was trying to steal the pot; he had around 40,000 in chips and was in a position to call, which he duly did, prompting me to go all-in. It transpired that the 40k chip man had almost nothing (A, 7 ) yet he was taking me on! I can’t tell you how much I wanted a ten to reveal itself on the flop.

Of course, it never came, although the 40k chip man subsequently hit an ace and suddenly, I could see my involvement in the Irish Poker Open coming to an abrupt end. The guy was gracious enough to acknowledge he had got lucky and admitted that he genuinely thought I was stealing. Why that should persuade him to call with A,7 is slightly bewildering, but it meant that having played solidly for the best part of two days, I was out.

When I played professional football, particularly in France, I would, wherever possible, take the time to find out more about the city or the country in which I was playing and it’s a habit I’ve carried over into my poker career. If you get the opportunity to play in the IPO, take it because you will invariably get the chance to wander around and absorb much of Ireland’s history as well as that of the tournament itself.

The IPO’s founder, Terry Rogers, died in 1999, but his old pal Liam Flood, who won the event in 1996 and who was its tournament director for several years, is still around.

He is a man who knows his poker history inside out, a guy who has played against (and beaten) some of the game’s biggest names. Known as Liam ‘The Gentleman’ Flood, his poker career included six major cash titles and he appeared in a total of 22 final table finishes.

He told me his most memorable victory came in the European Open at London’s Victoria Casino in 1997. Three players were left at the table when he suggested splitting the pot between himself, Dave Ulliot and Surrindar Sunar. “We don’t do deals,” replied Ulliot. An hour and a half later, Flood had wiped the pair out, whereupon the other two split what cash remained for second and third place.

“It was a great bit of fun,” said Flood in that disarmingly Irish manner which has the effect of convincing people that they shouldn’t take life – or themselves - too seriously.

Naturally, I was disappointed at being eliminated from the IPO in a less than satisfactory manner and although I brooded for a while afterwards, I did end up enjoying a bit of the craic over the weekend before taking time out to prepare for my next tournament in San Remo, the details of which I’ll bring next time.