The first major European poker tournament of the year has been decided with the conclusion of the main event at the PartyPoker Irish Poker Championship 2008 held at the Radisson Hotel in Galway.

It was won by local Galway-based amateur Jude Ainsworth who defied the odds to collect the trophy and £134,163 in prize money. 

The main event attracted a field of 298 players from around the world.  This included professionals such as Mike Sexton, Marcel Luske, Rehne Pedersen, Bruno Fitoussi and Irish crowd favourites Ciaran O’Leary and Padraig Parkinson.  This makes Jude Ainsworth’s achievement all the more sweet.  He is a 28 year-old Phd Biochemistry student and has beaten a field of top poker professionals.

Mike Sexton summed up the atmosphere at the Irish Poker Championship by saying, “When you play poker in Ireland it is not only about playing poker.  There is a camaraderie here you don’t find at all poker tournaments.”

None of the top professionals listed above made it to the final table as competition was fierce.  The players that did make it through and their chip counts going into the final table action were as follows: Glenn Mc Cabe (235,000), Trevor Dineen (412,000), Tommy Watson (296,000), Bernard Brady (294,000), Keith McFadden (696,000), Michael McCool (222,000), Michael Moran (374,000) and of course Jude Ainsworth who was in second place at this stage with 485,000 chips.

One of the highlights from the final table action was a 3 outer won by Tommy Watson where he raised to 60,000 and was called on the button by the chip leader Keith McFadden.  The flop came with the 3 of hearts, 7 of diamonds and the 6 of clubs and Tommy Watson moved all-in for 241,000.  McFadden then called holding the ace of diamonds and king of hearts.  He looked like he had a strong king of clubs and king of spades but the ace of hearts popped up on the turn and this resulted in Keith McFadden losing the overall chip lead for the first time since Day 1.

Play continued and eventually the field was down to the final 3 players.  These were Tommy Watson, Michael McCool as well as Jude Ainsworth.  By this stage Ainsworth had built up an impressive lead holding more than half the chips.

It was Tommy Watson who was to be beaten into third place.  He lost out to Ainsworth on a flush.

As play entered the final heads-up action McCool had reduced Ainsworth’s lead, holding 1.3 million chips to Ainsworth’s 1.7 million.  The chip lead was to change several times as the two remaining players battled it out for the title.  Eventually, Ainsworth prevailed becoming the latest amateur to win a major poker tournament.

Ainsworth was delighted with his win and had plans to celebrate Irish style.

He said, “It doesn’t get much better than this.  To say that we are going to sink a few pints is an understatement!  I couldn’t ask for much more than this, I’ve had great support all the way through.  I was planning taking a break after my Phd at GNUIG in Galway.  This makes everything a lot easier!

“My wife is in Hong Kong at the moment, she works for the local toy business.  She’ll be delighted!  I definitely plan to take us on holiday but I am also looking at playing in a few more tournaments and perhaps the WSOP in Vegas in the summer.”

Now Ainsworth is over £100,000 richer he can afford to enter many more poker tournaments.

On Ainsworth’s victory, Brendan Murray Editor of Card Player magazine said, “Although Jude is a reasonably successful online player he doesn’t really play live poker tournaments so it was a shock win.”

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