PaddyPowerPoker.com, have announced the venue for the 2008 Irish Open - it is to be held at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel, Leisure and Golf Resort.

The Irish Open is Europe’s longest running poker tournament and needed a big venue such as the Citywest Hotel to cope with an increased field of 1000 players.

The Citywest Hotel is one of Europe’s most popular event destinations and has held a number of events through the years such as the darts World Grand Prix, which used to be sponsored by PaddyPower.  The complex has bars, restaurants, two Christy O’Connor golf courses and a state of the art Health and Leisure Club.

The Communications Manager for PaddyPowerPoker.com said, “We searched the length and breadth of the country to find a venue that could provide players with the famous atmosphere and communal spirit of the Irish Open whilst still being big enough to accommodate the huge field.  In Citywest we found the perfect home.”

The venue is in a prime location in Dublin.  It is just 15km from the city centre and 20km from Dublin airport.  Therefore international and local players alike should find the tournament easily accessible.

It has also been confirmed that the 2008 Irish Open will be competed over the Easter Weekend from 19th to 24th March 2008.

The tournament is a No Limit Holdem freezeout event.  This means there is no rebuy and play continues until one player has all the chips. 

The Irish Open is certainly a lucrative tournament for players.  A prize fund of 3 million euros is guaranteed with a minimum of 800,000 euros going to the winner.  The buy-in for the tournament is 4,500 euros.

The tournament’s history dates back to 21 years ago when 36 players fought it out in a small room above bookmakers Liam Flood.  Terry Rodgers who played in the first tournament and was also a rival bookmaker of Liam Flood, thought up the name Irish Open, an idea that came to him after watching the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.  In his honour, the trophy presented to the winner of the Irish Open is named the Terry Rodgers Memorial Trophy.

In April 2007 Marty Smith emerged victorious to take the Terry Rodgers Memorial Trophy and Irish Open crown winning 650,000 euros.  He had to fight his way through a tough field of poker professionals including the likes of Carlos Mortensen, Dan Harrington, Mike Sexton, Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Antonio Esfandiari, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot, Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, Scott Gray, Ram Vaswani, David Plastik, Eddie Scharf, Surinder Sunar, Frank Cruess Callaghan, Ian Frazer, David Benyamine and Ericka Schoenberg.  The 2008 Irish Open is likely to attract a similar host of top poker professional players.

Online registration is now available for the tournament at www.irishpokeropen.com.