HEY JUDE! AINSWORTH WINS PARTYPOKER.COM IRISH POKER CHAMPIONSHIP FOR GALWAY!
NO SAD SONGS AS PHD STUDENT AND SUPPORTERS CELEBRATE WINNING FIRST MAJOR TOURNAMENT
OF 2008
Galway, Ireland - 8th January 2008 -- 28 year-old Phd Biochemistry student Jude
Ainsworth was a relaxed man when he paid the buy-in for the main event at the
PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship. He submitted a year's worth of research
back in December, decided to concentrate on poker for a while and then went home
with the €180,000 first prize from the main event at the tournament held at the
Radisson SAS Hotel, Galway, Ireland between the 4th-6th January 2008.
"It doesn't get much better than this," said Ainsworth. "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 on taking a break after
finishing my Phd at GNUIG in Galway. This makes everything a lot easier!"
Ainsworth has lived in Claregalway all his life and is married to Ashley with one
child, May who was born last May. "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." Before taking out a top field at the PartyPoker.com
IPC, his biggest success was winning his local tournament, the Connaught Challenge
Cup, and small stake online sit-and-gos.
Ainsworth reached the final table second in chips to Donegal's Keith McFadden, who
had dominated the tournament after knocking out both Mike Sexton and Marcel Luske
when they had huge stacks and led after day one and day two. First out on the final
table was Galway's Bernard Brady, followed in quick succession by Lurgan's Glen
McCabe, Donegal's Keith McFadden and then London's Michael Moran. McFadden's
dominance of the tournament and chip lead came to end in a key hand with Athlone's
Tommy Watson where his pocket kings got cracked by ace king when an ace hit on the
turn. Next to go was Cork's Trevor Dineen, followed by Watson to leave it heads-up
between Ainsworth and Michael McCool from Nottingham. McCool had a gang of
supporters but there was only one winner for the partisan crowd at this point.
At the heads-up stage, Ainsworth had 1.7 million to chips to McCool's 1.3 million
and the lead swung a number of times. The decisive hand came following an 180,000
raise by McCool. Before looking at his cards Ainsworth said he felt he had a hand
and after looking moved all-in. McCool called with pocket fives off-suit, while
Ainsworth was holding a 10 and 8 of diamonds. The flop came down 9 of spades, jack
of diamonds and ace of diamonds giving Ainsworth a massive draw. A queen of hearts
came on the turn giving Ainsworth the straight, the crowd went mad and the main hall
at the Radisson was alive with the sound of popping champagne corks. Most of it
ended up all over Ainsworth and in the trophy as he was held aloft by his friends
after receiving the trophy from Mike Sexton. The winner was quick to thank his
friend Derek Murray, who had talked him into playing in the first place.
McCool, an ex-greyhound trainer and Dusk Till Dawn regular, was gracious in defeat.
He won €40,000 in a side event in 2007 and has great form in Ireland. Both players
didn't want to see each other in the heads-up situations due to respect built
throughout the tournament and both highlighted the skill they saw exhibited by
Ciaran O'Leary, the Irish WSOP bracelet winner who finished in 13th place.
The €2,000 (9 percent withheld) buy-in tournament organized by PokerEvents.ie and
sponsored by PartyPoker.com attracted 298 runners on a day when snow engulfed
Ireland and produced a final prize pool of €542,500. Amongst the familiar faces at
the tables were 'Ambassador of Poker' Mike Sexton, 1999 WSOP Main Event Winner Noel
Furlong, 'Flying Dutchman' Marcel Luske, Ciaran O'Leary, Michael Keiner, Robert
Williamson III, Padraig Parkinson, Jon Kalmar, Scott Gray, Bruno Fitoussi, Jan
Sørensen, Roy Brindley, Mad Marty Wilson, Marty Smith, Katharine Hartree, Jeff
Duvall, Alan Vinson, Tom Franklin, Steve Wong, Neil Channing, Tony Cascarino and
Rory Liffey. The field also featured online qualifiers, many of whom qualified for
as little as $3 on PartyPoker.com in addition to a big army of Irish players from
every corner of the Emerald Isle after over 500 qualifying satellites were held in
pubs and clubs. Two wildcard entries included Dutch pop star and PartyPoker Dutch
Open winner Maud Mulder and Polish television star and boxing champion Agnieszka
Rylik. At the start Luske was the well backed 25/1 favourite with www.PartyBets.com
A spokesman for event sponsors PartyPoker.com said: "Jude was a very popular and
deserving winner and we are pleased for him, his friends and family. There were a
lot of international poker big guns in the field but the Irish certainly capitalized
on home advantage and were more dominant than expected. We are delighted with all
the positive feedback about our first major poker tournament sponsorship in
Ireland."
'Ambassador of Poker' Mike Sexton said: "When you play poker in Ireland it is not
only about playing the poker. There is a comradery here that you don't find at all
poker tournaments."
Ian Langstaff of Winmedia Ireland, who produced the television coverage of the event
said: "It has been a fantastic event and we'd like to thank everyone involved. In
particular, we would like to thank Padraig Parkinson for his significant
contribution towards taking the IPC to a new level."
Coverage of the event is being recorded for broadcast on RTÉ, Ireland's national
broadcaster, and will be distributed internationally after first being broadcast in
early February. Leading the commentary is the voice of poker, Jesse May, joined by
Padraig Parkinson, Ciaran O'Leary and Fintan Gavin. |
