Home / Poker News August 2008 / Preparing for 2009: PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship qualifiers underway
Preparing for 2009: PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship qualifiers underway
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2008-08-05 17:25
If you intend to play in some high-profile live events in 2009, the time is about right for you to get rolling. PartyPoker.com’s Irish Poker Championship will be one of the first live events of 2009 where big poker names from both sides of the Atlantic will participate.
Last year’s Irish Poker Championship was a resounding success, as American players like Mike Sexton, Tom Franklin and Robert Williamson joined the likes of Marcel Luske, Bruno Fituossi, and Marty Smith to do battle for the first prize. The winner of the event was Jude Ainsworth. Next year, the IPC is set to be bigger and more popular than ever. The buy-in will be €2,000, and thus the prizes-pool will be pretty generous as well. Some big names have already announced that they will attend: defending champion Jude Ainsworth will be there, as well as Ivan Donaghey, Mick McCloskey and Len Collin. The reason why Party Poker is certain the 2009 edition will be the biggest IPC yet is that there will be a preliminary tour of 9 events in which seats will be awarded for the big €2,000 buy-in championship tournament.
The first of the IPC tour events was held at Ireland’s Eglinton Card Room and Casino in Galway. The next round will be held at the Tower Hotel in Waterford, and that event will award an IPC seat for the top three finishers. If you’re looking for added EV don’t book your seat just yet. All rounds that follow the Waterford one will give a seat to the top 5 finishers.
After Waterford, the tour heads to the Fitzwilliam Card Club in Dublin, then to the Macau Casino in Cork, followed by the City West in Dublin, the Park Hotel in Mayo, the Springs Hotel in Athlone, and the Gold Club Casino in Letterkenny.
This new qualifying system will hopefully not just yield a higher number of participants for the IPC, it’ll also enhance the level of play in the championship event, after all, all those who qualify via one of the tour’s events will be battle-tested and highly skilled “veterans”.
