Ian Simpson wins Paddy Power Poker Irish Open 2013 – and a wife!
2 Apr 2013
The science teacher also won his girlfriend’s hand in marriage when he proposed after winning the prestigious no-limit Texas hold’em tournament at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Simpson’s luck was in again after Emma, whose loyal support was in evidence all weekend, said yes when he took to bended knee and offered her a diamond ring.
Simpson topped the field of 505 players from 29 countries at the €2,000 + €250 buy-in event and was rewarded with the €265,000 top prize when he beat Irishman Michael Farrelly heads up.
The 505 players battled for four days with 54 winning a slice of the €1,010,000 prize pool in Europe’s oldest poker tournament. The final table of nine – seven from Ireland, Englishman Simpson and American Calvin Anderson – took to the felt on Monday afternoon and around 12 hours later Simpson was the last player standing.
Last year he from came fourth in the tournament for €107,500. He also won an additional €100,000 in tournament buy-ins and cash for outlasting 135-plus online qualifiers in a separate Sole Survivor last-man-standing competition.
Simpson said after his victory, “It's the most amazing experience of my life. I'm completely overwhelmed by the support and love from all my friends and family, not to mention the kids at BCHS who stayed up late and cheered me on; it really meant the world to me!
“Winning a tournament of this scale is life changing. Winning Emma’s hand in marriage even more so. For the stars to align to allow both things to happen simultaneously is simply perfect.
“For anyone wondering, the proposal was coming regardless of how it ended. If I busted in 8th on a stupid bluff or my AA got cracked I was shaking everyone’s hand and getting down on one knee.”
The final table payouts were:
1st Ian Simpson - €265,000
2nd Michael Farrelly - €141,500
3rd Mark Davis - €99,000
4th Namir Mohamed - €67,500
5th Calvin Anderson - €49,000
6th Declan Connolly - €37,500
7th Tom Brady - €28,000
8th Adam Fallon - €20,500
The chips counts going into the final day’s play were:
1. Tom Brady – 3,674,000
2. Calvin Anderson – 3,168,000 (Sole Survivor)
3. Namir Mohammed – 2,898,000
4. Ian Simpson – 1,451,000
5. Adam Fallon – 1,370,000 (Sole Survivor)
6. Declan Connolly – 1,193,000 (Sole Survivor)
7. Mark Davis – 684,000
8. Michael Farrelly – 683,000
The first player out at the final table was Adam Fallon, who lost a chunk of his stack to Mark Davis before running A-J into Michael Farrelly’s A-K.
In seventh place went Tom Brady, last year’s International Poker Open winner and chip leader at the start of the final, after losing two big hands with top pair in quick succession then going out with a whimper rather than a bang.
Sixth place went to Declan Connolly, who has a previous seventh-place finish in the main event in 2010, soon after he had his aces cracked by A-J from which he didn’t recover
This handed the Sole Survivor 2013 to U.S. online poker whiz Calvin Anderson, who picked up €60,000 in tournament buy-ins and cash to add to his €49,000 for his fifth-place finish.
Namir Mohamed, another former Irish Open main event finalist, took fourth spot after he ratcheted up the aggression but ran into an immovable object in the form of Simpson when his A-Q bricked against Simpson’s 10-10.
Mark Davis came third for a tidy €99,000 when his A-7 got into a betting war with Simpson’s 7-7 and lost and three hands later it was all over when a now shortstacked Michael Farrelly (Simpson held a near 3:1 chip lead at this stage) shoved his chips into the middle on a board of Qd 6c 5s holding 7d 4s while Simpson woke up with 4d 3d and after a 8d on the turn he completed the flush on the river with a 2d and was crowned the new Irish Open champion.
The Irish Open was started over 30 years ago by legendary bookie Terry Rogers, who had seen the game played in Las Vegas and brought it back to Dublin. It is hosted every Easter weekend in the Irish Capital and attracts hundreds of players from around the world and is broadcast to poker fans globally via the Internet.