Tim Hartmann wins Paddy Power Poker Irish Winter Festival 2012 main event

DUBLIN, Ireland -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Tim Hartman is the new Paddy Power Poker (paddypowerpoker.com) Irish Winter Festival main event champion after battling through the 385-strong field at the Burlington Hotel, Dublin to lift the €100,000 top prize in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

It took 12 hours of poker before Germany's Hartmann could claim the title, three of those heads up against a determined opponent in Patryk Pietnoczko from Poland.

Before that Hartmann had dispensed with challenges from Irishmen Jay O'Toole and Ronan Gilligan and English raider Julian Thew before settling down with a commanding 6:1 chip lead over Pietnoczko.

However he was not to have it all his own way and before long Pietnoczko had pulled level in chips and then gone in front by 2:1. Hartmann dug deep and fought back and eventually regained his dominant 6:1 lead.

He finished Pietnoczko off with the blinds at 40,000/80,000 and both players were dealt an Ace. Hartmann had to come from behind with A-4 vs A-8 and a fortunate 4 on the flop was enough to push him over the line and into the arms of a €100,000 first prize.

Patryk Pietnoczko picked up €56,500 for his troubles as well as one of six Irish Open 2013 packages handed out by paddypowerpoker.com to the six online qualifiers - the Six Survivors - who went deepest in the event.

The final table payouts were:

1st -- Tim Hartmann -- €100,000

2nd -- Patryk Pietnoczko -- €56,500

3rd -- Ronan Gilligan -- €35,000

4th -- Julian Thew -- €28,350

5th -- Marc McDonnell -- €22,300

6th -- Jay O'Toole -- €18,300

7th -- Daniele Nestola -- €14,400

8th -- Ahmed Eydan -- €11,400

9th -- Trevor Dineen -- €8,400

The 385 players who took part in the Irish Winter Festival 2012 created a prize pool of €385,000 from which 40 players got paid.

Among the notable names who played the event were former Irish Open champions Neil Channing, Niall Smyth and Marty Smyth, WSOP finalist Padraig Parkinson, former Irish rugby international Reggie Corrigan, and World Poker Tour finalist John O'Shea.