Irish Win At The £125,000 CelebPoker
Alan Smurfit, celebrity Irish businessman, won the Palm Beach CelebPoker Classic No Limit
Hold'em Tournament last night (Sunday) at the Palm Beach Casino in London's Mayfair.
PRWEB) Aug. 2, 2005 -- Alan Smurfit, who sold his Dublin-based packaging company for €3.9-
billion two years ago, has renounced retirement in favour of playing the international poker
circuit - with spectacular success. He beat roofing contractor David Clark in an exciting
heads-up climax.
The pair had outplayed a strong field of 125 experts and online qualifiers, including snooker
celebrities Jimmy White, Mark Williams and Ken Doherty, actor Michael Greco, actor
Terrence Maynard, PGA golf pro Sam Torrance, and a host of poker professionals.
Smurfit's first prize was £51,700, presented by www.CelebPoker.com. Clark's second prize
was £25,800 and the third prize of £14,000 went to Charalambos Xanthos, better known in
the poker world as Bambos.
The key hand occurred when Smurfit was low on chips when the table was four-handed. He
went all-in with 6-5 off-suit, and when the board gave him 7-9-8 for a straight, he was back in
contention.
"It was a thrill to win," he said afterwards. "Not so much for the money, but for the
excitement of winning!"
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Alan Smurfit, 63, lives in Dublin, and is best-known as an Omaha player, winning the recent
£50,000 Omaha tournament at the Victoria Sporting Club. He is just back from Las Vegas,
where he played in the World Series of Poker.
David Clark, 45, from Little Maplestead, near Halsted, Essex, runs a roofing and scaffolding
company, but manages to play poker three or four times a week. He attempted to qualify for
the Palm Beach Classic online at www.celebpoker.com, but when he did not manage to win
a place, bought in for £1000.
Charalambos Xanthos, 61, better known as Bambos, comes from Cyprus and ran a
successful hotel business in Paddington. He is now a full-time poker professional, playing
every day, mostly at the Victoria Sporting Club.
The prestigious event was sold out, and a queue of poker loving players remained very
disappointed because of its enormous popularity!
Celebpoker.com recommends that players qualify or register earlier for their forthcoming
event on
