The JP Poker Card Club and Casino is now up and running – and enjoyed a sensational opening weekend.
The new Club got underway last month with a special debut tournament – a €65 No Limit Hold’em event with €1,000 added to the prize pool. JP Poker regular Joe O’Neill took down the event on January 25 for €1,740 after outlasting a 185-entry field and beating Paul Domican heads-up. Other well-known players who took part included Irish Open dealer Ivan Zbozil who was third and fellow dealer Glen Keogh who was fifth. Keogh has had a great run of late, finishing third in the Irish Poker Festival last November for €75,000. A total of nineteen players took a share of the €10,250 prize pool with a min cash worth €130.
The opening weekend also featured a €65 NLHE event on the Friday with €500 added to the prize pool. Kyle Rafferty bested Bogdan Bucar heads-up to snag the €1,530 first prize. There were 98 entries with 12 paid and a min cash worth €100.
Tournament League final
The tournament league final took place on the Saturday during the Opening Weekend, with 72 regulars vying for their spot in the limelight and a first prize of €6,285. Congrats to league champ Sunny Skukla who beat Carl Cullen heads-up. Sixteen players divvied up the €21,355 prize pool with a min cash worth €310.
Saturday also saw 40 entries for a €65 NLH tourney with Will Carass taking it down for €685. The final celebration day was Sunday (January 28) with another great tournament. The €110 NLH event came with a €5k guarantee and attracted 87 entries, all keen to get a slice of the action in the final event. Well done Paul Fox who has put his time dealing at some of the biggest tournaments in Europe to good use – he won €2,060.
There weren’t just a ton of cash prizes on offering during the opening weekend celebration. In all the tournaments, the winner, the first player to bust, the bubble and the player with the best hand all received a special Irish Open hoodie. In the opening tournament, all the finalists received the limited edition hoodie as part of their prize.
Among those who competed during the Opening Weekend was Irish Open Ambassador Chris Dowling. He said: “The JP Poker premises is just ideal. As you’d expect, the atmosphere is very welcoming and a busy schedule of tournaments and cash games is already on offer. I imagine that the new Tallaght venue is going to prove a real hit with locals and visitors alike and is set to be the #1 poker destination in Dublin.”
Great location
Launched by Irish Open organiser JP McCann, the JP Poker Card Club and Casino is located in Tallaght’s well-known Arena complex, with ten poker tables along with slot machines and a pool table. The Club is open 18 hours a day, every day of the week, from noon to 6am. Cash game tables run every night of the week – with early starts taking place three nights a week – and daily tournaments starting nightly at 7pm.
The new club is also continuing with the cash and tournament poker leagues established at JP’s former club in Village Green. Both leagues run over two-month periods. The €19,503 cash game league final is this weekend.
The JP Poker Card Club already has its sights set on expansion. A project set to take place later this year will provide space for another 25 poker tables. This will enable the Club to host small poker festivals right on the premises and larger events in collaboration with the Maldron Hotel next door.
The club is easy to get to – there’s ample onsite parking and it’s close to the Tallaght bypass, only 14km from Dublin city centre.
For regular updates from the Club, do join the Facebook page.
