Paddy Power player targuste grabs share of Billionth Hand prize pool!

With the 950,000,000th hand on our poker network being dealt on Tuesday and the prize giving period well and truly underway, Paddy Power player targuste is one of the early winners, sharing in a Countdown Hand Bonus (awarded every 200,000 hands on the way to the Billionth Hand). Congratulations!

The numbers of players on the cash tables have exploded since the 1st prizes were won and I'm sure more and more will pile onto the tables as we come closer to the magic number...I fancy a bit of multi-table action myself, now that I think about it! See you on the tables, I'll be the player with the shortest stack and the hang-dog expression... :)

What's best for a Sunday night?

I was wondering what readers think is the best poker to play on a lazy Sunday night, sitting on the couch in front of a rubbish film or terrible TV? I had a hectic weekend, out late partying on the Friday night and a full evening of live tournament poker on Saturday (fruitless in terms of ROI, it has to be said, the cash tables were a little better). When Sunday evening rolled around I was still tired and just wanted to veg out in front of the idiot box, with a bowl of popcorn on one side of me and my trusty laptop on my, well, lap!

So what to play? I often think about trying to satellite into a major live tournies, such as the WSOP or the Irish Winter Festival, as most of the big sat tournaments are held on Sunday evenings. There usually are a few tasty Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs) online on Sundays as well, though to go deep I imagine you'd want to be well-rested and ready for the challenge! Cash is a no-no for me when relaxing in the living room, too many other distractions on the box or online to really dedicate myself to this most taxing of poker choices. Finally, how about Single Table Tournaments (STTs)? Easy to fire up a couple of these, play A-B-C poker and keep an eye on the telly at the same time, right? Yep, STTs are my choice here!
So what do you think, what kind of poker do you fancy when you just want to relax, take it easy, chill and unwind?

The Billionth Hand nears...we're keeping an eye on it

Most readers of the blog and players on Paddy Power Poker are probably aware of the Billionth Hand promotion we're currently running - with a massive $50,000 cash prize for the winner of the Billionth Hand dealt on our cash tables and other tasty cash prizes for winners and participants in the many other prize hands in the run-up to the big one!

Well, to aid all players in their quest to snag some of the loot on offer, we've added a hand counter to both the Billionth Hand webpage and the poker software client. Now you'll be able to see just when the big Jackpot and Countdown hands are approaching, in addition to be better prepared for the Billionth Hand and the inevitable 24-hour cash table madness that will accompany the last day before it is hit!

Dr. Jack has also been spotted joy-riding around outside Paddy Tower in his gilded horse-drawn carriage recently and has added to the growing body of wisdom on his very on page on paddypowerpoker.com...check him out and learn a little...if not about poker, definitely about life and love!

Whack a Paddy...

I hope that all loyal Blog readers are taking avantage of the chance we're given you to humiliate Paddy Power Poker employees and make them cry into their keyboards? Yes, I mean our weekly Paddy Whacker tournament, in which one of our level 4 drone-bots logs on as player Paddywhacker0 and attempts to achieve poker greatness by outlasting all who try to knock him out! Why is everyone after him? Well, good ol' Paddywhacker0 has a bounty of $100 on his head, that's why! Not only that, but anyone who knocks him out and goes on to win the $10 + $1 NLH freezeout will get an additional bonus of $100 (so that's a $200 total bonus in addition to the standard prize for winning the tournament)!

The Paddy Whacker tournaments take place every Thursday at 9pm - don't miss your chance to get one over on us :) Has anyone had any luck in this tournament yet?

It goes without saying by those who attended or participated in the Irish Open that the six days of Poker enjoyed in Citywest, Dublin was a great success. Not only for Neil Channing, Donal Norton and all others who cashed in the main event or any of the side events, but for those of us who could not play but were on the rails (during our break, of course!) or just there to soak up the unique Irish Open atmosphere. I don't think the Prison Love (our resident bluegrass band) take on Motorhead's classic Ace Of Spades will be forgotten anytime soon!

So what's next on the calendar for Paddy Power Poker? Well, in addition to exclusive online promotions we run on a regular basis for our players, we are proud to announce the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Winter Festival, scheduled for October Bank Holiday weekend (October 25th-27th). Online qualifiers to this exciting event will kick off on April 13th and players can participate in weekly Grand Final satellites. The festival will take place at Citywest, Dublin and is highlighted by a €1,500 + €150 main event that will feature an estimated €1,000,000 prize pool!

Full list of payouts from the 2008 Irish Open main event

Neil Channing topped the tree and took the plaudits, but his was just the best of 72 great performances. Congratulations to all who cashed in the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open main event!

Results of the 2008 Irish Open

1 Neil Channing €801,400.00
2 Donal Norton €420,000.00
3 Thomas Dunwoodie €275,000.00
4 Tim Blake €220,000.00
5 Danilo Paulsen €175,000.00
6 Edwin Tournier €135,000.00
7 Carsten Joh €100,000.00
8 Eric Larcheveque €75,000.00
9 John Keown €50,000.00
10 Mark Spellman €32,500.00
11 Peter Linton €32,500.00
12 Hassan Mohammed €32,500.00
13 Andrew Grimason €24,000.00
14 William Martin €24,000.00
15 Thomas Dempsey €24,000.00
16 Thomas Finneran €24,000.00
17 Surinder Sunar €24,000.00
18 Philip Starrs €24,000.00
19 John Kabbaj €18,000.00
20 William Haughey €18,000.00
21 Frederic Levy €18,000.00
22 Tony Salmon €18,000.00
23 Thomas Fourgeron €18,000.00
24 Conor Tate €18,000.00
25 Anthony Fagan €18,000.00
26 Padraig Parkinson €18,000.00
27 Nick Goodall €18,000.00
28 Bill O'Keefe €13,000.00
29 Mazhar Nawab €13,000.00
30 Charlie Harvey €13,000.00
31 Iam Van Trinh €13,000.00
32 Knut Rysstad €13,000.00
33 Julian Thew €13,000.00
34 Sorel Mizzi €13,000.00
35 Lars Hougaard €13,000.00
36 John Moran €13,000.00
37 Kiko Lacasa €9,000.00
38 Belkacem Laouar €9,000.00
39 Kristoffer Nyberg €9,000.00
40 Tominari Kobayashi €9,000.00
41 Kenneth Greaney €9,000.00
42 Emmett Davis €9,000.00
43 Nariman Faramarzi-Rad €9,000.00
44 Kieran Small €9,000.00
45 James Daly €9,000.00
46 John Conroy €6,500.00
47 David Dean €6,500.00
48 Willie Clynes €6,500.00
49 Jaka Faraz Quddus €6,500.00
50 Brian Antoniotti €6,500.00
51 Sebastien Caleechurn €6,500.00
52 Dominic Heaver €6,500.00
53 Alexander Fitzgerald €6,500.00
54 Magnus Hulden €6,500.00
55 John Paul Fox €5,500.00
56 Simon Hennessey €5,500.00
57 Dave Masters €5,500.00
58 Rumit Somaiya €5,500.00
59 Michael Finn €5,500.00
60 Andrew Cowan €5,500.00
61 Timothy Barany €5,500.00
62 Keith Littlewood €5,500.00
63 Daniel Walley €5,500.00
64 James Honeybone €4,500.00
65 Annette O'Carroll €4,500.00
66 Colin King €4,500.00
67 Abel Meijberg €4,500.00
68 Thomas Nyberg €4,500.00
69 David Albertsson €4,500.00
70 Gavin Moir €4,500.00
71 Michael Nolan €4,500.00
72 Anthony Wetherall €4,500.00

Neil Channing, 2008 Irish Open Champion

Congratulations to Neil Channing on a fantastic performance against a field of 667 players including many of the best players in the world. He will be a more than worthy champion!