The Unibet IPO gets 974 runners
After pulling out of live events early during the pandemic, the Unibet sponsored event and first Irish tournament in 20 months is a big success.
It has been 20 months since Unibet or Ireland have been involved with a live poker tournament. Unibet were the first operator to announce they would not be hosting live events due to the pandemic, a move which proved very wise.
Live poker for Ireland and Unibet came back with a bang over the weekend, as the Unibet International Poker Open took place in Dublin. By sheer fluke the dates for the annual event coincided with 'freedom day' for Ireland, literally the first day it was remotely possible to legally happen as lockdown restrictions were lifted.
Poker in Ireland is always special and a stagging 974 entries made it for the €300 Main Event, creating a prize pool of €246,909. The eventual champion was personal trainer Jamie Cusack who pocketed the €46,590 first prize.
How live poker can work post lockdown
This writer was at the event, my first poker trip in almost two years, and it was a resounding success in terms of numbers and atmosphere. More importantly, it showed how a big poker tournament can take place in a post lockdown world.
Vaccine passports were required, every day players were temprature checked, masks were insisted upon between tables and the best innovation of all (one which I hope sticks around forever) was the dealer buttons were replaced with a bottle of hand sanitiser and players were encouraged to wash their hands once an orbit.
Unibet sponsored player and Dubliner David Lappin commented on the event:
“The credit really has to go to Nick O’Hara, Brian Lannon and their team on the ground. Normally it’s the players who do the gambling but Nick and Brian put a lot of skin in the game last week, taking a chance on an event that could only be confirmed two days before it began.
Unibet have been proud supporters of Irish poker ever since Dara and I became their global brand ambassadors. They sponsored the Irish Poker Rankings in 2018, held two Unibet Opens in Dublin and have partnered with Nick on the IPO and Dublin Poker Festival. It was therefore fitting that having sponsored the last live festival in Ireland, we were able to be the team to bring poker back last weekend.
If you'll forgive the indulgence, as it was his home turf, PokerStrategy contributor Dara O'Kearney and myself also used the event for a book launch of our latest title Endgame Poker Strategy: The ICM Book. Anyone who qualified for the IPO at Unibet was given a free signed copy of the book.
You can watch the live streams from the weekend, which includes a few stints in the commentary booth from yours truly and Dara, right here.
Are you ready to hit the live poker felt? Let us know in the comments:
