Waterford Festival Review November 2007

Gary Clarke, 19/11/07 | Print this article

Big slick poker events in conjunction with blondepoker.com hosted their Winter festival at the Woodlands hotel in Waterford over the weekend. I enjoyed it immensely I’m happy to report. The word spreads fast about quality poker tourneys and all the recommendations I received about this particular one were 100%. It boosted a world-class blind/ante structure which favoured the better quality rather than the luckier players. The strong performances in reaching the final table by quality players such as UK poker journo Jennifer Mason and popular Irish pro “Norwich Fan” Rob Taylor echoed these sentiments.

The attendance of many top players such as Irish Open winner Marty Smyth, ladbrokes poker-pro Roy “the boy” Brindley and Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson in lets not forget was quite a drop in levels for them shows the class this tournament possesses. A very reasonable fee meant the Irish poker community could attend in numbers and 275 did just that. The EPT’s public have diminished considerably from not giving the players what they want, this was not the case in Waterford. The players were clearly king here and the weekend seemed fully designed with them at heart.

The Woodlands was a lovely hotel for a poker tournament and makes a mockery of places like the Regency where more prestigious tournaments have been held in the past. The players had little to complain about with everything they could want on offer at the Woodlands. Throughout their stay the players were treated to a fine breakfast, a nice leisure centre, a cosy bar/restaurant and of course most importantly, spacious and comfortable rooms.

The star of the show was tournament organiser Neill Kelly who put in a fabulous performance all weekend, livening up the action with his natural MC skills. A working DJ, Kelly has some unique methods in showcasing a tournament. It was the only tournament I’ve ever seen which was enjoyable even for those not playing. Having stood on the rail for about 6 hours on Saturday night it struck me how captivating the tournament was from a spectator’s point of view. The atmosphere of the tourney was similar to the Irish Open only on a more local level. The tournament appeared lively and friendly for for all attending and I believe is setting a new standard for festivals in Ireland.

With the organisers of the upcoming Cork, Killarney and Droghada games all in attendance (and all performing extremely well I hasten to add!) they will no doubt have their notebooks filled after another tremendous weekend for poker in Ireland. Lets hope the bar remains high and the organisers continue to create such high-quality tournaments for their players.

Gary Clarke can be contacted at gary.clarke@pokerireland.ie

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