By David Richardson

08/27/2008

It’s quite clear that poker has taken the world by storm thanks to online poker’s heavy influence and televised tournaments.  This fact has been proven again in Cork, Ireland where the sixth annual €150,000 guaranteed Irish Poker Classic has been underway.  The 2008 tournament has been quite a success attracting 169 players, the highest number of participants ever.
 

The players and audience alike were treated to quite a display of poker at the final table.  Players from an array of countries battled it out for the top prize of €46,000 at the Macau Sporting Club where the tournament took place.  The game was no limit hold'em freezeout and the all-in bet was the demise for many of the players early on.
 

Here’s what the start of the final table looked like:
 

Jeff Duvall: 455,000
Michael O'Brien: 360,000
Nicky Power: 355,000
Ryan O'Donoghue: 300,000
Mick McKeever: 255,000
Jonathan Butters: 245,000
Olivier la Rochelle: 230,000
Paul Corrway: 160,000
Ben Blackmore: 125,000
Rob Taylor: 90,000

    After a number of bad beats and also very favorable flops the playing field was narrowed down to Olivier la Rochelle from France and Rob Taylor who represented the host country.  Rob Taylor played impressively to work his way up from the short stack when he began to eventually beating out la Rochelle for the title and top prize in heads up play.
    

Rob “IrishRobbie” Taylor is known for his poker abilities in Dublin where he resides.  He’s had a number of previous impressive runs at major tournaments, which include two WSOP cashes.  However, most of the tournament cashes he’s been making since 2006 have been in his native country.