Patrick Clarke will be delighted with his return on investment over the holiday weekend, which saw him turn a Euro 4 online satellite entry into a main event win totalling Euro 250,000 in the Euro 2,250 buy-in 2014 Paddy Power Poker Irish Open.
Clarke had to best a field of 410 other pokerheads on his march to the main prize of Euro 200,000, which was generously augmented with another Euro 50,000 for being the last man standing in the Paddy Power Sole Survivor competition.
When the final table was reached Clarke had an overwhelming chip lead over fellow satellite entrant Dave Pollock, Liam Chevalier, Thomas O’Shea, Oliver Lynch, Michael Gilligan, Barry Donovan and Jonathan Lundy.
Playing aggressively, Clarke eliminated a succession of final tablers as he continued to build an already impressive chip lead and the game entered the three-handed stage. There Clarke sat back and let Dave Pollack and Liam Chevalier go at each other for the first 30 hands…than he pounced, sending Chevalier to the exit and setting up the heads up with Pollack in which he held a 3 to 1 chip advantage.
Pollack didn’t give in easily, and the heads up ground on for some time before Clarke was finally able to despatch his last opponent at hand 140
Pollack took home a well-earned Euro 130,500 for his second placing.