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The Irish Poker Open (known as the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open for sponsorship reasons) is the longest running No Limit Texas hold 'em poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker. First organised in 1980 by Terry Rogers, a well known Irish bookmaker, the tournament is Europe's largest and a fixture on the international poker calendar. It is traditionally held over Easter weekend each year. Since Terry Rogers death in 1999 the tournament, originally held in Dublin’s Eccentric Club, has been hosted by tournament director and poker player Liam Flood and the Merrion Casino. paddypowerpoker.com began sponsorship of the event in 2005 and has overseen the huge growth in the tournament in the last number of years. By 2006 the event, with 339 players, had outgrown the Merrion Casino and was held in Jury's Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin. In 2007 the venue was changed to the Burlington Hotel, Dublin to accommodate the bigger field, while in 2008 and 2009 the Irish Open venue was Citywest Hotel, Dublin. In 2010 the tournament returned to the Burlington Hotel. ==Origins== Terry Rogers once declared “I have been the greatest single factor in the worldwide spread of competitive poker.”〔(Cardplayer Europe: How the Irish Changed the Face of Poker )〕 One of his most enduring legacies was founding the Irish Open. In the late 1970s Terry started to hold poker tournaments for charity under the auspices of the Eccentric Club. According to Liam Flood, a fellow bookmaker and friend of Terry's the games would get "anywhere between 100 and 300 players playing five-card draw for £100 to £200 per game. That was a lot of people for that kind of money at the time. Every year Terry would go to America on business. In May 1979 he had a few days off and went to Las Vegas. He saw this high stakes poker game going on and met Benny Binion and the rest is history.”〔 Always one to spot an opportunity Rogers cemented his relationship with Binion and his band of high-rolling players by taking bets from them on the outcome of the games, offering the type of long odds the Americans had never seen before. “Guys like Benny Binion, Doyle Brunson and Chip Reese really held Terry in high esteem,” states World Series of Poker bracelet winner and former Irish Olympic swimmer Donnacha O'Dea. “He’d give them great odds, better than any American bookie would give, but he still made sure he had a 20% edge.”〔 After the 1979 World Series Terry returned to Ireland enthusing about what he’d seen. Stud and draw were the poker variants of choice in Ireland but the new variation he’d seen in Vegas, no-limit hold’em, beat them all for excitement and skill. In the following years he returned to Vegas for the World Series with Liam Flood but his bookmaking activities brought the attention of the Las Vegas Police Department and on one occasion Terry and Liam ended up being arrested and imprisoned. The irony of being jailed for gambling in Vegas was not lost on them according to Flood.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Irish Poker Open」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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