Scots Win Online Poker Grand Slam 2006

16 July 2008

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19 Jan 2006

A team of poker players from Scotland has won the first Paddy Power Poker Grand Slam, held at the Star City Casino, Birmingham on 11 and 12 January 2006. The event which attracted teams from England, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, France and Sweden will be televised as 6 one hour shows by Sky Sports across Europe in March 2006.

The competition had a unique team prize of 110,000 euros, and individual prizes of 50,000 (1st), 30,000 (2nd) and 20,000 (3rd) euros, and attracted some of Europe's top professionals. The 42 players (7 teams of 6) where whittled down to a final table of Phillip Starr (Scotland), Rory Mathews (Scotland), Scott McQueston (Scotland), Mark Williams (Wales), Iwan Jones (Wales), Jean-Bernard Both (France), Robert Cohen (France) and Lars Kjestrup (Sweden).

Scotland and France were hot favorites to win the online poker team event at this stage with Wales the outsiders. The Republic of Ireland's reps were still challenging at the start of Day Two, but their final 3 players - Donnacha O'Dea, Padraig Parkinson and Len Collin - lost in spectacular fashion in a series of aggressive moves shortly after play recommenced. The Northern Irish team also all but collapsed on Day One with the exception of star-of-the-future 21 year-old Matthew Bell who played courageous and studious poker, making big lay downs and brave raises to almost make the final TV table.