Mid Summer in Galway has for many years been synonymous with the week long Horse racing festival at the famous Ballybrit course just north of Galway City. The week has also been well known for the poker action breaking out in various hotels around town every night.
Local Poker Player and Poker promoter, Fintan Gavin, has this year decided to bring a bit more organisation to the whole thing by teaming up with online poker site Full Tilt to run 24 hour cash games and a total of 60 tournaments starting on 27th July, for two weeks. The festival will include not just poker but Pool, 25's, Bridge and Open Face Chinese. As they figured there was nowhere in town big enough to host all this action, they decided to build their own tented village for the duration! The location, I believe, is near the harbour, close to the City centre.
The Poker Festival kicks off on Saturday 27th with The Galway Cup, a €135 + 15 NLH tournament with an estimated prize pool of €100,000.
The Festival also includes a UK versus Ireland heads up competition with a very strong looking Irish team. This event is scheduled to be streamed live. Look out for links on the official website (see below)
The Festival also includes the Irish Poker Championship with a buy in of €2,300 + 200.
The poker action culminates with the UK and Ireland Poker Tour main event with a guaranteed €1 million prize pool. Players can qualify online at both Full Tilt and Poker Stars.
A full schedule of events can be found here: http://www.fulltiltpokergalway.com/
For a bit of background, check out Fintan's own blogs here: http://fintangavin.tumblr.com/
Galway has always been a fun place during Race week and this combination of Racing and Poker, along with the other events looks absolutely awesome! I can't wait.
