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Andy Black played poker extremely well in European poker tournaments and placed 5th in the 2005 WSOP Main Event. In this Main Event, Andy Black was a final table chip leader with more than a 1/3 of the chips. However, bad beats were dealt left and right by his opponents, and he only finished in 5th place taking home nearly $2 million. Andy Black’s Poker Career. Black started his poker career in small-time tournaments, but his first major tournament was the 1997 World Series of Poker Main Event. Although it was a great chance for becoming known in the poker circuit and bagging the prize, Andy Black was defeated by another poker legend, Stu Ungar, but Ungar probably used all. Andy Black poker results, stats, photos, videos, news, magazine columns, blogs, Twitter, and more.

The Irish have an affinity with all forms of gambling. Horse racing is massive in Ireland, some of the most successful trainers of all time are Irish. They love their sport and they love to gamble. They also produce some excellent poker players.

The Irish Open is a live poker event you have to play at least once in your lifetime. It is the longest-running event outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Seeing thousands of people around the world playing cards for huge sums of money, all while pints of Guinness are flowing, is a sight to behold. The Irish also run exceptional poker tournaments.

Ireland has produced some superb poker players over the years. Noel Furlong won the 1999 WSOP Main Event, for instance. Jude Ainsworth crushed online poker tournaments for years, Dara O’Kearney still does. But these are the five Irish stars who have the most tournament winnings of any other Irishman or woman.

Irish Poker Great Andy Black

Andy Black is the best-known Irish poker player thanks to also being the winningest. Black has won more than $4.88 million during a career that started back in 1997. The man from Dublin came close to winning the 2005 WSOP Main Event. He ultimately finished fifth for a career-best $1,750,000 score.

Black has won 15 live events to date but a so-called major still eludes him. Dozens of final table tell a story of a great player who’s luck runs out at the most inopportune moment. It’s fair to say Black best days were between 2005-2008 but he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Irish Open and $10K PLO WSOP Champion Marty Smyth

Marty Smyth is second in the Irish all-time money rankings with a shade under $3.89 million. That only tells part of the story. Smyth has hardly played a live poker tournament since 2010.

People sat up and noticed this Irish star in 2006. Smyth finished sixth in the televised Poker Million V for $100,000. He won the 2007 Irish Open for €650,000 ($867,546) less than four months later. Smyth excelled in the Poker Million VI in December 2007, finishing second for $500,000.

Several other victories followed, including his one and only WSOP bracelet. Smyth won the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event in 2008 for $859,549. That was followed up by a $1 million score later in the year. Then things dried up. Smyth all but stopped playing major live events.

The Irish pro’s last two tournament cashes came in July 2017 and April 2019. They only cost £35 and €60 to enter.

Eoghan O’Dea: Son of an Irish Poker Legend

Eoghon O’Dea is the son if Irish poker legend Donnachie O’Dea. O’Dea Senior won a $1,500 PLO WSOP event in 1998. O’Dea Junior recently won a $400 PLO event online at GGPoker for his first bracelet.

The Dubliner has more than $3.2 million in live poker tournament winnings. Six of his scores are worth six-figures, the largest of those being for $388,532. This was O’Dea’s reward for a runner-up finish at WPT Marrakech in Morocco.

O’Dea won $1,720,831in 2011 when he finished sixth in the WSOP Main Event. It’s a matter of when not if he surpasses this huge prize.

Marc MacDonnell is One of Ireland’s New Breed of Player

Marc MacDonnell is one of the new breed of Irish players, one who is awesome live and online. Many Irish grinders excel in PLO – perhaps it’s their gambling nature – but MacDonnell shines in No-Limit Hold’em.

MacDonnell recently removed his online poker tournament results form tracking sites, but they exceeded a couple of million. He’s also won almost $3.1 million in the live arena. That impressive total is helped by MacDonnell’s willingness to travel for poker. He has currently cashed in 14 different countries, including Australia, Spain, Bahamas, and Canada.

Dermot Blain, The Former Full Tilt Poker Pro

Dermot Blain was the Irish representative for the now-defunct Full Tilt Poker. The former online poker site sponsored Blain because he always topped the Irish Player of the Year race. Blain has $2.44 million in live tournament cashes, and is consistent without being spectacular.

You’ll find Blain grinding side events and satellites at major poker stops. He does this during downtime from NLHE and PLO tournaments. The boy never stops working.

Andy Black is a poker player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who presently resides in Dublin.

Andy Black's story is an interesting one. Born in 1965 in Northern Ireland, He started playing poker with his mother when he was young. He began playing more seriously in 1986, while he was studying for a law degree at Trinity College in Dublin.

Black was a young, talented, up-and-coming Irish poker player when he went to the 1997 WSOP determined to win the main event. Andy made it to the final two tables of the main event in good shape - until Stu Ungar came along. Despite all the warnings to not go up against Ungar, Black decided to take him on and got beaten up and and went out in 14th place.

The next year, in 1998, the documentary Million Dollar Deal filmed Black's experience at the World Series. The documentary ended with Black having an epic meltdown. Black said that the pain of that loss caused him to go on a spiritual journey. He withdrew from poker and mainstream society. He packed all his belongings into a plastic bag, gave up all his possessions, and checked himself into a Buddhist monastery. He then spent the next few years deep in meditation and thought.

Black returned to poker in 2004 completely refreshed. He did really well in tournaments in Ireland and, then in 2005, he made it to the final table of the WSOP main event (the year Joseph Jachem won). He finished in 5th place and won $1.75 million after leading the table at one stage and holding over one-third of the chips in play.

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In 2006 Black made the final table of the Tournament of Champions where he again had a huge chip lead only to blow his stack when he played AK against Daniel Negreanu's pocket Kings. Black was eliminated in 5th place earning $100,000.

Andy 'The Monk' Black Poker Player Profile And Bio

In 2007 at the Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia, Black finished 2nd for $100,000 in the Pot-Limit Omaha event and 3rd in the No-Limit Main Event for $750,000.

Also in 2007, Black finished in 7th for $320,000 in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

In 2007, Black won the Pot Limit Omaha side event at the Irish Open, earning €54,589. He also cashed 3 times at the 2007 WSOP, finishing in 5th, 7th and 11th places.

In 2008 Black won the Premier League Poker II for $250,000, had a 16th place in the WPT World Poker classic for $105,525, and 3 more cashes in the WSOP.

Andy Black Poker Twitter

In 2009 Black had 5 more WSOP cashes.

Black has 17 WSOP cashes. After his WSOP cash in 1997, his next one didn't come until 2005, but then he notched 16 cashes in 5 years (2005-2009). As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $4,100,000. Black is an official pro at Full Tilt Poker.

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bad_dog76 on August 14, 2006

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HPG ADMIN on June 21, 2006