Ashbourne student wins €600,000 in Ireland’s largest ever poker tournament

A 22-year-old student from Ashbourne has beaten thousands of poker players to win Ireland’s largest ever poker tournament and secure a huge prize of €600,000.

Simon Wilson, from Ashbourne in County Meath, won the Main Event of the Irish Poker Open over the weekend beating a field of 4,562 entries featuring players from almost 60 countries.

The €1,150 buy-in Main Event was so popular that it broke records to become the biggest ever Irish poker tournament, with the 4,562 entries generating a huge prizepool of €4,447,950.

After his victory, Wilson, who is a keen rugby player and is studying Economics and Business at Trinity University, said: "It’s really special. We come every year, thousands of people enter, it's always just a pipe dream, you know. The first-place prize is incredible, but the memory of winning this tournament... it's second to none. It’s the biggest achievement I've had and I'm going to remember this day forever."

Wilson had a big show of support from friends and family members at the event during the final table play, who enthusiastically sang and chanted for hours.

The Irish Poker Open, sponsored by PokerStars and Paddy Power, is Europe’s longest running live poker series and is the world’s second longest running event after the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. This year marked the event’s 45th anniversary, and thousands of poker players from all over the world descended on Dublin for a week of world-class poker, unforgettable moments, and plenty of ‘craic’ from April 10-21.