New Tournament Structure

Check out the latest updates made to Irish Winter Festival 2009. The tournament structures have been tweaked for the better, and you too can join in the fun!

The Paddy Power Poker Irish Winter Festival of Poker is an annual poker tournament that takes place at Ireland's Dublin, raking in some of the world's best professional poker players and biggest cash prize-pools around each year. Running since 2001, it is one of the most popular international offline poker tournaments there is.

This year the Irish Winter Festival is back, and Paddy Power has made some fantastic new changes for participating players. The 2009 Irish Winter Festival will be running from the 23rd to the 6th of October, and will be held at Citywest, Dublin. The changes lie primarily in the new and improved tournament structure, released just today.

One of the most noticeable changes is the starting chip stack. In the 2008 Irish winter Festival, the starting chip stack was set at 10,000 chips. This years tournament will see that same tack be raised to 15, 000 chips. As for the blind levels of the tournament, they will remain at 60 minute intervals.

On the 25th of October, a €500 No Limit Hold’em side event will be held alongside the standard Irish Winter Festival tournament, and it too has had some attractive changes made. To begin with, the starting chip stack has been increased from the 2008 sum of 7,000 chips to a brand new amount worth no less than 10, 000 chips. Also, the blind levels will be at 45 minute intervals. In addition, there will be a Round of Each (ROE) tournament worth €300 taking place on the 16th of October, and it will be featuring a starting chip stack worth 8, 000 chips and blind levels set at 35 minute intervals.

According to the Communications Manager for the Paddy Power website, players are interested in increased chip stacks, longer blind levels and more poker play, and that's exactly what this year's Irish Winter Festival plans on giving them. As such, the changes made to the tournament's structure can be seen as further solidifying its status as one of Europe's best poker festivals.

Full details on how to qualify for the 009 Irish Winter Festival can be found at the Paddy Power official website under the Irish Winter Festival tab. Ticket only satellites have recently been announced with buy-ins starting at only $2.20.