POKER is "70 per cent play, and 30 per cent luck" according to Liam Flood, the Co Kildare man who returned home yesterday after winning the European Festival of Poker.
Flood, a retired bookmaker from Maynooth, won almost Pounds 45,000 at the tournament in London, billed as the largest outside the US. He and 70 other players had put up Pounds 1,500 each to take part.
"I was in a good frame of mind going over there, but I didn't expect to win," he said yesterday. And his opponents in the exciting last game of the tournament "couldn't believe it" he added.
Flood credits extra golf following his retirement two years ago with helping him to relax and improve his game.
The poker played at the event in London last weekend was "no-limit Texas Hold 'em", a fast-paced version of stud poker where each player holds only two cards and makes a hand from five shared cards dealt on to the table.
At the highest level, tournament Hold 'em is played "no limit", meaning players, who all start out with the same number of chips, can bet their entire chips at any time. Play continues until one player has won all the chips.
The tournament began at 7 p.m. on Saturday and the first day's play ended at 4 a.m. The second session started on Sunday afternoon.
By that evening the contestants had been whittled down to three: Flood, Dave Ulliott of Hull, and Surinder Sunar, a former electrical engineer from Wolverhampton. Flood had a marginal lead in chips over Sunar, with Ulliott a distant third. Flood kept firing away at Sunar, making large raises almost every time Sunar bet.
"A lot of the time I wasn't holding anything," Flood said later. "But I had the chips and I bet".
On the final hand Flood had nothing more than a four and a seven, but his huge advantage in chips meant he would play them to the showdown. Ulliott, a vision of Vegas dripping in diamond encrusted gold and wearing sunglasses, had a king and a nine, a good hand for this stage of the game.
The first four cards dealt improved no one's hand, so when the last card was a four Flood walked away the winner with just a pair of fours. Ulliott got second place money of Pounds 22,000 and Sunar won just over Pounds 13,000.
Flood said yesterday the "no-limit Hold 'em" played at the tournament is his preferred game. "It's more exciting. You can bet all your chips at one time. If someone bets five chips you can bet 105, so if you're half- bluffing it's tell-time." Ia normal draw poker, played for cash, the bets rack up more slowly.
The former bookmaker said even though he had the most chips towards the end, victory was never inevitable. "I still had to play smart."