Mark Flanagan, a 40-year-old father of five from County Wexford in Ireland, admits to only playing Texas Hold-Em for a year before his big win. The road haulage company manager beat off 215 other hopefuls to win this year’s Celtic Poker Tour (CPT) and 35,000 euros in prize money.
Flanagan also collected his entry into the Betfair Asian Poker Tour (BAPT).  The inaugural event is to be held in Singapore later this year.
In a nail-biting final, Flanagan’s opponent Maurice McNamara raised Flanagan’s big blind. The champion’s response was an ‘all-in’ holding JQm enough to beat McNamara’s J10. As second place winner, McNamara was awarded 15,000 euros.
The ecstatic winner told reporters after the final that he thought he’d had little chance of winning the event. “I just wanted to make it through to the second day,” Flanagan said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how I get on with the big fish in Singapore. If I can last an hour I’ll be pleased because I like to play an aggressive game.”

The Celtic Poker Tour began in 2005, created by Texas Hold’em enthusiasts Mike Foley and Denis Alsybury and heavily sponsored by Betfair. Since then, the Celtic Poker Tour has held over 100 tournaments across Ireland and has awarded a total prize fund of over one million euros.

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