Thu, 02/10/2011 – 02:47 – PokerPages Staff

#5 – Noel Furlong
This highly successful Dublin-based businessman is a gifted poker player, too.  He considers himself a recreational player rather than a pro, but there was nothing amateurish about his victory in the 1999 WSOP Main Event, which left him $1 million richer.  His total poker winnings currently stand at $1,143,398.

#4 – Donnacha O’Dea
Further proof that Dublin has become a Mecca for poker players comes in the form of this former Olympic swimmer turned poker meister.  He won a WSOP bracelet in 1998 and has a long list of deep finishes in live tournament poker to his name thereafter, including three first place victories. In total, he has won $1,249,442.

#3 – Padraig Parkinson
Where does our third place holder live?  You guessed it – Dublin again.  Padraig is a veteran poker pro who began playing when he was only eleven.  He finished third at the WSOP Main Event in 1999 and won the inaugural United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour outright in 2009. His poker winnings total $1,392,870.

#2 –Martin Smyth
Marty has a glittering poker track-record behind him.  He won the 2007 Poker Million, the 2008 Irish Poker Open Championship and gained his first WSOP bracelet in 2008.  He lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but – surprise, surprise – it was a visit to Dublin as a young man which first awakened his poker talents.  He’s won a total of $3,635,006.

#1 – Andy Black
The King of the Irish Pros also hails from Belfast – although he now lives in Dublin (what is it about this place?).  After a series of stinging defeats in the late 1990s, he spent five years in Buddhist retreat before exploding back on to the poker scene in 2004.  Relentlessly successful ever since, he’s made $3,813,309 in poker prize money.