I'd really like them to confirm. It's pretty annoying that they do things like this without saying exactly why. It spreads rumours, creates insecurity, and probably hurts their image too.

I was actually going to sign up with them, but highly unlikely now.

Hey Aussie Rhino,

I apologise for keeping you waiting on a response, but we needed to look into the matter further. Our decision to restrict our poker offering to those in Australia was not one which we arrived at lightly or with haste. It was only made after careful consideration of many factors and after extensive legal advice. There has been no recent change to Australian law, as speculated above. As a public company listed on the Irish and UK stock exchanges, we must be prudent in regularly reviewing our legal position. This decision came about as a result of such a review. Beyond this we are not willing to detail on a public forum our exact reasoning for this move other than to say that our decision was strongly influenced by the prevailing legislative climate in Austrailia.

I hope you will appreciate that I am not in a position to elaborate further on this point. I wish to sincerely apologise for any disruption which our decision has caused to you. For those of you not living in Australia, I would like to re-iterate that this is purely limited to Australia and does not affect our players in other jurisdictions.

Can you tell us why it is safe to sportsbet with you but not play poker? Or is sportsbetting going soon too?

Ok.. I thought I had been able to get away with it because I had started my account living in Europe and have been playing last two months again from Sweden but they appear to have blocked me today... I still have not received an email about it and have only found out about being banned due to googling this forum.

I was on par to make Major this month and was wondering if I still get paid my month ending bonus..

Also I want to redeem my paddy points... I assume that is still possible.

And... Lastly... I need to play on the ipoker network... I wake up just thinking about ipoker.. So what is the best skin to get signed up with upon withdrawing all my cash from the site...

Try VCpoker - their bonus clearance rates are the best on iPoker AFAIK. Also there are several skins which have kickback bonuses - look at rakeaway for a list.

It does affect other players, because they don't know if they will be next to have the rug pulled suddenly from under them while they in the middle of completing a bonus or working on a higher VIP level. You have given no justification which makes us believe there are circumstances which are unique to Australia.

If every poker room were to suddenly ban entire countries based on the suggestion that there might be some future legislation impacting on their operations this industry would fall over overnight.

Hi theblindman,

I apologise again for not being able to divulge everything that we based our decision on; we do hope it is temporary and it only affects those players who are based in Australia. Access to the Sportsbook will not be restricted. We are not planning to do the same in any other regions / countries - though this is of scant comfort to those players who heard the bad news I'm sure. I guess there is not much more I can add, sorry again.

I have to agree it should make anyone thinking of moving up the VIP ladder very very nervous about if it is worth their while.

However I am sure with the paddy name your money is always safe.

Hey all,

As a result of player interest / popular demand, we've decided to revive our Back That Ace Up cash race promo and run it for another 8 weeks. Those of you who played previously might be interested in looking at it again.

We're still working on finalising a full schedule for next year's Irish Open (€3,200 + €300 main event) and I'll post all the details once I get them in the relevant forum - we had a good crowd of the top 2+2ers here in March so it will be interesting to see who turns up next April. If anyone needs more info on this feel free to PM or ask here

Hi PPPionapaul. I'm Canadian and have had a Paddy Power sportsbetting account for a number of years.

I am wondering if I am eligible to receive your initial deposit poker bonus even though i have a sports betting account? I have never downloaded the PP poker software.

Thanks.

Hi UnionJack,

Yep, you are eligible to use our PPP600 1st deposit bonus (150% match up to $600) - it actually doesn't even have to be your 1st deposit, you can use it whenever but only use it once. We are planning to contact those players who have joined, deposited but never used the code to ensure they get the benefit like everyone else.

Good luck on the tables

Hey all,

For those interested, we've just announced the full schedule of our Irish Open festival next April (Easter Weekend). A fair amount of 2+2ers made the journey to Dublin last March, so we're hoping to see even more in a few months Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing won the main event for €800,000 ($1,263,000) this year and Marty Smyth, current PLO World Champ, won in 2007 for €650,000 ($867,000).

Thurs, April 8th 2009

Irish Open Super Satellite - €200 buyin + €20 reg

Friday, April 9th 2009

Irish Open NLH Main Event - €3,200 buyin + €300 reg - 4 day event

Saturday, April 10th 2009

Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy - €300 buyin + €30 reg - 2 day event

Sunday, April 11th 2009

Ladies Event NLH Freezeout - €300 buyin + €30 reg - 2 day event

€1,500 NLH Freezeout - €1,500 buyin + €150 reg - 2 day event

Monday, April 12th 2009

Charity Tournament - €300 buyin + €30 reg - to benefit Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin - €100 from each player's buyin and all the registration fees go to the charity (leaving €200 to go into the prizepool), we hope to raise €50,000


Our qualifiers are running now (we've got a great promotion for those who qualify through paddypowerpoker.com, the Sole Survivor promo) and across the iPoker network, with super satellites on Sunday and Tuesday evenings. Packages to the event are worth $6,500. Any questions, just let me know

Hey all,

For those interested, we've just announced the full schedule of our Irish Open festival next April (Easter Weekend). A fair amount of 2+2ers made the journey to Dublin last March, so we're hoping to see even more in a few months Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing won the main event for €800,000 ($1,263,000) this year and Marty Smyth, current PLO World Champ, won in 2007 for €650,000 ($867,000).

Thurs, April 8th 2009

Irish Open Super Satellite - €200 buyin + €20 reg

Friday, April 9th 2009

Irish Open NLH Main Event - €3,200 buyin + €300 reg - 4 day event

Saturday, April 10th 2009

Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy - €300 buyin + €30 reg - 2 day event

Sunday, April 11th 2009

Ladies Event NLH Freezeout - €300 buyin + €30 reg - 2 day event

€1,500 NLH Freezeout - €1,500 buyin + €150 reg - 2 day event

Monday, April 12th 2009

Charity Tournament - €300 buyin + €30 reg - to benefit Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Dublin - €100 from each player's buyin and all the registration fees go to the charity (leaving €200 to go into the prizepool), we hope to raise €50,000


Our qualifiers are running now (we've got a great promotion for those who qualify through paddypowerpoker.com, the Sole Survivor promo) and across the iPoker network, with super satellites on Sunday and Tuesday evenings. Packages to the event are worth $6,500. Any questions, just let me know

can you tell me how many points I would get as a general at NL100 full ring?

Hi subandi,

If you go to this page: http://www.paddypowerpoker.com/freechips/cash.php and scroll down to the 'Paddy Points' section you will see the amount of points a General accumulates with respect to whatever rake is paid in any given hand. Our rake info is here: http://www.paddypowerpoker.com/site-info/rake-info.php

Hope this helps!

any sattys on us friendly sites?

check your pms

Hi Moutray,

Yep, Cake will be starting their satellites in the next week or so - you'll be able to find the details on their website. They brought a good crowd to last year's event so hopefully the numbers will be fairly healthy in the sats from the start. Good luck and if you qualify, let me know and I'll buy ya a pint before the tournie starts! Paddy Power Poker isn't shy when it comes to entertaining any foreign guests!

ugh why did you lower the buyin

mbn to be worried about a lower buyin- i'm 100% going to this. dublin is a cool city and my parents are irish

Hey any chance of posting a link on the structure,the timing of this tourney is perfect just before san remo and monte carlo,just want to know if its worth coming.

These days/ dates don't match up. Does the main event start on Thursday the 9th or Friday the 10th?

Hi shootloose,

The structure isn't finalised yet but when it is, I'll post it up immediately. Should be sometime in January.

Hi again Moutray,

The Irish Open 'festival' starts on Thursday 9th April with the Super Satellite tournament, while the Irish Open 'main event' starts on Friday 10th April. It can get confusing (even if you have to deal with this every day! ) - the Irish Open is both the festival of poker tournaments AND the main event itself.


P.S. I'm out of the office until January and probably won't be able to answer questions until then; a couple of weeks off from poker might give me a chance to recharge my batteries for 2009 and make a charge to qualify for the WSOP main event! Came 2nd in a Stars Step 6 in July, that was the closest I came this year.

aceskay and I just booked our trips- we arrive on Wednesday morning the 8th. looking forward to taking up up on that offer of a pint then. gl with main event qualis and thanks for all the help

go go go poker in ireland imo!