This week, BoylePoker.com announced the signing of Irish poker legend Padraig Parkinson to Team Boyle Poker. Parkinson joins former Irish Open and current Pot-Limit Omaha World Champion Marty Smyth as a sponsored pro at the online poker site.Parkinson, who will represent Boyle Poker on the international circuit as well as play bounty tournaments on the site, and write a blog at the website, started his campaign as a Boyle Poker pro with a 13th place finish in the £5,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the World Series of Poker Europe for a £16,500 payday.
"I’m obviously delighted to be joining a top flight poker team such as Boyle Poker," said Parkinson, "and with Marty Smyth already having scored a couple of world class goals I’m looking forward to establishing myself in the first team. As Eric Harrison, the youth team coach at Manchester United said, ‘if it’s good enough for [Eric] Cantona, it’s good enough for me'."
Paul Spillane, head of poker at Boyle Sports, said, "Padraig’s talent both on and off the felt speaks for itself. He is a tremendous ambassador for the game, an extraordinary player, and we’re extremely lucky and proud that he will be representing Boyle Poker at the world’s biggest poker tournaments."
Parkinson first made his mark internationally when he came third in the World Series of Poker main event in 1999, collecting almost $500,000 in the process. But his career began back in 1976 while studying at Trinity College, Dublin, skipping lectures to play cards with fellow students. He progressed through numerous Irish Open final tables and colossal cash games in Paris in the 80s and 90s before hitting Vegas where he would make his indelible imprint on the biggest stage of all.Three years after his WSOP main event odyssey he won the fifth series of the seminal TV show Late Night Poker, introducing a whole new generation of poker players to his giddy table banter and fearless poker ability. In 2006 he again came within a whisker of winning a WSOP bracelet, coming third in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event for just over $200,000. His total tournament winnings exceed $1 million.
Parkinson is also well known for his TV commentary and is one of the driving forces behind Poker for the Homeless (formerly Simon Poker Day) which has raised €100,000 for homeless charities in Ireland to date.