Last year while Storm Éowyn battered and beat both Ireland and Scotland. I ventured off to experience first hand, live tournament poker. Landing at the Charleville Park Hotel, Co Cork, for the Munster Poker Festival run by the Irish Poker Tour (Jan 24th – 26th, 2025). 

When you play your first live poker event it’s normal to feel nervous. That feeling dissipated pretty quickly for me. I was lucky to be seated in between David “Panda” Fitzpatrick and Eoghan “Simsy” Sims, both regulars at the Doyles Poker Club. Instantly they made me feel at ease, and kept me right as I obviously looked out of my depth. Which I was.

A few hands in Pat Fitz, another Doyles player joined the fray and I was treated to a little glimpse of what Poker is like at the Limerick Club. If the jovial, jokes and jests were anything to go by, even if the cards didn’t go my way I would at least be leaving with a smile on my face. Jamie Flynn the founder of Doyles also arrived with players asking about his recent trip to Vegas, regailing those at the table in the lyrically Limerick way that has to be experienced to be appreciated.

With rising stars I want to not only get to know the players making moves in the game but the places where they hone their skills and develop their craft.

Throughout my first year with livepokerupdates I started to see Doyles players showing up at events throughout the circuit and having great runs in a majority of them. With it producing players that are constantly making the final table in major events. What better place to start than with them.

Let’s take a closer look at Limerick’s Little Gem.

Opened in May 2024 by Limerick Poker player Jamie Flynn, who at this stage had been playing Poker for around 15 years, amassing well over €1 Million in tournament earnings.

He was Irish Poker Tour Killarney Main Event Winner (2023), and has had countless cashes in tournaments all over the world. Ranked Ireland’s No.1 player on the Global Poker Index in 2024, he is also a content creator. With his own podcast and YouTube videos in which he draws on experience from the circuit in long form conversational style interviews with people from the worlds of football, poker and more.

Doyles now has over 500 members; they run a monthly tournament with a buy-in of €200 and a €10k Guarantee that regularly gets 60+ players, helping to cultivate and create a poker culture in the Treaty city. With mini-festivals throughout the year and satellites for both the Irish Poker Open (Major Irish Festival spanning over a multitude of days) and the Irish Poker Tour (Ireland’s No.1 live poker experience) on a regular basis.

€20 All in or Fold games are popular at the club where 10 players compete in a winner takes all tournament, perfect for someone wanting to jump in for a quick game and a cheeky can or two.

One of their events, The Sunday Escalator has been hailed as one of the best weekly games in Ireland, with a €30 buy-in and re-buy’s the guarantee starts at €2000, every week it is met Doyles throw another €200 on to the guarantee. This week it stands at €4400, the biggest so far.

Tommy O’Rourke, another Doyles faithful came in second place in the Main Event at the Irish Poker Tour’s showstopper event held at the Gleneagle Hotel, The Killarney Poker Festival. He walked away with €63,500, adding yet another story to the pages of the club’s lineage. Dan Lewis, another Doyles patriot, won the Castletroy Main Event just a week or so ago.

In the Munster Poker Festival at the Charleville Park Hotel held over the St. Brigid’s day weekend, there were three Doyle affiliated players who made it through to the final table in the Main Event. 

Gareth Cash in fifth and Tom Samuels in third. With Killian Farrell who finished in second although primarily a player out of the Eglinton Casino, Galway. He would classify Doyles as his second home.

The standout spectacle and centrepiece of the club is Jimmy’s Room. Named after the legend, Jimmy Hennessy, known to those that had the pleasure of meeting him as “an absolute gentleman”. I was told that anyone who played Poker in and around the Limerick area over the last twenty years would have known this enigmatic poker enthusiast. 

He recently cashed out at the ripe old age of 93 in December. The room is dedicated and designed in his honour and functions as a luxury cash game room. Boasting a bespoke branded table with ergonomic, sleek and comfy chairs, that are perfect for long sessions in the thick of it. 

Photos of Jimmy adorn the walls, making sure that even though he is gone, he will never be forgotten.

With five tables in the main room and Jimmy’s private suite it accommodates players comfortably while maintaining a club-like feel. 

Their aim is to provide Limerick with a friendly environment where people can get good value and fair, competitive poker.

At the recent Munster Poker Festival, run by the IPT, I luckily got the chance to catch up with Gareth Cash who finished fifth in the Main Event. Gareth grew up just down the street from me, in Belfast. A few years younger than myself little did I know the poker player he would one day become.

At times he was in top spot in the Main Event and was taking an aggressive yet methodical approach to securing it, and it was fun to watch. Gareth is the Manager of the Doyles Poker Club, and has had quite the journey in the poker world and outside it.

But that is a story for another day…

Good Luck

Adam