Former Irish Open Champ Has Friends In Low Places, Looks To Lose Big

Money meant for safe keeping, ends up in hands of the authorities.

Former Irish Open Champ Has Friends In Low Places, Looks To Lose Big
Shane Lewis, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

Everything was looking up in 2010 for Irish poker pro Paul Carr after all, he’d just hit the biggest score of his career when he took down the Paddy Power Poker Irish Open Main Event for €312,600 ($421k). Things would likely still be great, if he’d just have paid his taxes and put that cash in the bank.

Now, it’s 2014 and a Circuit Court judge of Ireland will be hearing if a quarter million of that cash is to be forfeited to the State. You see, in 2011, the Irish police force found €36,000 in cash at a property that they were investigating under a drug warrant. The cash, hidden in a bag in a wardrobe, was eventually traced to Carr as a pal told police he was holding it for him for safe keeping. The fact that it was in this house, under these circumstances, left authorities with doubts.

Counsel for Mr Carr, Michael Collins, said that while his client may have “come from a certain part of town” or that he “may have friends in low places” were not grounds enough to question how the poker player came to have the money.

That’s not the end of this story, of course. During a routine traffic stop, in 2012, police suspicions were again raised when they found an additional €240,000 in the footwell of a car. Carr stepped up to claim that cash too. Adding it all together, it’s roughly the amount of his Paddy Power score.

Carr tried to convince the court that all the cash was a part of his tournament victory, but officials were not convinced that the cash had not become part of a criminal proceeding and this week are looking to deliver Carr the worst beat of all…taking it for the state.

21+ in OH. Please play responsibly. For help, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or 1-800-GAMBLER.
published 10 years, 3 months ago • by • permalink

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