When you win a major poker event and pick up an extraordinary amount of money, you are going to feel on top of the world. It is only natural that your emotions are at a high and this may lead you to feeling invincible. You can only think that this is the only explanation for Ian Simpson, the 2013 Irish Open Champion, doing something so stupid as proposing to his girlfriend in the moments after his big win! Getting married is game over Ian, it all changes from here so perhaps it is best for him to go out on a high!
Of course we are only joking and we would like to wish Ian and his fiancée Emma all the very best for the future. Picking up €265,000 and a wife to be in one evening is certainly a memorable occasion and Monday the 1st of April is a night that Simpson will remember for all his life. In fact, he probably woke up on Tuesday morning wondering if it was all some form of elaborate April Fool’s hoax. That would be extremely cruel but unless thousands of people were also involved in the hoax, this is not the case.
Get the money and get the girl
There were 505 players gunning for the Irish Open Championship so it was quite an achievement by Simpson to win the event. It also showed a strong level of progress because in the 2012 Irish Open Championship, Simpson finished in fourth place. Being in the top 4 two years is a tremendous feat which should be celebrated in its own right but the main kudos will go towards coming out on top of the event.
There was one thing that Ian Simpson lost on Monday. Up until the final five players, Simpson was still the reigning Irish Open Paddy Power Poker Sole Survivor. This is the accolade that goes to the player that came through the Paddy Power Poker satellite qualifiers and lasted the longest in the tournament. Simpson won this title in 2012 and on day 1 of the Irish Open there were more than 150 players looking to go as far as they possibly could. One benefit of not being in the running for this prize was not having to wear the green jacket and backstage pass combination that signified these players.
It is unlikely that Simpson will lose too much sleep about not picking up that prize, not when so much else went his way on Monday night.