Alan Peter Smurfit was born in 1943, Ireland. He worked hard to become one of the nation’s most successful businessmen. And so he became one. Then, surprisingly, in his early 60s, Alan sold off his Dublin-based packaging business for $3.9 billion. For some people that is plenty of money to retire for life, and they are right. Then again, Alan Smurfit was not an ordinary businessman. He saw it as a perfect opportunity to try something different, something like poker. He started playing professionally to fill his free time five years ago, in 2003, when he moved to Miami, Florida, United States . An interesting fact is that Alan Smurfit owned the K-Club (that is Ireland's most prestigious golf course and resort) before retiring.
It turned out that the change in professions was very beneficial for the billionaire. Alan Smurfit has cashed in a few World Poker Tour events since entering the world tournament in 2004, along with other smaller events. Later in 2007 he picked up his first World Series Of Poker (WSOP) cash ever when he took down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. That was only his second year of competing at the WSOP and already all that practice resulted in winnig him a gold bracelet together with $464,867 in cash. As of 2008, his live tournament winnings exceed over $1,000,000.
When asked about his win (possibly the longest Omaha Pot-Limit heads-up round ever), the champion said: “It was incredibly hard but very exciting - the outcome was always in doubt. It was backwards and forwards. It was like a long five-set tennis match. Obviously I got lucky in the end, and I went in with the best hand on the flop”.
