From the 1^st- 3^rd October, the Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival returns to Killarney with poker ambassador Nick Moran aiming to raise the stakes and put a year’s worth of poker training into practice in a bid to take first prize from the huge €250,000 prize pool.

Poker players of all levels will compete over 3 days  hoping to scoop the estimated 1^st prize of €100,000, making the Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival Europe’s biggest ‘everyman’ tournament and one of the only competitions this side of the Atlantic offering a six figure prize pool from a €500 buy in event.

The tournament acts as the culmination of Nick Moran’s year long partnership with Ladbrokes Poker. The Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star earlier this year became the face of the brand for 2010 and has hosted a series of poker tutorials on www.Ladbrokespoker.com alongside professional poker player Jon ‘skalie’ Kalmar that cover all things from ‘getting started’ to ‘advanced poker strategy and bankroll management’.

Jon, whose career includes a 5^th place finish in the World Series Of Poker Main Event, has tutored Nick from a complete poker novice and now hopes to see his hard work put into practice. On his poker playing skills Nick said “after a year of skalie attempting to drum all things poker in to me, I feel like I’m in a great position to compete for the prize pot. Skalie may even need to watch out if we end up the same table; he might find out that he’s taught me a little too much!”

This is the 3rd year of Europe’s best value ‘everyman’ tournament and last year saw a whopping 752 players attend in their bid to be crowned ‘2009 Winner’. Nottingham-based Thomas Rolfe held his nerve and took 1st prize capturing the six-figure sum when his Ace  Queen beat an Ace King to hit the flush, consigning local favourite Emmet Gough to the runners-up spot. This year’s event promises to be bigger and better, with players from all over Europe planning to head to the hotbed of Irish poker, Killarney.