Nicholas Newport wins Irish Winter Festival 2025
The Paddy Power Poker Irish Winter Festival has finally drawn to a close after attracting 346 players to its €1,650 No-Limit Hold'em event with Nicholas Newport proving victorious winning the event for €125,000.
Hosted in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin between 23rd-25th January, the tournament has proved to be a hugely popular tournament and with 346 ready and willing contestants ready to try their luck at getting their hands on the pot of gold, you can imagine the atmosphere.
The title finally fell to a well known poker player within the Dublin poker circuit, Nicholas Newport, known for his successes in recent tournaments as well as his regular participation in the Irish circuit.
Although he took the first place finish overall, Newport travelled quietly under the radar as numbers of players traded blows within the centre of the table, Newport preferring to sit and wait for his hands and build his stack slowly while the others tried to eliminate each and every other player at the table.
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By the time that day 3 had started, Newport had build himself up a handsome chip stack and suddenly became one of the few that honestly looked to have what it takes to take down the tournament, later proving that those who were supporting him did right to do so, taking control of the final table one player at a time.
After outlasting all but the remaining player at the final table, Newport showed that he still have a number of gears to shift when it came to his strategy and while facing off against fellow countryman Charlie Harvey, he was delighted to see himself hit a flush on the river of the final hand, taking home the title as well as €125,000 in tournament winnings.
Harvey left the tournament with €77,000 and third placed Thomas Finneran banked €56,500 for their efforts.
Although Newport took home the Winter Festival overall crown, he was not the only one who will feel like he won, Tomaz Kogovsek of Slovenia becoming the 2025 Irish Winter Festival Sole Survivor, winning himself a package worth €20,000.
The Sole Survivor accolade was awarded following a promotion that was run by sponsors PaddyPowerPoker who offered the package to the player who lasted longest in the tournament following winning their entry through a special Sole Survivor satellite that they ran on their online poker room.
The 2025 Irish Winter Festival also served up a unique experience, offering the first Blind Mans Bluff tournament, a variant of poker that allows players to see everyone else's cards but their own and the tournament seemed to be a great success, lasting 7 hours before Pavel Pravdukhin took down the tournament, world champion title and the €1,985 first place prize pool.
A Paddy Power Poker spokesperson said "This year's Irish Winter Festival was better than ever before and has definitely established itself as one of Europe's most prestigious tournaments with over €500,000 in the main event prize pool."
Irish Winter Festival 2025 Final Table Results
1st was Nicholas Newport winning €125,000
2nd was Charlie Harvey winning €77,000
3rd was Tom Finneran winning €56,500
4th was Dominic McCloskey winning €42,000
5th was Seamus Quinn winning €31,300
6th was Ivan Tononi winning €23,500
7th was Stuart Brownson winning €17,800
8th was Dorlan Schick winning €17,800