{"id":22075,"date":"2021-06-23T08:53:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T12:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=22075"},"modified":"2021-06-23T08:53:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T12:53:47","slug":"irish-poker-player-wins-wsop-gold-bracelet-twenty-two-years-after-father-won-the-same-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=22075","title":{"rendered":"Irish Poker Player Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet Twenty-Two Years After Father Won the Same Title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
Eoghan O’Dea, second from the right, is photographed here as part of The November Nine in the 2011 WSOP (flipchip\u00a0under\u00a0CC BY-SA 3.0\u00a0License)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Compared to the USA, Ireland\u2019s poker scene is much smaller. Yet it is growing as more Irish players\u00a0win money<\/a>\u00a0at poker tournaments.<\/p>\n

Recently a family legacy was born after Irish poker player Eoghan O\u2019Dea won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Gold Bracelet, 22 years after his father won the same title. The 36-year-old Dublin native, who has been playing poker professionally for nearly two decades, is the son of renowned poker pro, Donnacha \u201cThe Don\u201d O\u2019Dea.<\/p>\n

From Olympian to poker star<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet Eoghan\u2019s father is more than a fellow member of the WSOP\u2019s elite gold bracelet club. The son of actors Denis O\u2019Dea and Siobh\u00e1n McKenna, The Don previously represented Ireland in the 1968 Olympics, and was the first-ever Irish swimmer to swim\u00a0100 meters in under a minute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To his mother\u2019s dismay, however, poker was his first love. Donnacha learned poker from his father, Denis, who reportedly played the game with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly on the set of\u00a0Mugambo. By 1982, The Don was in Las Vegas for the WSOP tournament, and in 1998, he won his gold bracelet.<\/p>\n

A chip off the old block<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like his grandfather and father before him, Eoghan grew up with poker, playing online under the username \u201cintruder123.\u201d At an interview with historian Turtle Bunbury, Donnacha revealed that Eoghan is\u00a0largely self-taught<\/a>\u00a0because the elderly O\u2019Dea initially didn\u2019t want his son to become a professional player.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Eoghan began playing poker in his 20s, working his way up to bigger tournaments. Finally, he started playing at WSOP tournaments towards the end of the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

The reward for persistence<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eoghan\u2019s journey to his first gold bracelet win was anything but easy. He started out strong, making headlines in 2008 for winning over half a million dollars in two separate tournaments over the course of two weeks. And in 2011, he made it to the WSOP\u2019s November Nine, or the top 9 contestants in the tournament for that particular year.<\/p>\n

In both 2017 and 2019, however, he was eliminated from the WSOP after making it to 6th place. But like many pros that came before him, the younger O\u2019Dea knew the secret of\u00a0how to win at poker<\/a>: learning to accept defeat. <\/p>\n

Mental toughness is important in the sport not just in dealing with high stakes and pressure, but also in picking yourself up after a bad beat.<\/p>\n

The reality is that nobody gets to win every single time, and players like Eoghan have learned to be relentless, coming back to the poker table time and time again to earn the win they aspire to get. And in 2020, he finally got his first taste of gold.<\/p>\n

Making a name for himself<\/strong><\/p>\n

Donnacha was the first person Eoghan contacted after his win. The tournament, which was held online due to the pandemic, had ended at around 5:30 in the morning, so Eoghan woke his father up with the startling news that he had both entered and won that year\u2019s WSOP.<\/p>\n

And while he\u2019s succeeded in solidifying a legacy that began two generations earlier, Eoghan is determined to carve a name for himself in the world of poker in and out of Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aim now is to go one better than [my father] and win another,\u201d he disclosed. \u201cThat would be unreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>