#175: “Oh My God, It’s James Noonan”

Two years ago, a good-looking fresh-faced kid from Drumlish stumbled into the Fitzwilliam Card Club. He’d been drinking a bit. Okay, he was pretty pissed but nonetheless, he fancied playing some poker. Jumping into the 1-2 game, he went about his business in his usual polite unassuming manner. In fact, he was in the game for ten full minutes before he even realised he was playing with someone he already knew by reputation. Much to the amusement of the entire table, he blurted out the line which has subsequently become a part of Irish poker folklore: ‘Oh my God, it’s Jason Tompkins!’

James Noonan is now 20 years old and since that day, he has been steadily moving up the ranks of the online poker world. At the time of writing this, he is ranked 7th in Ireland on PocketFives, admittedly a dismally poor way of judging the calibre of a player but with a Sunday major, dozens of big-field final tables and a 4th place finish in the recent FCOOP 4max all on his resume of the past six months, it is impossible to deny that we are witnessing the rise of a superstar. If I had to build a poker player from scratch, I would endow him with the qualities that James naturally possesses. He’s extraordinarily competitive but a very good loser. He’s thoughtful but decisive. He is confident but humble. He has a irrepressible work ethic but still knows how to blow off steam!

During a recent conversation, a friend of mine told me that he really liked the way my posse of close poker friends went about their business. He said that he liked the fact that we are all very visible in the ways that we compliment and support one another. I said that social media makes it very easy to be public about your admiration of a fellow pro and his success. I also explained how beyond our staking interests, we all like to buy, sell and swap pieces of each other. He said that stuff like that was commonplace in all of his previous poker groups too but that there still seemed to be something more to our posse. ‘Well’, I said, ‘maybe it’s because even when we have a piece of another guy, we all have the attitude that we want him to win for himself and not because of our personal interest’.

I think this last sentiment sums up the way my closest friends and I view the poker world, a potentially very lonely and ruthless place. Your friends in poker may be your competitors but they are also your colleagues. Dara O’Kearney recently told me about another posse of Irish poker players who grind away in local low-midstakes games. He said that when one of them gets a touch, he bankrolls some poker road trips, staking his buddies until they hit a big score of their own (and in turn, becomes the staker) or until all the money runs out. I like the sound of that. When my business partner and oldest poker buddy, Patrick ‘Dr Fill Good’ McAllister hit a big one, binking an FTOPS in 2010, the first words out of his mouth were how he wanted to stake me in a few higher buy-in events. This, for me summed up the calibre of the man. Literally 5 minutes after taking down a 6-figure score, he was thinking of others. I am also proud to say I have felt similarly when the roles were reversed. When I had my big bink in 2009, Patrick and Nick ’rounder63′ Carrillo had 5% and 12.5% respectively. Some non-poker friends enquired into how painful it was handing over almost $20,000. ‘Not painful at all’, I explained, ‘Quite the contrary. I’m proud to give them the loot. If not for Nick in particular, I wouldn’t have taken the shot in the satellite.’ Poker is almost never a team sport so, sincerely, it’s a great feeling to be able to share your victory like that.

It’s no secret that Dara O’Kearney, Daragh Davey and I run a staking business, an operation we affectionately refer to as ‘The Firm’, loathing the more colloquial term ‘stable’ for its negative connotations to the so-called ‘horses’. Poker players who decide to get staked give up a chunk of their winnings in exchange for coaching, guidance, a stake and a risk-free life when it comes to the downswings. It can be a profitable venture for the staker but it is fraught with potential danger. (Many big name players have been burned very badly and a few have gone broke because of their staking interests.) Therefore, my approach to staking mirrors my approach to all facets of business. My partners and I run ‘The Firm’ professionally, fairly and in a manner that (we hope) creates a pleasant working environment for everyone involved. We know the lads we stake will one day out-grow us and when that day comes, we want them to think back on the experience positively. Heck, they might even like to marry into our white-trash family and become a co-staker, taking the next crop of online poker phenoms under their wing. In terms of this, I am a bit like the parent who wants his kid to leave home as soon as he thinks he is ready but at the same time knows that he can come over for dinner anytime. Conversely, I can see that Dara is more of a mother hen, already pre-empting the separation anxiety she will feel about her kid’s departure. The bottom line though is our shared opinion that the only thing that matters is that these guys succeed, both as poker players and as people.

He might be the best kept secret in Irish poker right now, but trust me, it’s only a matter of time before some fresh-faced up-and-comer shoots a glance to his right at the poker table and blurts out the words ‘Oh my God, it’s James Noonan!’