First Noel
It’s early December 2011 and I am heading into the Fitzwilliam Card Club for a team event. My team are calling ourselves the Old Nits, and comprises of future European Poker Tour (EPT) winner Padraig O’Neill (aka Smidge), a fiery young Dub who recently moved back from Connecticut called… checks notes… David Lappin, and Rob Taylor. Rob only made himself available at the last minute and I had been intending to ask Daragh Davey (who was in my opinion one of the best young live players on the scene if not the best) to join. In the end, Daragh assembled a team of his own that included Nick Newport and Noel Murphy, two Fitz regs. On paper, they looked like our main competition, and once the tournament got underway it became clear they saw us as theirs, as they were targeting us specifically. With all four of them having immediate position on all four of us, this gave them a big advantage, and seriously curtailed our play.
Rob and Smidge were nits by nature, and I reverted to my original style for the occasion
In team events like this, it is almost always the team that keeps all four members in the tournament the longest that ends up winning, so it’s crucial to avoid early bustouts, and we all managed this. Rob and Smidge were nits by nature, and I reverted to my original style for the occasion, which just left Lappin to worry about, but he assured us he would do his best not to get a hundred big blinds in preflop with AQ early on (as he had a few weeks earlier against me online).
I got almost nothing to play with, and I had Noel with whom I had a fair bit of history sitting to my right. He was making it clear that he was calling my shoves with any two and trying to verbally goad me into shoving light. As a result, I let myself get a lot lower than I would have in an individual event while I waited for a decent spot. Noel was good to his word and when I finally found a pair of 4s in the small blinds, he called with J3o. I held, which bought me some more time. Next time I shoved I wasn’t so lucky, my AT losing to his Q9. I was less than pleased by some of the team Davey celebrations that accompanied my exit (I know it was a team event, but still) and a comment Noel made to me in the heat of the moment, so I went for a walk round the block to clear my head before coming back to rail my remaining teammates. I came back to find Smidge had also been dogged and eliminated by a Davey team member.
Things weren’t looking that promising for us, but as I watched the table interactions between my vanquisher Noel and our wild card Lappin, I saw a ray of light. It’s hard to imagine two more different Dubliners than salt of the earth Noel and the posh school-cricket-playing condescending sneery snob that was 2011 Lappin. I pulled Lappin aside for a quick word and told him he was clearly getting under Noel’s skin and winding him up… so keep up with the good work. That version of Lappin needed even less encouragement to wind people up than the current one does.
What followed shortly thereafter was a moment of madness by Noel trumped by a moment of genius from Lappin. Having raised a pair of 8s, Lappin saw Noel and the big blind call. The T44 flop was checked around, a 6 appeared on the turn, and Lappin made a weak looking quarter bet pot, called by Noel. A 5 on the river saw Lappin check, and then Noel unexpectedly shoved for several times pot. Lappin started talking, quickly recognising that, in his words, “the bet makes no sense” and called. Noel had King high and had crippled himself and propelled Lappin into the chip lead. Both he and Rob outlasted the remaining team Daveys. Years later, Daragh confirmed that Noel had confessed that he hated Lappin’s guts more than he’d ever hated anyone at the table, and that had induced the mistake.
Second Noel
It’s October 2025, the last day of the International Poker Open (IPO) in the Bonnington hotel in Dublin. I meet my friend and cohost David Lappin to film a piece for our YouTube show the Lock In, and then meet my friend and student Ray Wheatley for some final words of encouragement before he goes back to play the last two tables of the Main Event. As that concludes, Noel Murphy, also still in the Main, appears in the lobby.
We have gotten to know Noel a lot better and recognise him as a genuine working class hero
In the 14 years that have passed since that night in the Fitz, relations between me and Noel, and in particular Lappin and Noel, have warmed considerably to the point that after Ray bows out in seventh on the final table, we are both rooting strongly for Noel. We have gotten to know Noel a lot better and recognise him as a genuine working class hero who does a lot for his community. Noel is also now a senior, and we have shared tables in seniors events.
I give Noel an encouraging hug in the hotel lobby, and he tells me I deserve a lot of credit for how much better his short stack game is these days. I joke that I don’t want to hear it now, I want to hear it in his winner’s interview.
About 12 hours later, I’m in the commentary booth watching Tower interview Noel, who has just taken down the Main. A gentleman true to his words, Noel does pay credit to the books and the strategy segments on the Chip Race, and myself and his former nemesis David Lappin. Lappin, in turn, paid tribute to Noel in his own article for VegasSlotsOnline News:
One of the best things about poker, and poker in Ireland in particular, is how it can turn people who on first impression would seem to have nothing in common into friends.
