World Series Victory a Decade After Final Table Debut
News of Noel Furlong’s passing quickly made its way around the world. But many obituaries were somewhat barren. Apart from the distinction of being a rare non-American winner of tournament poker’s zenith event aged 61, little was known about the big but quietly spoken man.
Noel Furlong had been a sporadic visitor to Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker for a decade before he took the coveted title in 1999. Interestingly, few of the tributes that poured in after his passing mentioned that he had also made the final table of the $10,000 entry event in 1989.
In this year, Phil Hellmuth took the title at the expense of Johnny Chan who narrowly failed in his quest to win the event for a third consecutive year. Remarkably he finished second.
The First Noel at the Festival
Highlighting his indifference to the spotlight, Noel Furlong did not return to Las Vegas to defend his World Series title. Remarkably, he never played in Las Vegas again.
Domestically Noel already had a huge following. Since 1991, when he smashed the bookies for over £1.5 million with a monster gamble on his horse Destriero at the Cheltenham Festival, he had gamblers spellbound.
Let’s clear up JJ Furlong’s poker exploits first. JJ? Yes, despite universally being known as Noel, Furlong was christened John James. He was given the nickname Noel because he was born on Christmas Day. The moniker stayed with him throughout his life.
Bookmaking Legend Terry Rogers Played a Part
Noel’s interest in poker came around through his friendship with Irish sports promoter and bookmaking legend Terry Rogers. Rogers is credited with bringing Texas Hold’em to Europe via the poker club he ran in Dublin.
This was well over a decade before the advent of the Internet and online poker sites. YouTube video tutorials and, of course, online poker had not been conceived. Nowadays online games and info on online poker strategy are easy to find.
Furlong only took up poker in 1984 but quickly mastered Texas Hold’em and he won the Irish Open in 1987 and 1989. A hiatus followed where he “concentrated on business” – that being Furlong Flooring, the largest supplier of floor coverings in Ireland – but Noel returned to win the Irish Open for an unprecedented third time in 1992.
However, the poker story was far from over. On the eve of the 1999 World Series of Poker, despite another two-year break from the game, Furlong won himself a $10,000 entry ticket from a small satellite tournament. Poker immortality – and a $1 million prize – followed.
Noel Furlong did not forget his friends and loved ones. Following Terry Roger’s passing a few months later he told the Irish Times: “He was my mentor at cards. He got me to take up the game originally. I would not have gone to Las Vegas this year to play in the World Series if not for him. He rang me two days before the event started and said, ‘I have two first-class tickets to Vegas.’ He persuaded me to go.”
It was never made public at the time but one of Furlong’s daughters underwrote half of the $600 his World Series Main Event ticket had cost him. Another to encourage Noel to make the trip to America and play the tournament by means of taking a share of his action, she ultimately benefited to the tune of $500,000.
The Dogs Came First
All of this came eight years after his famous assault on British bookmakers with the Destriero gamble. Irish bookmakers already knew how he could orchestrate a coup. In the 1980s the Furlong name was feared at Dublin’s Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium.
Noel’s wife, Betty trained a host of gambled-on big-race winners at the dog track. But an inability to successfully place a bet – not alone collect from one – saw the pair turn their attention to horse racing.
Purchasing a nine-year-old, you rarely expect to find much improvement in a horse. But the couple had bought The Illiad – a horse that had not won for over two years – for £2,500 and showed his handicap mark was a mockery.
As he turned 10, the horse relieved Irish bookies of hundreds of thousands when winning the ultra-competitive Ladbrokes Hurdle at Leopardstown in the early weeks of 1991. Available at 33/1 in the week before the race, his official SP was just 7/1.
Getting It Back
The winnings were welcome. They helped Noel pay a disputed £500,000 VAT bill being demanded by Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise. The government organization had threatened to arrest him should he enter the British Isles before the debt was paid.
Furlong desperately wanted to enter the UK as he had a second shot ready to fire at the bookies. The bullet was a strapping horse called Destreiro and he was Cheltenham Festival bound. The Illiad may have left the bookmakers quaking, but his victory and successful gamble was just an entrée.
Entered in the level-weights Supreme Novices’ Hurdle – one of the most competitive races at the biggest jumps meeting of them all – Destriero had to win the race on talent alone. But Furlong believed his horse had bundles of talent and he was prepared to back his judgment.
Gamble Landed
The twice-raced five-year-old opened at a double-digit price, which he stayed at right up until the jockeys were given the order to mount. Then the cash came pouring in, mountains of it. Destriero’s odds were cut to 6/1. Betting over the phone – this was the pre-internet era – the coup was carried out with clinical precision.
The Supreme Novices’ is one of the most competitive races at the biggest meeting of them all. Nevertheless, Destriero trounced a big field, headed by subsequent Champion Hurdle winner Granville Again, by four lengths. It was as pleasing to the eye as it was to Furlong’s bank balance – it grew by seven figures.
For good measure, Noel Furlong had placed sizeable doubles on Destriero with The Illiad. He was set to run in the Champion Hurdle later that afternoon. Faced with liabilities that totaled almost five million pounds, bookmakers were forced to take drastic action.
The bookmaking firms hammered The Illiad in the betting, forcing his price down to 11/2. The Cheltenham Festival had never seen such frenzied betting on a horse in a championship race.
Sadly, all was not well. Noel and his wife knew their horse had been suffering from dehydration. While they decided to run The Illiad that afternoon, they knew he was unlikely to perform at his very best. The bookmakers sighed in relief when he trailed in 21st of the 24 runners.
The Big Paydays
Doubtlessly, Noel Furlong backed a few losers in his time, and he most certainly did not win every poker tournament he entered. But his list of major successes certainly reads well:
- 1980: Set up Furlong Flooring, which would make millions
- 1987: Won his first Irish Poker Open
- 1989: Won his second Irish Poker Open
- 1989: Final table finisher at the World Series of Poker
- 1991: Relieved the bookmakers of almost seven figures when The Illiad won the Ladbroke Handicap
- 1991: Landed one of the biggest gambles in Cheltenham Festival history with Destriero in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
- 1992: Won his third Irish Poker Open
- 1999: Won the World Series of Poker
Noel Furlong would land more gambles at the fabled Cheltenham Festival. He collected a handsome sum when Space Trucker took the Grand Annual Chase in 1999. But nothing matches the March 1991 day he truly caned the bookmakers and had them running for cover.
Success on Turf, Poker Felt and in Business
A hugely successful businessman, Noel Furlong once enjoyed more than half the domestic wholesale carpet market in Ireland. Employing over 400 people, he ran three distribution companies in Britain and two factories in Northern Ireland.
Despite this empire in the early part of the decade, Noel Furlong regularly played recreational €50 poker tournaments in Dublin’s Merrion Casino.
The last horse to win carrying the Furlong colors under his stewardship was called Harrington. He named the horse after 1995 World Series of Poker winner Dan Harrington pointing out he was a distant relative of Irish golfer Padraig Harrington.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Destriero achieve much success after his 1991 Cheltenham success?
No, sadly Noel and Betty Furlong struggled to keep Destriero free from injury and he only raced nine more times during the next five years. This yielded a single success. On this occasion he was not heavily backed – much to the relief of Ladbrokes, which laid many of Furlong’s bigger bets.
Did Noel Furlong play any cash-game poker?
Noel Furlong’s poker activities were restricted to tournament play only. He was never spotted playing cash-game poker anywhere. Furthermore, no one has any recollection of him playing casino games during his visits to Las Vegas.
Did Noel Furlong have any unsuccessful gambles?
There’s no recorded evidence of a planned Noel Furlong horse racing betting coup going astray. However, in 2004 it is known he lost a six-figure sum when Grey Swallow – trained by his neighbor, horseracing legend Dermot Weld – was well beaten in the 2004 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
