Man on a Mission: Irish Poker Hero Andy Black Laid Bare

by Roy Brindley, 10 January 2026

With over $5 million in winnings, Andy Black tops Ireland’s All-Time Money List. A significant chunk of his haul came from his final table appearance at the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event. However, he may be better known for his starring role in the 1999 John Hurt-narrated documentary, The Million Dollar Deal.

Irish poker player Andy Black, a practising Buddhist with his sights set on the 2026 World Series of Poker. ©Brindley

Poker Pro Andy Black Is a Man on a Mission

A gregarious and compelling character, Andy Black was a familiar face on UK TV screens during the late 2000s, achieving notable success in the Premier League, Late Night Poker, and the World Open. He was also the subject of a documentary made and broadcast on the Irish state broadcaster, RTÉ, Radio One’s Shuffle Up and Deal.

Wholesomely unconventional – the Northern Irish-born player is a practising Buddhist – much of Andy Black’s story has been recited aplenty. The public loves his eccentric appeal, and poker players marvel at his stories of playing with Stu Ungar at the decisive ‘final two tables’ stage of the 1997 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Where Is Reclusive Poker Player Andy Black?

But Black can be reclusive. He is renowned for ‘going on the missing list,’ and when his name is mentioned around poker tables, the phrase ‘I haven’t seen or heard of him for years’ is often heard. The closing captions of The Million Dollar Deal documentary display a picture of him with the caption: “Andrew Black has retired, and lives on a Buddhist commune in Cambridge”.

Of course, he returned to playing poker, then vanished, and then returned again. Online references to him in 2025 list only a few cashes – €1,330 being the largest – from a handful of small-stakes tournaments played in Ireland.

So, where is the veteran now, and how important is poker to him? OnlineCaisnos.com news reporter Roy Brindley visited Andy Black to discuss his present and his future, while not dwelling too heavily on his well-documented past.

It’s Not Las Vegas, It’s Foggy Wexford

“Park in the church car park, it’s opposite the pub, I live just down the road, I’ll come out to meet you,” said Black on the phone shortly before we caught up. It was a cold, desperately foggy night. I was in a tiny village in Co. Wexford that featured only these two amenities.

The setting could not be further from the modern poker hotspots of Prague, Las Vegas or Atlantis Paradise Island, Bahamas, for example, where major tournaments were ongoing the evening we spoke.

Andy emerged from a thick mist; the only thing I could initially see clearly was his shoes. One was white, the other red. They did not even match. An old friend, akin to a stepbrother you haven’t seen in a decade, after a warm, welcoming handshake, he led me to his house.

A Stove, a Shrine, and a Creche

“Do you like it?” he asked. I loved it – a small, quaint cottage, at least a century old, with thick walls and a solid-fuel burning stove as its centrepiece. Vitally, it was warm. “Two years ago, this was open plan,” he declared with a wry smile. “I mean, after the fire, all that was left were these walls.”

It transpired that the house was once thatched, and an electrical fault that occurred shortly after he had moved in had razed it to the ground. The full story of its phoenix-like transformation would be discussed later. Apart from the stove, two things caught my attention: kids’ toys everywhere and a Buddhist shrine.

“How are the kids?” I ask. “They’re great, seven-and-a-half and nine-and-a-half, really smart, they read a lot of books. I have them every other weekend, and I drive two or three hours to see them every Tuesday for a few hours.”

Pointing to the richly embroidered Buddha hanging on the wall, with a collection of small artefacts, statues, and incense sticks forming an altar beneath it, I ask, “And this guy, I thought you had moved on?”

“No, I’m a Buddhist, I always will be, I just don’t hang out with the crowd I once did,” he replied. I didn’t push the religion question any further. Instead, I suggested we head out for something to eat to get our interview underway. “Sounds good, but I started a diet yesterday, I’m exercising, and I am off drinking too,” he stated.

Nirvana Is the Poker Goal

A half hour later, I was drinking beer and eating fish and chips while Andy sipped on sparkling water. Before we left his house, I had spotted a handwritten list, an eight-point battle plan, on his kitchen table. The A4 page was headed: ‘Until World Series 2026 Main Event’ and at its bottom concluded ‘The 8 Agreements – Nirvana is the Goal!’

No drinking, a diet, and exercise were among the listed bullet points, which also included items such as ‘no TV’, ‘meditation’, and ‘ongoing poker study’. It was clear that poker is not only still on Andy Black’s radar, but it is his radar, and the World Series of Poker Main Event represents his universe.

Age Is Just Another Poker Problem

“So, what is this list all about, Andy?” I probed. “Poker is odd,” he replied. “There’s definitely loads of skill in it, but if you’re a professional poker player, you can still perform at the highest level in your 60s. Virtually no one does it, but it’s still possible.”

“In every other sport, you’re cropped in your 30s. David Bryant played top-level crown green bowling in his 50s, and George Forman boxed in his 40s, but these are exceptions. So, my understanding is, to compete against people 30 years younger than you, you have little chance.”

“That is, unless you have all the money in the world and you’re naturally designed to be brilliant. That’s nobody I’ve ever heard of, so you need to have a level of focus, preparation and intensity – which is a big thing, intensity. We’ve forgotten about that as we get older.”

“What makes us unable to compete so well is that fresh intensity, that newness. I look back at the times when I think I played my best, and there’s always been a level of fresh, intense openness there. To try to refine that, or they have it enough at the time, you’ve got to do all sorts of boring things.”

Doing What Top Sports People Do

“What preparation are we talking about?” I ask. “I have to lose two stone,” he immediately replied. “The edges are so small, say you are sitting in a poker game for 12 hours a day, it may only be one or two decisions where you have a level of sharpness that makes the difference.”

“Weight loss will make me sharper. As simple as it may seem, if you are generally in a good state, the paradoxical combination of being relaxed and intense can be beneficial. It is what the top sports people do, whatever sport they’re in, you look, and you will find there’s a level of self-awareness of some sort.”

“When they describe when they are doing well, performing at their highest level, they’re relaxed, and they are focused. I’ve got to be fit; I need a serious level of meditation because that gives me an edge. It’s a hybrid of Buddhism and the poker stuff.”

Strip Club Mizrachi Is an Outlier

“Twenty years ago, I said nearly all the top players would be doing some sort of meditation, would be working on themselves and would have coaches; everyone laughed at me. If you pick the top 30 pure professionals now, 28 will be doing this kind of stuff.”

“There are a few outliers. Michael Mizrachi won the world championship this year. His preparations were going to strip clubs and talking shite with his mates. He says that publicly. He still has to work on his confidence, so he does this American thing of walking around and saying ‘I’m Amazing’ every five seconds.”

“No alcohol, that’s something else, and I have to do a certain amount of poker study. That’s tricky, because you are trying to keep your own game. The modern game is looking at exactly which hands you bluff. So you need to adapt, and you need to realise what other people are doing.”

Winning the World Series in 2026

“My Goal is the Main Event at the World Series, to win it. People may think you cannot have that goal, but when I’ve had it clear in my mind, and I’ve only had it clear in my mind twice, with balanced preparations, both times I nearly won.”

“So, I’m 60 years old, the oldest person in the modern era, before a vote decided winners, the oldest ever winner of the World Series Main Event was Irishman Noel Furlong. He won it when he was 61. A few years before he died, he said to me, no one will ever win the World Championship older than me.”

“This means I only have one more chance, because he was normally f***ing right. He was a guy that really lived, street-wise, a man’s man, he was usually right – so I have only got one more chance. That’s why I think I am going to win the World Series in 2026.”

We already have our first elimination! Andy Black holds vs Ojala's QAs and we're down to 7!🍀

📰https://t.co/jTtg33qcIr
📺https://t.co/jQjeCvMSC8 pic.twitter.com/sla55zJAXB

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) April 10, 2023

Messing up and Just Unlucky

Andy Black’s self-belief – and perhaps his levels of focus, preparation, and intensity – are remarkable. But so is his ability to recognise his shortcomings. “I am one of the most underperforming poker players ever,” Black declared.

“Given the opportunities I have created, and the number of positions I have put myself in – and then I just do something stupid – my results are poor. The ones I haven’t messed up are rare, and the others are just a case of being unlucky.”

“The Irish Open is no longer on a pedestal; it used to be. I’ve come closer to winning it more than anyone else. I’ve nearly won it seven times. I won an unofficial Irish Open – one year in the 90s when it didn’t officially happen, so the players created their own version. But the World Series, that’s unfinished business.”

“Two years ago, I f***ked up the Irish Open final table. I didn’t f**k up the one in Vegas shortly afterwards. It’s just, one day I’d love to get to the end of one of these things and conquer my own mind.”

Lost a House, Won a House

Although he would not appear overjoyed by his results in the spring of 2023, these two final tables represented a classic ‘needs must’ situation for Black, who used his formula of preparation and intensity to complete a remarkable back-from-the-brink journey.

“Yeah, it’s no secret, I bought a house, a thatched cottage, it not only overstretched me, but it also burned to the ground almost immediately. It was not insured, meaning I was left penniless with no home to live in.”

“With my ‘case’ couple of hundred, I headed to the Irish Poker Open Festival and entered a €250 supporting tournament. With the eight grand I got from that, for finishing third, I managed to buy my ticket into the Main Event.”

“A fifth-place effort there gave me ninety-five grand, which meant I could go to the World Series of Poker, where the final table earned me another hundred. This, and another result at the end of the year, gave me enough cash to put a roof back on my house.”

Clearly, if determination and hunger came in a bottle, it would have Any Black’s name and his picture printed on the packaging. However, the only picture that matters to him is the one hanging on the walls of the Horseshoe Event Center in Las Vegas, a space reserved for World Series of Poker Main Event champions.