Cenk Niğbolu made history at this year’s Irish Open when he became the first ever Turkish champion after taking down the Liam Flood Memorial turbo on the very last day of the festival.
Cenk beat a 427-entry field in the popular event and won €19,460 after cutting a three-way deal with Latvia’s Matas Kacinskas and Romanian player Catalin Pop.
Cenk mainly plays in Cyprus but he also heads off to Vegas every summer and also competed (and cashed three times) at the 2024 EPT Paris event. His Liam Flood victory was by no means his biggest cash – not even close – but it was a result that means an awful lot to him.
H
e said: “I normally don’t care about trophies and never pressure myself to win the title if I make the final table. But this one was really important to me. I was very excited to get it. I think that getting a title at the Irish Open is very good for the reputation of Turkish players.”
As it happens, Turkish players on the live tournament circuit are very few and far between and face innumerable issues when it comes to playing live. He said: “Poker is illegal in Turkey so it’s hard for us to have poker as a job and it hasn’t been easy for me to build my career. We don’t have any straight ways to being a professional. It’s not easy to travel whenever and wherever you want and sometimes we have visa problems etc etc.”
Nevertheless, Cenk has enjoyed a lucrative poker career since first turning pro nearly 20 years ago. His live tournament winnings now total over $960,000 and he’s had some enormous cashes in recent years including a sensational run in 2023 when he finished third in a €2k Cyprus tournament for €105k and then snagged another €175k a few months later when he finished second in the €3k Middle East Tournament Main Event during the Cash Game Festival.
In fact, his Hendon Mob profile is awash with five-figure scores and he’s currently ranked 12th on Turkey’s all-time money list.
Cenk describes poker as his passion since he first took up the game while studying at Istanbul Technical University. He said: “I am a mathematician and I only came across poker because I heard there was a game involving probability – and probability theory is my favourite part of maths.
“Now, I am very happy to have got to where I am … but it’s not enough. I feel like I only just started.”
This year’s Irish Open saw more Turkish players than ever before and there was a good reason for it. Dara O’Kearney is about to launch a Turkish language version of his influential Simplify Poker coaching site and a bunch of Turkish players had come along to compete in Dublin. Many – like Cenk – attending the festival for the very first time.
Dara O’Kearney said: “We’ll be launching our Turkish version in the next couple of weeks. The initiative was Baris Topuz’s idea because there is no other Turkish training content available and a lot of Turkish players don’t have any English. Baris is localising all the content and we aim to launch very soon. We are also planning other similar localisations – for example, Japanese.”
It’s hoped that the Turkish version of Simplify Poker, which will be named Levelup Poker, could help more players from Turkey develop their skills and forge a living on the international circuit. Baris said: “After I got coaching from Dara, which is the very same content as we’re having on our new website, I managed to become GPI Player of the Year for Turkey in 2025, my very first year as a professional.”
Turkish players certainly thrived at this year’s Irish Open. As well as his Liam Flood win, Cenk also cashed in the Main Event (for €4,560) and the Mini Irish Open for another €1,940. Baris Topuz, who is spearheading the Turkish initiative for Simplify Poker, very nearly pipped Cenk to the post as first Irish Open champion with a runner-up finish in the Spraggy Mystery Bounty for a total payout of €37,590. Others who cashed during the festival included Simplify members Sinan Yuce (three cashes) and Emrah Akansu (two cashes) plus well-known Turkish pro Yucel Eminoglu.
