Irish Rugby Player Loses a Pot, and Then Loses the Plot

A professional rugby player from Dublin, Ireland, has been ordered to pay a man €10,000 in compensation after flooring him during a poker game in April 2012.

I am currently in Dublin.

I was invited to play in a poker event.

After learning of the fate of 57-year old Michael Frisby, I might have to buy myself a gum shield.

Frisby suffered three broken bones, in his face, after being floored by a punch from former professional rugby player Neilus Keogh, 27, after a poker hand that went awry in April 2012.

The Irish Times reported that the pair were playing in a nine-handed poker game, in Dublin’s The Sporting Emporium, when Keogh lost a pot, stood up and floored the man twice his age. He topped things off with a chair shot whilst the Frisby was floored.

Keogh, who was playing for Nottingham at the time, did not have his contract renewed due to the ‘adverse publicity’ of the case. The Times reported that Keogh currently plays amateur rugby for London Irish and works as a building construction worker earning £350 per week.