After a board meeting at the end of its highly successful European Nations Cup in Paphos, Cyprus, IFP announced that its founder President Anthony Holden was stepping down after four years distinguished service in the role. The Board also announced that it had elected as his successor Mr Patrick Nally.

Anthony Holden

Elected IFP’s first President at its founding congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, in April 2009, Mr Holden said that it had been a great honour to hold that office during IFP’s formative years which had seen it grow from the original seven founder members to almost 50, with 75 in prospect by the end of this year. The first four years also saw the development of IFP’s patent form of duplicate poker, Match Poker, and the hugely successful events at County Hall in London, in November 2011, which saw Germany crowned first winners of the Nations Cup and Raul Mestre of Spain triumph in the first individual IFP World Championship.

On stepping down as President, Holden, a distinguished journalist and author prior to taking up his IFP duties, expressed his thanks to all he had worked with over the four years and cited a desire to return to other literary projects, including memoirs.

Among Mr Holden’s 35 books are two cult classics in the poker world, Big Deal (1990) and Bigger Deal (2007), as well as an expert and widely acclaimed manual Holden on Hold’em (2008). A former PokerStars sponsored player, he won television’s first celebrity Late Night Poker in 2000 and he represented England in the 2006 World Cup of Poker.

While Holden is standing down as President he will not be leaving the IFP entirely, having been asked by the board to take up new Ambassadorial role, an appointment Holden is greatly looking forward to.

Patrick Nally

Newly elected President of the IFP Patrick Nally paid tribute to Holden.

“On behalf of the entire IFP Board I want to thank Anthony Holden and pay tribute to his four distinguished years as IFP’s founder President. Without his reputation in the poker world and his wide range of contacts we would never have been able to get IFP off to such a terrific start. We will miss him very much, but as his successor, I am delighted that Anthony will remain very much part of the IFP family as IFP’s Ambassador in the poker world at large.”

Often referred to as the “founding father of sports marketing”, Nally himself was instrumental in revolutionising major sporting events around the world, such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. He still plays a central role in numerous projects both inside and outside the sporting world, experience that he believes will ensure an exciting future for poker and the IFP as it moves into an exciting new phase.

“I’m very pleased that the board has given me the honour of serving as President of IFP. We have many exciting challenges ahead, following on from our success at the European Nations Cup in Paphos, and our revolutionary use of smartphone technology. Such innovations take poker into a new era and I look forward to even greater success in the future as we build on the achievements of the past four years.”