blonde poker

Guinness, shamrocks, leprechauns er… more Guinness – there are plenty of things Ireland is famous for, but perhaps another addition to that list would be the PaddyPower Irish Poker Open.

As Europe’s longest running No Limit Hold’Em tournament, the Irish Open is drenched in history with previous winners including Liam Flood, Joe Beevers and former WSOP Champion Noel Furlong. However, recent years have seen the event explode, with last year's outing making the 2007 Irish Open Europe’s largest ever event with 706 runners.

Although the 2008 marketing campaign was equally rampant, the increased buy-in from €3,500 to €4,500 meant numbers dropped slightly to 667, but subsequently led to €200,000 being added to the prizepool in order to reach the €3,000,000 guarantee.

Whilst the likes of Barny Boatman, Ram Vaswani, Devilfish, Roland de Wolfe and even blonde poker’s very own Chris Hall, fresh off his victory in the media event the night prior, were flying the flag of St George, the Irish were equally strong, Nicky Power, Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson and recent bracelet winner Ciaron O’Leary all with their eyes firmly fixed on the €801,400 first prize.

Cleary attracted by both the prestige and mouth-watering prizepool of the event, Paddy Power were also able to lure in some overseas talent in the form of Doyle and Todd Brunson, JJ Liu and last year’s finalist and recent Betfair recruit Sorel Mizzi.

Naturally, the event was a fun-filled occasion with both the banter and Guinness flowing in equal measure. However, when it comes to their poker, the Irish are deadly serious, and as the likes of John Keown, Andrew Grimason and Conor State started to fly, it was clear that this was to be a hotly contested affair.

Finishing the opening day with a highly respectable 53,800, Doyle Brunson would alas meet a nasty demise, his flopped two pair losing out to Pocket Queens when the board paired up on the Turn to give his opponent a bigger two pair.

The latter stages in particular witnessed a lot of drama. Whilst Neil Channing appeared to be on the hottest of hot streaks, players such as Sorel Mizzi, John Kabbaj and, in particular, Pete Linton (right), had been hotly tipped for final table appearances, but seen big stacks vanish at the final hurdle.

Instead, those six seats would go to the following players:

Seat 1: Neil Channing -- 2,748,000
Seat 2: Tim Blake -- 912,000
Seat 3: Kai Danilo Paulsen -- 716,000
Seat 4: Thomas Dunwoodie -- 544,000
Seat 5: Edwin Tournier -- 562,000
Seat 6: Donal Norton -- 1,164,000

After losing Edwin Tournier right from the off when his top pair ran into Donal Norton’s trip Jacks, 5th place would go to Kai Danilo Paulsen, his pair of kings (K-J) running into the Turned straight (9-7) of Neil Channing on a 6-8-K-T board.

With four left, it was plucky Tim Blake who was next in the firing line.  He pushed over the top of Neil Channing’s initial raise with K-J suited, but with Neil pot committed, he made the call with Q-6 and duly spiked a Queen on not only the Flop, but also the River to send the Timinator packing.

Missing out on heads up festivities was Thomas Dunwoodie (pictured). A relative shortstack throughout the later levels, Thomas will have been overjoyed to have finished in 3rd place, but ultimately dismayed to have exited in the fashion that he did, his A-8 being outgunned by Neil’s A-7 which hit a Seven on the Turn.

Heads up, and with no deal made, everything was on the line. A brief encounter pleasured the crowd momentarily, but the name ‘Channing’ always seemed to be etched on the trophy, and so it was confirmed when Donal’s Pocket Fives failed to survive an all-in against Neil's A-9 to see him forced to settle for 2nd.

Although local boy Donal was the inevitable crowd favourite, Neil was heavily supported on the forums and an undeniably worthy victor. One of the nice guys of poker, Neil is a permanent fixture In the Grosvenor Victoria where he has become one of the country’s greatest cash game players. Respected and liked by virtually everyone in the industry, Neil has recently diverted much more attention to tournament poker, and clearly with great success. All that is left to do is to get out our nipping claws and offer our biggest congratulations to Neil on becoming the 2008 PaddyPower Irish Poker Open Champion. Bravo!

1st  Neil Channing -- €801,400
2nd  Donal Norton -- €420,000
3rd  Thomas Dunwoodie -- €544,000
4th  Tim Blake -- €220,000
5th  Kai Danilo Paulsen -- €175,000
6th  Edwin Tournier -– 135,000