UK News

'Bad Beat' at the Irish Open

Neil "Bad Beat" Channing is one of UK poker's all-rounders. From playing cash with a near-permanent residency in London's Victoria Casino to writing articles for magazines and websites he has become a well-known figure on this country's poker circuit. His aptitude as a sensible observer of the ins and outs of the game has made him a sort of poker consultant in many capacities, including compiling the ever-tricky odds on players for bookmakers and giving advice on how to structure new events. As ever, television consolidates fame, and in the last twelve months he has made the semi-finals of both the UK Open and the Poker Million, knocking on the door of being awarded a trophy on television. His aptitude for table talk which doesn't (usually) cross the Hellmuth Line of Obnoxiousness (an internationally recognised scale) makes him stand out in a line-up of grim-faced shades-and-iPod-wearing players.

Consistently cashing in the World Series of Poker main event in the only other country he seems to visit to play main events (successfully, at least), the laconic Londoner nonetheless had to wait until this year to win a million dollars in one go -- there's a limit to the size of the cash games at the Vic -- at the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open.

An hour in the air followed by roughly the same amount of time in a taxi brought players like Roland De Wolfe (last year's runner-up), Julian Thew, Dave Colclough, Michael Ellis, and Ben Grundy to the Citywest hotel in which the event played out over most of a week.

Stopping just short of acquiring Rio Syndrome (the feeling that one is playing poker in a sealed warehouse), the players were treated to first class service and the atmosphere was superb throughout the week. Wisely, the tournament area itself was designated alcohol-free, but that didn't really make that much difference considering that the conference room backed onto a late-serving bar. Anyone who has ever played a tournament in Dublin or its environs will be well aware of what that means.

As is expected in Ireland which seems to have become the recent home of deep stack poker, the tournament was hotly contested by pretty much the entire who's who of the country's poker community, from Paul Roper, Roy "The Boy" Brindley, and Liam Flood to last year's winner Marty Smyth and a whole host of be-logoed Paddy Power Poker qualifiers. They run a pleasing sideline in last-longers, incidentally, from which UK tournaments' satellites could benefit, in that the last player still left in glowing greenly in their branded gear received free entry into the following year's event (with the bonus of five years' entry should they actually win the thing).

From further afield came players like Andreas Krause, Dario Minieri, Trond Eidsvig, and from further yet Sorel Mizzi, Doyle Brunson, Steve Zolotow, Dan Alspach and more than a few young Americans seeking to follow in Mike "Timex" McDonald's (also present) footsteps in taking down a prestigious European tournament. The super-quick televisation of their feature table which proved so popular last year was once again in effect, and possibly due to this the final line-up was just six players. So, in saying that half the final were English (which in effect allows this article to come under the heading of "UK News"), it's just three -- Tim "T8MML" Blake, Thomas Dunwoodie and Neil Channing, who joined Norwegian Kai Danilo Paulsen, Dutchman Edwin Tournier and lone Irishman Donal Norton.

Heads-up saw the right balance of Irish and English players (Norton and Channing) generate the maximum crowd enthusiasm. Although Donal Norton had evened up the chip gap considerably, an old-fashioned race eventually saw Channing's A-9 take down Norton's pocket fives for the title and presumably the awesome feeling of having backed oneself to win a 667 runner tournament and actually done so. So the trophy, prestige, and a lot of euros made the short hop back to the UK, while the young Irish runner-up gave his home crowd something to cheer about and Ireland in general showed us how to run a good-natured well-run event on a very large scale indeed.

Jen Mason is a part of www.blondepoker.com. She is responsible for its live tournament coverage in the UK and abroad.