Marty Smyth Wins PartyPoker.com World Open IV
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Thirty-three year-old Marty Smyth scooped $250,000 after winning
the PartyPoker.com World Open IV in London. The 72-runner $8,000
buy-in event offered a total prize pool of $576,000 and featured a
strong final table line-up that included man of the m
Thirty-three year-old Marty Smyth scooped $250,000 after winning
the PartyPoker.com World Open IV in London. The 72-runner $8,000
buy-in event offered a total prize pool of $576,000 and featured a
strong final table line-up that included man of the moment Neil
Channing, recent Manchester GUKPT winner Marc “Mr Cool” Goodwin,
Andy “The Spider” Ward, Dixie Dean and Ryan Fronda.
“I’m delighted and very proud,” said Smyth, who won the 2007
Irish Open and has made the final table in the Poker Million the
last two years. “With the way Neil is running at the moment he was
the last person I wanted to take on heads-up. I hope this sparks a
run for me as good as his! I’m so happy to win the trophy and the
money will come in handy for Vegas.”
Channing has been on fire in recent months, taking Marty’s Irish
Open title in January and leading Great Britain to victory in the
PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup as well as other impressive
results. He also looked the most likely winner to everybody. As
well as playing some majestic poker, the man they used to call ‘Bad
Beat’ was getting cards when he needed them. “I thought it was my
day,” said Channing. “I believed during the final table that if I
didn’t win this I would be disappointed and I am. That said, it
would have been a bit ridiculous if I managed to take down this
title aswell!”
Channing’s ‘sick’ run started in October last year and he went
into the heads-up with Smyth leading 995,000 to 405,000. Many
thought the writing was on the wall but Smyth clawed his way back
and in an epic heads-up that lasted as long as the rest of the heat
before it, the Ulsterman drew level making it 700,000/700,000. Many
started to fancy Smyth but were convinced that perhaps it was too
much to overcome the “goldenballs” of the European poker circuit.
Marty wore Neil down and eventually all the money went in the
middle. Channing flat called in the small blind with 9h 9c, Smyth
came over the top with Qc Qs. Channing pushed all-in and Smyth
called. The board 10s 5d 2d Kh Kd brought no help and the
PartyPoker.com World Open IV had itself a very popular winner.
A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: “It would be fair to say that
Marty was an extremely popular winner. He’s done European poker a
favour by derailing the Channing bandwagon but make no mistake he
is one of the finest players on the circuit at the moment.”
The event featured a top class field led by ‘Ambassador of
Poker’ Mike Sexton and included Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott, Juha
Helppi, Theo Jorgensen, Ian Frazer, Roberto Romanello, Jon Kalmar,
Thomas Bihl, Surinder Sunar, John Tabatabai, Christoph Haller, Jan
Peter Jachtmann and Liam Flood. Coverage of the Matchroom Sport
organised event will be broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK later this
year and will be fronted by Jesse May. Last year, 45-year-old
former Sidcup betting shop owner Anthony Hardy triumphed over a
final table that also featured Ian Cox, Ram Vaswani, David Rudling,
Ian Frazer and eventual runner-up Ian Woodley. The winner in 2006
was Pippa Flanders, while in 2005 Lee Nelson won the inaugural
event.
Final Placings:
1st - $250,000 – Marty Smyth
2nd - $100,000 – Neil Channing
3rd - $60,000 – Marc Goodwin
4th - $30,000 – Andy Ward
5th - $25,000 – Dixie Dean
6th - $20,000 – Ryan Fronda