Bad Beat Wins Irish Poker Open
March 24, 2008
Neil 'Bad Beat' Channing has won the 2008 Irish Open and it's first prize of €801,400. ($US 1.25M)
He defeated a record crowd of 667 players who made it to Dublin to contest the longest running poker tournament in Europe.
Channing has been a regular feature at the tail end of tournaments for the last 12 months, doing well at the WSOP and some of the UK poker events. He's also known from playing the cash games at the esteemed 'Vic' in London.
This time around he was able to turn his huge chip lead into a major championship win. The top 5 final placings and prize money can be found below.
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neil Channing | €801,400 |
| 2 | Donal Norton | €220,000 |
| 3 | Thomas Dunwoodie | €275,000 |
| 4 | Tim Blake | €220,000 |
| 5 | Kaui Paulsen | €175,000 |
Channing was lucky to elimnate Dunwoodie in third place when his A7 held up on the river against A8.
In the deciding hand, Donal Norton moved all-in from the small blind and Channing called. Channing turned over A9 and Norton flipped 55. The flop was Q/A/10 giving Channing the lead in a tournament deciding pot. The turn K and river A meant that Channing’s A9 won the race making him the champion!
The next big tournament on the European calendar is the San Remo EPT event, and you can quailfy for all EPT events at PokerStars.
