Young Belgian wins in Dublin
Europe’s most prestigious and long-running poker festival is done and dusted for another year, and as the poker community tries to recover from another amazing Irish Open, Kevin Vandersmissen might be partying a while longer after seeing off a stacked field for €420k.
With Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and several other household names making the journey to Dublin’s Burlington Hotel, interest in the Paddy Power Poker 2012 Irish Open had never been greater. Four days later, PokerPlayer can personally report it was an absolute belter!
Dublin’s known for its craic, and as everybody from Jake Cody to Freddy Deeb rocked up, Guinness in hand, the festival got off to a blistering start, with Hellmuth and Negreanu both featuring on the live streamed feature table.
Unlike past streams at the WSOP and WPT, Paddy Power took a different approach, bringing in presenters, at the table interviews and expert analysis from poker pro Dan O’Brien to keep things interesting. And despite Negreanu busting late in the first day, viewers tuned in in their thousands to watch as over 150 Paddy Power qualifiers chased the €100,000 Sole Survivor prize, and a 500-strong field battled for the €1.6m prizepool.
By Day 3, big names Hellmuth and newly crowned iSeriesLIVE champion James Dempsey were still going strong and everyone was expecting a major name to land the title.
Unfortunately for the Poker Brat’s fans, Hellmuth busted early on Day 3 when his Kings were cracked by some ‘f***ing moron’s A-Q’ and as the final nine began to take shape, it was qualifier Ian Simpson who went into the final table after a sleepless night clutching the chip lead.
Things got better for Simpson when fellow Sole Survivor Phillip Magennis hit the rail in ninth after a monster three-way all-in with Andy Black and the brilliantly named Thomas Beer, handing Simpson the €100k Sole Survivor promotion and leaving his girlfriend in tears on the rail.
Simpson would eventually bust in fourth for an extra €107,500 after his tens were outdrawn by Beer’s eights, and when the always entertaining David ‘Dixie’ Dean had bust in third for €225k, the inexperienced Beer was all that remained in Vandersmissen’s way.
Like the iSeriesLIVE opener, this year’s Irish Open final table was held behind closed doors and viewers could see all hole cards via Paddy Power’s web stream and bet on the action. But with the watching media praying for a Beer win and a week of Ireland/drinking puns, Vandersmissen had other plans.
The young Belgian narrowly missed out on an EPT crown last year, finishing second at EPT Snowfest, but he made no mistake this time round. In the most one-sided heads-up clash in poker history, Vandersmissen won practically every hand before forcing Beer to overshove a nine-high flop with A-K against his 9-7.
‘It was pretty hot in there,’ Vandersmissen told PokerPlayer after collecting his novelty-sized cheque. ‘But I loved it. I told all my friends I would be on TV and hopefully they caught the action.’
For the full Irish Open story, make sure you check out upcoming issues of PokerPlayer. Kezay was sober enough to catch all the action (he claims) and we’ve got a massive Irish Open blowout coming your way soon.
In the meantime, here’s how the 2012 Irish Open finished up:
1. Kevin Vandersmissen €420,000
2. Thomas Beer €225,000
3. David Dean €158,000
4. Ian Simpson €107,500
5. Steve Watts €78,000
6. Jordan Lewis €59,000
7. Samuel Chartier €44,500
8. Andy Black €32,700
9. Philip Magennis €23,000
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