World Open result

PartyPoker.com World Open IV, London, UK, 25 April – 2nd May 2008

Entrants: 72
Buy in: $8,000
Prize pool: $576,000

Final results:
1. Marty Smyth, $499,069
2. Neil Channing, $257,585
3. Marc Goodwin, $128,792
4. Andy Ward, $112,693
5. Dixie Dean, $96,594
6. Ryan Fronda, $80,495

33-year-old Ulsterman Marty Smyth scooped $250,000 after winning the PartyPoker.com World Open IV in London. The event 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 as well!”

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.”

Eddie Hearn, Director of Matchroom Sport said: “This was without doubt the strongest field we have seen at the PartyPoker.com World Open and the players certainly didn’t disappoint. The standard of play was simply stunning throughout and Marty was a deserved winner. The PartyPoker.com World Open is now firmly established as one of poker’s major titles.”

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.