Irish poker player Marty Smyth is smiling this week following his Euro 650 000 victory in the Irish Poker Open.
The money was on former WPT and EPT champ Roland De Wolfe, who dominated much of the final table action after starting with a short stack and building up in some remarkable hands of scintillating poker and taking out at least four of the survivors, but it was not to be.
In the heads up De Wolfe faced Smyth in a tough, drawn out series of hands with the final result going to the Irishman after he won a key pot where he caught a set of twos on the turn to crack De Wolfe’s pocket trees, and then finished the tournament off by making a higher flush than his opponent in the final hand.
A tired Smyth told reporters: “Well, I’m kind of drained. But obviously very excited, the title and the trophy mean a lot to me, and the money. It’s an honor, especially given the turn-out for the event.”
There were big paydays all round for the final tablers – in addition to Smyth’s winner’s purse of Euro 650 000, De Wolfe collected Euro 325 000; third placed Sorel Mizzi picked up Euro 210 000; Daniel MHugh Euro 175 000; Brian O’Keefe Euro 130 000; Nicky Power Euro 100 000, and 7th placed Thomas Finneran was the only one to drop below six figures with a check for Euro 75 000.