The final table is set for PartyPoker.com World Open IV in London. The 72-runner $8,000 buy-in event features a first prize of $250,000 and a total prize pool of $576,000. The two seven seat semi-finals played down until there were three players left on the table and the players take those stacks to the final table. Belfast’s 2007 Irish Open winner and two-time Poker Million finalist Marty Smyth goes in as chip leader.
444,000 Marty Smyth
388,000 Neil Channing
192,000 Andy Ward
180,000 Marc Goodwin
120,000 Dixie Dean
76,000 Ryan Fronda
Neil Channing, a man with a direct line to the poker gods, is favourite to triumph. Jesse May even goes as far as to suggest there are only two bets, what price it will be Channing and what price it will not. After winning the Irish Open and leading Great Britain to victory in the PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup the man who is running as good as it gets is certainly the one to watch. Bookmaker PartyBets.com made him 16/1 favourite to win the event at the outset and despite criticism from the player himself such a short price has proved to be spot on. Channing won £50,000 after betting on himself when he won the Irish Open but didn’t fancy himself so much at 16/1 for the World Open IV so PartyBets.com may have had a lucky escape. After all, who wants to fill Channing’s coffers any more?
Joining Channing on the final table is recent GUKPT Manchester winner Marc ‘Mr Cool’ Goodwin and Ryan Fronda, a consistent domestic circuit professional from Hampshire, UK. Also taking his place at the final table is 46- year-old Surrey semi-professional poker player Dixie Dean. He is not the Everton legend and the most prolific goalscorer in English football history who died in 1980 but is fancied to do well after finally making a final table after many times of trying. Also in the line-up is Andy “TheSpider” Ward, a prolific and highly respected online player from Enfield, UK who recently took down the PartyPoker.com 300k Guaranteed on the 6th April. Ward took home $64,779 from a $332,300 total prize pool after overcoming a field of 1,660 players online and is ranked amongst the best players on the site, however, the World Open IV is first time he has played in an event where coverage will be shown on television. The two unlucky players who missed out on the bubble for the final table were Simon Craig and Andy Greekfish.
