The 2007 winner of the Irish Open, Marty Smyth, won Event No. 50 at the World Series of Poker on Tuesday, taking down the USD 10,000 World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha. Smyth pocketed the first prize of USD 859,549 in the event, which had a prize pool of USD 3,581,400, the largest ever for a pot-limit Omaha event. Michael “the grinder” Mizrachi finished third in the event after entering the final table with the chip lead.

A cheque for EUR 800,000 isn't a bad pay-off for four days' work. And last night, that was exactly what Neil Channing from Sunderland had in his pocket after winning the Paddy Power open poker tournament, which took place in Dublin's City West hotel. The English poker professional has been a regular on the European scene for the last number of years but yesterday's victory, after a tense four-hour final, was the largest win ever in his career.

Der erste Tag verlief bei den Irish Open in Dublin aus deutscher Sicht ganz erfolgreich. In dem No-Limit-Hold’em-Turnier (Buy-in €4.500), das über fünf Tage läuft, ist ein Preispool von drei Millionen Euro garantiert. Nachdem Tag 1A mit 316 Startern etwas unter den Erwartungen blieb, muss der Andrang am Tag 1B zunehmen, damit die Veranstalter die Gewinnsumme nicht aufstocken müssen. Von den deutschen Teilnehmern erreichten vier den zweiten Tag. Insgesamt verblieben 116 Spieler im Turnier.