Roy The Boy says...

Roy Brindley's Irish Open Report

Thursday 3 Apr 2008

The value of the dollar is falling through the floor; your pound has never been so valuable against the American greenback. Banks are no longer booming but busting, and apparently the world is in a recession but doesn’t know it.

Visit a Bureau de Change in a euro-zone such as Ireland to buy Euros or step foot in the breathtaking card-room set up within Dublin’s Citywest Hotel for the Irish Open Festival last weekend and you would not entertain such thoughts.

No matter what the rest of the world is up to poker is booming. Nearly 700 players chasing a €3 million prize-pool in the Irish Open main event underlines that fact and those Euros are more valuable than ever, which is great news for the three Englishmen who will be taking home plenty of ‘em after making the final table of Europe’s longest running, and one of the most prestigious, events.

As it happens all three of them are friends of Ladbrokespoker: Tom ‘TOOLBOX’ Dunwoodie, Tim ‘T8MML’ Blake and Neil Channing, who takes a hand in pricing up poker tournaments on behalf of Ladbrokes sportsbook.

Neil is known as ‘Bad-Beat’ which is an pseudonym that must surely be dispensed with considering his successes in scores of coin-flips: an all-in pre-flop with Ace-7 against Tom Dunwoodie’s Ace-8 which found a miracle 7 on the river and eliminated the Geordie in third; his all-in pre-flop with Q-6 which dispatched Tim Blake and his K-J in fourth; his all-in pre-flop with 5s-5h against 6c-6d which was drawing to a one outer after a Ace-King-Queen (all diamond) flop – that miracle 5 of clubs landed on the river; an Ace-8 which overcame James Daly’s J-J …to name but a few of his ‘Good-Beats’.

The agony, the ecstasy, it cannot be measured, it cannot be matched. Unparalleled, unsurpassed, the exhilaration involved with thousands, hundreds of thousands, on the line at the turn of a card.

Neil ‘Good Beat’ Channing rode that wave and was still stood upright when it crashed into a beautiful sandy beach where a bikini clad beauty was waiting for him with cocktail. In this game one will always stand supreme amongst cheers and tears and this day belonged to the affable Londoner.

Maybe it was fate, maybe it was destiny. By an amazing coincidence for two full days the monitors within the bar and foyer areas of the card hall displayed a message on them saying: "Mr Neil Channing, welcome to the Citywest Hotel & Resort we hope you enjoy your stay" as if the feed had come directly from Neil’s room. Just as well he did not watch a recreational film when returning to his room on a night time!

In true Irish fashion, after the winner was presented his trophy he held aloft his winning hand for the cameras: An Ace of clubs and a 9 of diamonds. Therein lays the irony, as it was an Ace of clubs and a 9 of hearts which TV viewers saw him overcome pocket 5’s in the final hand. Who knows maybe runner-up Donal Norton (no Ladbrokes alias yet, but I’ll get him signed-up to the site within a fortnight) can claim a misdeal and return to the heads-up battle on a technicality! …like I say these were strange times.

But naturally the vast majority of players woke days before the eve of that hallowed final table with a feeling of emptiness knowing that something they had been looking forward to for months has been and gone. For most of us that feeling of emptiness really hits home when we reach for our wallets.

So what is it with poker, why do we inflict so much pain unto ourselves, come back again and again when there can only be one winner and, being practical, it is unlikely to be us? Why is there a platoon of bloggers and reporters, who march around the room like an army of angry ants who have lost their corporal, at every major poker tournament? How come, no matter how many times we hear the sonorous words "all-in", does the interest result in a maelstrom of obtrusive stares?

I just don’t know what the reason is, maybe a Channing-type victory will make me understand and I can then retire from poker, take up the obsession which is golf and spend my nights with a mug of Ovaltine and a challenging 1,000-piece jigsaw!

Roy "the Boy" Brindley - Ladbrokes-sponsored professional