Neil Channing Favorite to Win Irish Open 2008

Popular Englishman Neil Channing goes into the final table of six at the PaddyPowerPoker.com €3 million-guaranteed 2008 Irish Open today as both chip leader and strong favourite to take down the €800,000 first prize. With 667 players, a €201,000 overlay by the sponsor, and a unique same-day TV broadcast turnaround of TV coverage for national broadcaster RTE the tournament has been a roaring success from both a sponsor and player point of view.

Fifty-two players started day three, and casualties along the way to the final table included Padraig Parkinson, Don Fagan, Surindar Sunar, Conor Tate, and Thomas Fougeron.

The unfortunate final-table bubble boy was Carsten Joh, who, after a 140,000 raise by Donal Norton, moved all-in with A-Q. Norton showed 3-3, and no ace or queen sealed the German’s fate with the €100,000 prize some small consolation.

The chip counts and odds for the final table are:

1. Neil Channing — 2,748,000 (10-11)
2. Donal Norton — 1,164,000 (4-1)
3. Tim Blake — 912,000 (11-2)
4. Kai Danilo Paulson — 716,000 (7-1)
5. Edwin Tournier — 562,000 (10-1)
6. Thomas Dunwoodie — 547,000 (10-1)

Elsewhere at the festival, it was a good night for the French in both the €400 rebuy pot-limit Omaha and €1,500 no-limit hold’em events. The former concluded with Pascal Perrault defeating countryman Anthony Lellouche heads up for the trophy and the winner’s purse of €46,600. The latter saw David Miara defeat Darren Mewani heads up to claim the title and the €128,200 first-place cheque.

The top 10 payouts in the Omaha tournament were:

1. Pascal Perrault — €46,600
2. Anthony Lellouche — €25,700
3. Ian Frazer — €14,120
4. Fernando Fernandez — €11,300
5. Tommi Lindfors — €8,470
6. Michael Hunt — €7,060
7. Paul Leckey — €5,650
8. Juan carlos Rosa callejas — €4,240
9. Garcia cayatano Ayala — €2,820
10. Laurence Cowsar — €1,980

While the top 10 in the no-limit hold’em tournament were:

1. David Miara — €128,200
2. Darrin Melwani — €70,490
3. Ryan Fronda — €36,040
4. Goran Tomic — €28,040
5. BobbiG — €24,030
6. Yehong Luo — €20,020
7. Ian McDonald — €16,020
8. Jesper Hougaard — €12,020
9. Dominik Degott — €8,010
10. Tristan Clemencon — €4,810

Click here for regular live updates of all of the action at the final table courtesy of our friends at PaddyPowerPoker.com.