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.



PARTYPOKER.COM WORLD OPEN IV FINAL TABLE – 1.4 MILLION CHIPS IN PLAY - Follow the action live at http://www.matchroompoker.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5



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.



The event featured a top class field led by ‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton and included Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott, Juha Helppi, Theo Jorgensen, Ian Frazer, Roberto Romanello, Jon Kalmar, Thomas Bihl, Surinder Sunar, John Tabatabai, Christoph Haller, Jan Peter Jachtmann and Liam Flood. Coverage of the Matchroom Sport organised event will be broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK later this year and will be fronted by Jesse May. Last year, 45-year-old former Sidcup betting shop owner Anthony Hardy triumphed over a final table that also featured Ian Cox, Ram Vaswani, David Rudling, Ian Frazer and eventual runner-up Ian Woodley. The winner in 2006 was Pippa Flanders, while in 2005 Lee Nelson won the inaugural event.


The winner of each of the 12 heats progressed to the semi-final stage, and, for the first time in the event's history all was not lost for the runners-up on the table as they battled it out for the remaining two semi-final spots in “last chance” turbo heats.