Fitting then that the final table included three of the most promising young players in the game, including Roland De Wolfe, a veritable poker superstar with a WPT title and an EPT title already in the bag.
Along with Marty Smyth, Sorel Mizzi and Roland De Wolfe there was also the wise old head of Brian O’Keefe, or “The Fox” as he is also known. The Fox controlled early proceedings, moving all-in nine times uncontested, before coming to a sticky end.
Unfortunately for poker fans the final table had become something of a crapshoot fairly early on, with very little flop play (or “poker”) and lots of all-in moves, and it was clear that luck would play a big part in the outcome of this tournament. And it doesn’t get much luckier that Roland De Wolfe’s hand against Brian O’Keefe. De Wolfe, as was customary, moved all-in with Ah-5d but was in dire straits when O’Keefe called with pocket nines. When the flop came 9h-5h-3d De Wolfe was drawing almost dead, needing a runner-runner miracle to save his neck, and that’s exactly what he got. Heartbreakingly for The Fox the turn and river were both hearts, neither of which paired the board, and De Wolfe had crippled him with a class A suck out. A few hands later and the Wolfe gobbled up O’Keefe’s remaining chips and, much to the disappointment of the partisan Irish crowd, the Fox was finished.
De Wolfe was on a role at this point, and things began to look ominous for his opponents when he eliminated Danny McHugh in fourth place, his pocket fives holding up against McHugh’s A-9o.
That win gave De Wolfe the chip lead, but he was severely damaged a few hands later when he ran his pocket sixes into the aces of Marty Smyth. A flopped two pair helped him claw some chips, but he was still nearly a million chips behind when he clashed with the patient Sorel Mizzi.
Mizzi had been mostly keeping out of trouble when he found 7-7 and called De Wolfe’s all-in re-raise. De Wolfe turned over Kd-Qd and flopped an open end straight draw when the first three cards off the deck were 2h-Tc-Js. A two on the river kept Mizzi in the lead but and ace on the river gave De Wolfe the broadway straight and he was once again the chip leader.
Within minutes it was all over for the Canadian; he pushed his last chips in the middle and was called by both Smyth and De Wolfe. Both players checked the As-Tc-Ts flop, with Smyth betting $400k on the 7s turn and De Wolfe calling. The river was a fourth spade, and Smyth wisely folded his A-Q when De Wolfe bet out for $500k. De Wolfe revealed Ks-5s for the nut flush, and Mizzi mucked. He won €210,000 for third place.
Uncharacteristically heads-up began very slowly, with both players feeling each other out. There was a lot of folding preflop, and a lot of limping and checking down. Then all of a sudden the heads-up exploded into life. Amazingly after so much tight play the first hand which saw all the chips in the middle was not aces versus kings, but two versus threes.
Roland, with the treys, also had the chip lead before the hand begun, but Smyth turned a two to leave Roland playing a very short stack. Smyth then made a potential mistake by folding twice when Roland pushed his negligible stack into the middle, allowing the Wolfe to claw back some ground. When he did finally call it looked like a split pot, with Smyth’s Ad-8s marginally behind Roland’s suited Ah-8h, but once again Roland hit an improbable heart flush and amazingly he re-took the lead.
Roland continued to play aggressively, shoving on almost every hand, but this strategy proved his undoing, as Smyth plucked up the courage to call with Q-J and was miles ahead of De Wolfe’s J-4. This time there was no suck-out for De Wolfe, and the loss left him seriously crippled. He had to push again the following hand with Th-3h regardless, and when Smyth called with Kh-9h the flop came Ah-8s-6h, with both players hitting their flush on the river. Smyth’s king kicker gave him the pot, and with it the title and the €650,000 first prize. De Wolfe had to settle for second place, but yet another incredible tournament performance will have done his reputation no harm at all. He received €325,000 for second place.