It was 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 under his belt.
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 Irishman controlled early proceedings, much to the delight of the crowd, moving all-in nine times uncontested, before coming to a sticky end.
Unfortunately for poker fans the final table became something of a crapshoot fairly early on, with very little flop play (or “poker”) and lots of all-in moves; it was clear that luck would play a big part in the outcome of this tournament. That said, Roland De Wolfe’s hand against Brian O’Keefe was luck on a different scale.
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 it looked like the end of De Wolfe’s tournament; he was drawing dead to a runner-runner miracle. Guess what happened next. Heartbreakingly for The Fox the turn and river were both hearts, neither of which paired the board, and he had been with a class A suck out. A few hands later the Wolfe gobbled up O’Keefe’s remaining chips and, much to the disillusionment of the partisan Irish crowd, the Fox was finished.
De Wolfe was on a role at this point and the situation 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 just as he threatened to run over the table he was severely damaged a few hands later, crashing his pocket sixes into the aces of Marty Smyth. A flopped two pair soon after helped him claw back 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 decided to call De Wolfe’s all-in re-raise. De Wolfe flipped 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 the Canadian in the lead but an 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 Mizzi; he pushed his last chips in the middle and was probably not best pleased when both Smyth and De Wolfe called. 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, given the previous action, the heads-up battle 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 game exploded into life. And 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, and looked likely to end it there until Smyth turned a two to flip matters on their head. Smyth then made a potential error by folding twice when Roland pushed his short stack into the middle, allowing the Wolfe back into the game. When he did finally call it looked like a split pot was guaranteed, with Smyth’s Ad-8s up against 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 eventually proved his undoing as on the next hand Smyth plucked up the courage to call with Q-J and had De Wolfe’s J-4 totally dominated. 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 Smyth called with Kh-9h. The flop came Ah-8s-6h, and both players hit 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 bringing his total tournament earnings up to $3,109,420.