The 2012 Irish Open came to a close Monday at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin as Kevin Vandersmissen came all the way back from the bottom of the pile to take the championship. Vandersmissen won €420,000 for his triumph in the longest running No-Limit Hold’em tournament in Europe.
It was going to be a long climb to the top for Kevin Vandersmissen, as he started the final table in dead last place with just half a million chips, only a quarter of the two million the chip leaders Ian Simpson and David Dean had. Here’s what the final table looked like when Tuesday began:
1. Ian Simpson – 2,007,000
2. David “Dixie” Dean – 1,986,000
3. Steve Watts – 1,519,000
4. Thomas Beer – 1,319,000
5. Andrew Black – 808,000
6. Jordan Lewis – 685,000
7. Philip Magennis – 632,000
8. Samuel Chartier – 582,000
9. Kevin Vandersmissen – 492,000
Vandermissen and six of his tablemates were helped right away, as they moved up two rungs on the pay scale after a double elimination on the fifth hand. Simpson raised pre-flop to 56,000, Thomas Beer took it up to 140,000, Andy Black moved all-in for 774,000, Philip Magennis then called all-in for 622,000, Simpson folded, and Beer called both the all-ins! When the cards were revealed, Beer had Aces, Black had A-K, and Magennis had pocket Queens. The 2-7-K gave Black a slight chance, but two more 7’s on the turn and river gave Beer the huge pot and eliminated both Black and Magennis. With that, Thomas Beer soared to the chip lead with almost 3 million chips.
Shortly thereafter, Vandermissen began his ascent, doubling through Dean to 1.4 million chips. He only had K-J against Dean’s A-8, but a Jack on the flop was all Vandermissen needed to survive.
The next player to bust was the Day 1 chip leader, Samuel Chartier. He went all-in pre-flop with A-J, but ended up facing off against Simpson’s A-K and was out in 7th place.
A bit later, Jordan Lewis, whose stack had stayed virtually still the entire final table to that point, shoved pre-flop for 683,000 with A-K. Dean, who had taken some hard hits, called with K-J, and to Lewis’ dismay, nailed a Jack on the flop. Jordan Lewis was shown the door in 6th place, good for €59,000.
Throughout most of this, Vandersmissen was fairly quiet, but after Lewis’ ouster, he doubled-up once and scooped another healthy pot to push his stack to over 2.4 million.
After dinner, Steve Watts and Ian Simpson squared off in a huge pre-flop all-in pot, Watts with A-J (he was all-in for almost 1.5 million) and Simpson with 7-7. The board of 4-8-8-3-Q was kind to Simpson and Steve Watts was the tournament’s 5th place finisher. After that, Simpson, Vandersmissen, and Thomas Beer were in a virtual three-way tie with around 2.8 million chips each, while Dean was fourth with 1.4 million.
The landscape of the tourney changed significantly with the next elimination. Beer’s 8-8 made a set on the flop versus Simpsons T-T and just like that Thomas Beer had a huge chip lead, 6.23 million to Vandersmissen’s 2.88 million and Dean’s 919,000.
Vandersmissen then knocked out Dean with A-A versus K-5 to advance to the heads-up battle with Beer with the chip lead, 5.53 million to 4.5 million.
And it didn’t take long for Kevin Vandersmissen to win the whole thing. He quickly took a more than 2-to-1 lead when his A-K held up against Beer’s A-J. It was impressive that Beer wasn’t felted right there, as it looked like the raising pre-flop would end with all the chips in the middle. As it stood, though, Beer still had life, though he had some work to do behind 3.05 million to 6.87 million.
Beer was never able to make that comeback, though. With A-K on the button, he min-raised pre-flop to 160,000 and was called by Vandersmissen, who held 9-7. The flop of 3-9-4 was great for Vandersmissen, who check-raised Beer’s 200,000 bet to 480,000. Beer re-raised to 800,000, Vandersmissen shoved, and Beer made the call for all his chips. Neither the turn nor the river helped Beer and Kevin Vandersmissen became the 2012 Irish Open champion.
2012 Irish Open Final Table Results
1. Kevin Vandersmissen – €420,000
2. Thomas Beer – €225,000
3. David Dean – €158,000
4. Ian Simpson – €107,500
5. Steve Watts – €78,000
6. Jordan Lewis – €59,000
7. Samuel Chartier – €44,500
8. Andy Black – €32,700
9. Philip Magennis – €23,000
