Channing Craics Ireland
There are fewer nicer blokes in poker than Neil Channing, if the truth be known. With so many inflated egos telling the world how good they are, modesty is something of a lost art form in the world of poker. Channing is the modern-day Da Vinci when it comes to understatement. Looking mildly uncomfortable as he sits down to talk about his Irish excursion and ultimate victory, Channing gives off an air of ‘it could have been anyone’, looking nervously around at the walls while talking about how he went to Ireland and left €800,000 richer. That wasn’t even including the £50,000 he won in a small flutter he’d had with the sponsors.
“I’ve always really enjoyed Ireland generally. The people are fantastic and it’s a fun place”, muses Channing. It’s almost as if he’s going to tell you about how he went there for the craic and authentic Irish drinking experience. He flits back to the poker though before we get to looking at the holiday snaps. “I went into this event thinking I haven’t played a tournament for a month. I was quite focussed and I wanted to do well. I went in with quite a gamble-y mood.”
These ‘gamble-y moods’ are an integral part of Channing’s make-up. A former bookmaker, spread better and blackjack card-counter, barely a day in Neil’s adult life has passed where he hasn’t felt the urge to punt on something. He’s no mug gambler though, winning £140,000 in nine months with City Index. That was more a matter of principle; winning the money after the firm made him redundant. Channing had a point to prove–it was simply his way of spiting his former employers. “In fact, every month I’d phone the accounts department and get them to transfer, from my winning account, the exact equivalent of what my salary had been, after tax, when I worked there.” Channing pauses, before adding in a deadpan manner, “Eventually it got to a point where everyone closed my account and I couldn’t do spread betting any more.”
Since the spread betting ban had almost forced Channing to beat the poker games, he has been sat in–and won at–some of the biggest poker games in London with a seeming ease. Winning a tournament was the next part of reminding people just how good a player he really is. The Irish Open was to be that opportunity for our hero.
Day One was a rollercoaster for Neil, as he got off to a flying start, only for two bad beats to send his chip count back down to 7,000–under his starting stack size. From there, he dug in and ground his way back, finishing the day above the average chip count.
Day Two didn’t start off as well as it might have done, though. “I got a bit cocky,” confesses the ego-less Channing. “I got involved in a couple of messy pots which just left me wondering if I had done the right thing. I was just feeling a little uncomfortable.” As had happened on the first day, things had started well before the wheels began to come off. Channing’s reversal of fortunes on Day One kept him alive and kicking. Remarkably, the same happened again at the end of Day Two. Channing rallied, and Day Three continued with Neil riding his luck some more.
“I came back on Day 3 feeling really good. I got lucky again with A-8 against pocket Jacks, and hit my ace, which was nice.” Of course, the luck can go both ways, and it wasn’t long before the poker version of Groundhog Day began again for the Englishman. “I ran pocket nines into tens and eights into nines. I didn’t do much wrong there, but before I knew it I was down to four big blinds with thirty to thirty five players left. I sat there and thought to myself, ‘Oh well, that’s the end of that one.’”
From that moment on, it was almost as if Channing played with the abandon you would normally associate with a freeroll. The chips started to move around the table with an added urgency. It was as if Channing felt the tournament couldn’t be lost any more, only won.
A couple of lucky breaks and timely folds from the others around the table soon saw Neil back around the average stack. When one of the best remaining players in the field, World Series Main Event final tablist John Kabbaj, was eliminated in nineteenth, Channing re-evaluated his chances.
“When we got to the dinner break, we both had about 550,000 chips. I thought one of us was going to win it. He was playing really well, but if he wasn’t going to win, why couldn’t it be me? When he was bust out, I looked around and thought, ‘Yeah, I can win this.’ From then on I was up for it. I played very aggressively. It just went smoothly from there.”
There it is again–the patented Channing understatement, deftly delivered by the man who’d have you believe he’d only won a little game in Dublin. Of course, the fact he’d backed himself to win the tournament after Day One shows that he isn’t lacking in self-belief either.
“Paddy Power had betting on the event from the start. I thought the prices were about right. I do some consultancy work on poker odds with companies like Ladbrokes and Stan James, but not Paddy Power. I’ve spoken to Paddy Power about in the past, but they were like, ‘No, we know a lot about poker so we don’t need any help.’ So I was determined to prove a point to them. When they updated the prices after the first day, I thought they’d made a few mistakes, so I had seven bets with them. I laid out £3,100 and £500 of that was on myself at 100/1. That was very nice–£50,000. Thanks, Paddy Power!”
The bet could have come to nothing, but from Kabbaj’s departure and experienced British pro Surinder Sunar surrendering his chance to win the title by leaving the tournament in seventeenth, Channing’s experience over the rest of the field meant he was able to attack the remaining players. A man who has gone broke through gambling doesn’t have the same fear when it comes to looking at the prize money. From there on, it’s about winning as much as you can, not looking over your shoulder to worry about what you might miss out on. Channing went on to win, claiming his biggest tournament pay out of €800,000, as well as the £50,000 from the bookies.
A couple of days later, Channing was back at his second home, ‘The Vic’ (The Grosvenor Victoria Casino) in London. “I made a clear statement by going back to The Vic two or three times in the first week back from Ireland. I just sat down and played. I didn’t take the piss, I just sat down with an amount of money that was suitable for the game, and played in some of the smaller ones too. I didn’t want to come in and lord it over people just because I won a certain amount of money.” It was as if, while the tournament win was due, the most important part of the process to Channing’s mind was being the same person he was before the win in Dublin. The win didn’t come as a complete surprise, though.
“I don’t think I’ve suddenly become a good tournament player because of the Irish Open. I was pretty unlucky in the EPT London two years ago, and I lost two consecutive pots when I would have been chip leader with a dozen players left.” Channing also had a shot at success at the World Series, having come close to a win in a side event. With $500,000 for first place, Channing was involved in a massive pot which he lost. The winner of the pot went on to win the tournament, Channing ended up in twentieth. “I just had a lot of stuff like that happen to me,” explains Channing. “When it came down to the key race, it seemed liked I’d never win one of them”. If he did “this could have happened two years ago”, Channing surmised.
Perhaps there are cracks in his understated manner from time to time. What we do know now is that Channing’s time arrived in Dublin. Nice guys don’t always finish last–some of them win the whole lot.
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Posted by Thalia – 7 Sep 2008, 5:30 AM
Poker players just amaze me. I was taught that it was the draw of the card in any card game. For people that get into poker, they must really feel like they are luckier than most.