This is the first UKIPT Main Event for current third-in-chips Paul Febers. he 27-year-old from Glasgow started playing poker nine years ago by participating in online freerolls and has since made a living from the game. He prefers to play online and has only attended about 20 live events - with Galway being his first UKIPT. Febers has many cashes under his belt and at the beginning of the year scooped $80,000 in Full Tilt Poker’s MiniFTOPS. He describes the Poker Village as “a great venue” and tried his hand at the €2,000 High Roller side event – from which he unfortunately busted within 10 minutes. He’s saved his deep run for the €1,000 Main Event and winning it would mark his best achievement in live tournament poker to date.
Benjamin Spragg has made a rare foray from the virtual felt on which he makes his living to play in the UKIPT Galway Main Event. He min-cashed in Bristol, attending because it was near his home town of Stroud in Gloucestershire, but has smashed his live cash record here. He also came 3rd in the Poker Triathlon event earlier in the festival. Spragg might be best known to readers of the live updates this week for his fold of middle set. He justified his move and explained his thinking:
“Under the gun opens - at the time I am thinking he is a good, tight player. I call with nines and a guy calls behind who I also think is a good, tight player. The flop comes Q-9-7 and the initial raiser continuation bets and I call. At the moment, I’m pretty happy. Then the guy behind raises and given his tightness, as soon as he raised, my head just went to sevens. Now for the initial raiser, he doesn’t know I have nines, so in his mind there are two sets in the raiser’s perceived range, sevens and nines. Then calm as you like, he slides out 400k at 2k-4k blinds. I’m just thinking, if he sees what I see, then aces or kings here is a ludicrous shove. I could go with it but I was so sure that he wouldn’t do that with kings or aces. I could have had a million, but if I fold I still have over 400k myself at 2k -4k.” Regardless of this headline-grabbing decision, Spragg has remained in the thick of the action, reaching the final with 1,440,000.
Although trailing a string of cashes around Europe, 30 year old Polish professional poker player Damian Porebski sees tomorrow as a personal landmark – his first Main Event final table appearance. Porebski has made thousands in side events from the Czech Republic to Spain, but has yet to secure a title although has already racked up three cashes on the UKIPT. The thought of doing so left him smiling irrepressibly as the final eight bagged up, despite experiencing being “card dead” in his last few levels. Porebski even laughed about the fact that his early lead wasn’t worth much later on, saying, “I had 200k after Day 1b. After Day 2 I had 120k. Now I have the same stack (15 big blinds) I’ve had for a long time – not much play!”
He’s guaranteed a healthy profit on the cost of his original online satellite, however, especially as he is one of three players remaining in the Full Tilt Poker Last Longer, the winner of which will receive buy-ins plus expenses to all remaining UKIPT stops. He said that although he was aware of the potential added value, he did not foresee any difference in the way he’d tackle his opponents tomorrow.
Dimitri Pembroke, 33, works in IT and describes himself as “just an amateur” who likes to play the odd festival here and there, exclusively Texas Hold’em events. They’ve included UKIPT stops in Dublin and Cork, but his best live cash to date is €15,500 won on the 2011 Celtic Poker Tour in Carlow where he finished 2nd. He’s already bested that by making the final here in Galway, but says he’s not anxious about the opposition on the final, just, “more worried about being short stacked!” He doesn’t plan too far in advance either tactics-wise or as to his next live poker tournament, but his ease at the table makes his claims to total inexperience seem somewhat modest.
Jonathan Slater is a 25-year-old professional poker player from Chidwell, Essex. His poker tutelage started at Hertfordshire University and he's been a professional player for four years. He enjoys playing the UKIPT, having played at UKIPT Galway, Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh previously.
He has good form in Galway having chopped the €300 event here last year for €12,800 - his best result to date. He's been particularly impressed with the Full Tilt Poker Village -"It's a great set-up, I love the games room and bar. There's a great buzz in there at the end of the night."
He told us yesterday was the key day for him - "I had a really good table yesterday where I arrived with 60,000 and won every hand for four hours. I think I was first player to break one million."
He's close friends with fellow finalist Jonathan Spragg, whom he three-bet regularly in the latter stages of the day. "It's funny, he thinks I'm really aggressive but I had a hand against him every time. We're good mates, I know him really well. We've got a house together here in Galway so it's great we've both finalled."
Daragh Davey impressed the live-stream commentators today as he battled to the final table where he lies 2nd in chips overall. The 24-year-old poker professional from Dublin (originally from Sligo) qualified on Full Tilt Poker, thus entering the Last Longer promotion that could see him win a tour passport for the rest of the UKIPT events this season. Not that he needs it – Davey won no fewer than six tickets for the Galway Main Event although he admits he’s, “not as good as Doke [Dara O’Kearney] who won 15!”
Davey has been playing poker for six years, starting in college (where he described himself as “a complete fish”) and then playing live cash at the Fitzwilliam. He still prefers playing live, even though online is where he makes most of his money (his best result 2nd in a PokerStars major for $48,000). This year he’s cashed in the WSOP Main Event and come back to Ireland to final table an event here the Full Tilt Poker Galway Festival – the €135 No Limit Hold’em event last week. He’s also discovered open-faced Chinese poker which he describes as “the most fun game ever.”
Scotland's Alan Gold finished Day 1 of the Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway as the chip leader, and he will start the final table holding the same distinction. The 31 year old online poker pro has been playing poker for the better part of a decade, and although he plays primarily pot-limit Omaha cash on PokerStars, he qualified for the UKIPT Galway via Full Tilt Poker.
Gold flew in specifically to play the Main Event and credits a combination of playing good and running better for his success thus far, though he admits he is worried about Daragh Davey, who is to his direct left with the second biggest stack.
No matter where he finishes, Gold will notch his largest live score, blowing past his only other result of a 45th-place finish in January's UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event for 1,650. Gold is focused on the task at hand but has confirmed that he will be at future UKIPTs as well as the upcoming European Poker Tour Barcelona.
Local legend Christy Morkan, 39, from Galway plays poker recreationally as much as he can. Although he has played live events for over 10 years, he does not play online. Christy was introduced to the game when Fintan Gavin first started up weekly local tournaments. He won his seat to the UKIPT Galway Main Event via a freeroll at Ceasers Casino. His best result to date is first place at the Boylepoker Irish Poker Tour Grand Final back in 2006 for $11,573. He will be starting as the short stack tomorrow but says confidently, “I’m not gone by a long shot!”
After four days of jam-packed action, the Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway Main Event will finally determine a winner here on the fifth and final day of action. What started with 860 players is down to the final 8, all with their eyes firmly fixed on the title and €205,600 first-place prize.
The man best positioned to capture both is Alan Gold, who was not only the Day 1 chip leader but is also the chip leader going into the final table with 4,050,000. He utilized an aggressive style that involves applying constant pressure on the shorter stack. It got him this far, but only time will tell if it'll get him to the end.
He'll face some stiff competition though including local player Christy Morkan; well-respected Irish pro Daragh Davey; and Day 1b chip leader Damian Porebski, just to name a few. Here's a look at the final table:
Seat
Name
Seat 1:
Christy Morkan - 695,000
Seat 2:
Alan Gold - 4,050,000
Seat 3:
Daragh Davey - 3,435,000
Seat 4:
Jonathan Slater - 1,600,000
Seat 5:
Dimitri Pembroke - 1,915,000
Seat 6:
Damian Porebski - 695,000
Seat 7:
Benjamin Spragg - 1,440,000
Seat 8:
Paul Febers - 2,930,000
Another story to keep an eye on is the Full Tilt Poker Last Longer Sponsorship Promotion, which will see the last participant standing receive a prize package including buy-ins and expenses to every remaining stop on the UKIPT Season 4 tour. Three men at the final table are still a part of this promotion in Gold, Davey and Porebski.
The final eight players will return at Noon local time, which is a couple of hours from now. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then for all the action and eliminations on the way to crowning a FTP UKIPT Galway champion. In the meantime, check out this intense Connect Four game between a couple of the FTP Ambassadors:
