Alan Gold Wins UKIPT Galway! (€187,494)
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Scotland's Alan Gold started the UKIPT final table as the chip leader and less than four hours later he was the only player left standing after one of the fastest final tables the UKIPT has ever seen. Gold, who had also been the chip leader after the first day, blitzed his way through the opposition in such an aggressive manner that it was almost impossible for anyone to fight back. Gold was never afraid to risk everything, even early on, and got into multiple raising wars with the other big stacks. Gold mainly plays pot-limit Omaha on PokerStars but qualified for this event through Full Tilt – meaning he won the Full Tilt Last Longer Prize and now has free entries to all the remaining stops for the fourth season of the UKIPT to go with the €187,494 which he took for first place after striking a deal heads up.
It took less than 30 minutes for us to lose our first player, Jonathan Slater. He was on the wrong end of an awful cooler very early on. Slater held 
on a 
and was more than happy to get his chips in against Dimitri Pembroke, but the latter held 
for top set leaving Slater with just one out. “I'd really like a seven please,” Slater requested but the dealer was not forthcoming with the case card and instead Slater left the table in eighth place winning €16,500 for his troubles.
Next to be knocked out was Christy Morgan, a local Galway player who is a rare beast in that he only plays live – never online. Morgan had shoved his short stack into the middle over the top of Paul Febers' cutoff raise and had himself seemed very confident. Febers made a crying call with ace-ten but was happy to find himself ahead of Morgan's ace-nine. The board came A-2-J-K-Q and Febers rivered a straight to leave us with six players.
Benjamin Spragg was eliminated in sixth place, he'd played a hand passively against Gold hoping to trap only for the latter to overtake him and turn two pair to win a huge pot. Spragg's last remaining chips went in with 
against Daragh Davey's 
but he was unable to spike on a 
board.
Damian Porebski was out after this, he had four-bet all in over the top of an Gold button reraise but found himself outkicked and was knocked out in fifth place for €45,300.
This left just four players: Gold, Febers, Davey and Pembroke – the latter two supremely short and just trying to survive while Gold and Febers continued to tussle. Eventually something had to give and it was Pembroke who fell next, albeit in unlucky circumstances.
Pembroke moved all in from under the gun for just over 1.9 million and it was folded to Gold in the small blind who made the call. Gold flipped 
but he was dominated by Pembroke's 
, the latter looking to be in good shape to double up but the 
board proved otherwise as Gold caught a three-outer to increase his chip lead.
The very next hand Davey fell to Gold in a coinflip as Davey's short-stack shove with king-jack was upended by Gold's pocket tens as the board came 
.
Heads up saw Gold with 12 million in chips against Febers' 4.755 million, and consistent with their battles earlier on, it was brief, bloody and with big pots. The final hand saw Gold turn trips against Febers' two pair and that was enough to seal the deal.
FTP UKIPT Galway Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Alan Gold | €187,494 |
| 2nd | Paul Febers | €149,906 |
| 3rd | Daragh Davey | €80,400 |
| 4th | Dimitri Pembroke | €62,000 |
| 5th | Damian Porebski | €45,300 |
| 6th | Benjamin Spragg | €30,210 |
| 7th | Christy Morkan | €22,310 |
| 8th | Jonathan Slater | €16,500 |
With that, it's the end of the Full Tilt Poker Festival here in Galway, the wonderful poker village is slowly being dismantled around us but we're going to try and take one last shot at beating Gus Hansen's Pac-Man score. Wish us luck!