WPT Ireland Day 3: Dubai Dave Does Dublin!

(Photo: Dubai Dave Shallow)

Dave "Dubai" Shallow has one hand on the WPT Champions Cup after a mind blowing final hand here at WPT Ireland. The surge from 36 players to a final table of six was always going to be a long, drawn out affair but 14hrs 30mins is a long shift by anyone’s standards!

Steve Watts was complaining about the time and Shaun Conning was falling asleep at the table when Dave Shallow raised to 85,000 from early position. It wasn’t an unusual raise as Shallow had been the most active player since the preliminary final table was created. Steven Moreau was seated to his left and he looked as composed and alert as anyone when he made the three-bet to 220,000. Gilligan and Watts soon folded before Shaun Conning moved all-in for around 700,000. Everyone moved off their seat anticipating at least one call from the two big stacks. Then out of nowhere Shallow verbally announced all-in and Moreau called.

The vultures circled the table and waited for the cards to be shown. Moreau turned over aces, Conning turned over queens and Shallow only had a pair of jacks. It looked like Steven Moreau was going to eliminate Conning and cripple Shallow. The flop of [Ts] [9d] [7c] gave Shallow some more outs and then the [Js] on the turn gave him the lead. This time it was Conning with the outs, but the [4c] river maintained Shallows lead and he eliminated both shell shocked and shattered players.

After the smoke had cleared and the carnage cleaned up Dave Shallow was left with 6,115,000 chips. One thing is for sure, when the play starts on the final table in a few short hours the aggressive Shallow is going to be a nightmare to play against.

We predicted a very quick start to the day and we weren’t disappointed, as people were dropping quicker than Padraig Parkinson drops a pint of the black stuff. One exception to the rule was Little Dave Nicholson who managed to triple up with his lowly pair of deuces prompting Dave Shallow to call it the worse play in history! The hand set up Nicholson for a great run and he eventually ended up finishing in 13th place for a €7,780 pay day. Nicholson, who is normally a PLO cash game player, plans to play 25 live tournaments this year and so he has gotten off to a decent start.

(Photo: Dave Nicholson)

Sam MacDonald was one of our favourites back on Day Two but he also left the party very early today. MacDonald running his [Ax] [7x] into the [Kx] [Kx] of Charles Harvey to be eliminated in 35th place for a min-cash.

In Level 20 Franck Boyer got involved in a hand with Ronan Gilligan, which would prove vital for the Irishman. On a board of [Kh] [Qc] [4h] [4d] Gilligan moved his last 220,000 into the jukebox and Boyer tank-folded. Gilligan showed [Jh] [7h] for the bluff and after that hand he grinded his way to a final table berth.

(Photo: Ronan Gilligan)

As we moved into Level 23, Daniel Smyth had caught Dave Shallow at the top of the chip counts. Smyth, who had also been moved to Shallow’s table, looked like he was going to be able to challenge the aggression of Shallow when it all went horribly wrong. Smyth called a six-bet for over 800,000 chips holding only [Ac] [Qc] against Patrik Vestlin and his pocket aces. Vestlin moved into the chip lead with 1,650,000 and Smyth was reduced to 840,000. Then just a few short hands later Smyth was all-in once again, but this time streets ahead of his opponent Charles Chattha. Smyth held pocket kings against Chaz Chattha’s pocket sevens, but a cruel seven on the river reduced Smyth down to 440,000 and pushed Chattha up to 950,000. Chattha played that stack excellently and also booked himself a final table berth. Smyth was later eliminated at the hands of the new force Patrik Vestlin.

(Photo: Patrik Vestlin & Chaz Chattha)

Also eliminated in Level 23 was Ken Doherty. Doherty had his eyes firmly set on the sort of prize money that is missing from the snooker world these days, but it in the end it wasn’t to be. Doherty showed that he is an excellent player and let’s hope we see more of him on the circuit.

(Photo: Ken Doherty)

His good friend Charles Chattha eliminated Ross Boatman in 10th place and Stuart Fox quickly followed in 9th. Then it all started to go south for the chip leader Patrik Vestlin. His gorgeous girlfriend stopped watching from the rail and he also started to lose all of his chips. Towards the end he was a likely candidate for a final table bubble spot until the infamous final hand secured his spot on the final table.

(Photo: Patrik Vestlin’s Other Half)

As the players started to get visibly tired it was Dave Shallow, Steve Watts and Steven Moreau who seemed to have the momentum, and it was Shallow who eliminated Robert Bruil in 8th place to take the chip lead. Then Dave Shallow’s aggression took over until we whizzed into that climactic final hand of a tale we have already sown.

So instead of a final six players we have a final five, and they had better get their heads down sharpish if they are going to get a well earned rest before the final table kicks off at 15:00 (GMT)

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Steve Watts – 1,345,000
Seat 2: Patrik Vestlin – 1,070,000
Seat 3: Charles Chattha – 835,000
Seat 4: David Shallow – 6,115,000
Seat 5: Ronan Gilligan – 775,000