When Max Silver demolished the UKIPT Dublin final table in just four hours it was a record that we didn't think we'd see broken. But today Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boere was just one card away from doing just that and winning her second major title. As it is it the river card kept Dean Hutchison alive. And two hours later, after a back and forth heads-up battle, he continued Scotland's amazing record in Season 4 of the UKIPT by becoming the fourth Scot to claim a UKIPT4 Main Event title.
Between them Boeree (five) and Hutchison (one) had eliminated every player at the final table and going into heads-up play Boeree had a 5,320,000 to 3,045,000 chip lead. It was all one way traffic to begin with as Boeree stretched out to a 6,500,000 to 1,700,000 advantage. Then came the turning point.
Hutchison three-bet all-in for 1,715,000 with [Ah][4d] and Boeree snapped him off with pocket kings. The [5d][7d][2h] flop gave Hutchison a gutshot straight draw, the [Jd] turn a flush draw and the [3c] a straight and the pot.
The chip lead changed hands on multiple occasions over the next 90 minutes before Boeree flopped top two pair only for Hutchison to turn a pair and river a better two-pair. That left Boeree with fewer than 20 big blinds and just 10 minutes later she committed them with [5c][3c] on a [4d][5s][6c] flop. A good hand for sure, just not as good as Hutchison's [6s][5d]. She got no help on the [Kc] turn or [8d] river and Hutchison's rail erupted in delight.
"If the kings hand held against A-4 it's obviously a different story." Boeree told PokerStars Blog. "At the start of heads-up I felt like I had him pegged and was confident that I was going to win. But, he adapted really well and became a lot more aggressive, which not only made him harder to play against but made it higher variance."
Today Boeree was on the wrong side of that variance, but she will be back for the next UKIPT in Dublin and is clearly hungry for more after a great start to 2014. "My top priority is winning another major title, the goal is still the Triple Crown. But a UKIPT title would've been great."
As for Hutchison, a cash game pro who freely admits he doesn't play a lot of tournaments, his previous biggest live cash wasn't even down to him and came when he was 5,700 miles away. The Scotsman is friends with, amongst others, Ludovic Geilich and had a percentage of him when he won UKIPT4 Marbella in June. Hutchison was in Las Vegas playing the WSOP at the time so wasn't there to watch his friend win. However, Geilich was on the rail today and confirmed that he had a percentage of Hutchison in this tournament.
"I decided to play at the last minute," said Hutchison. "It was a hard final table, my friend (Michael Kane) was on the final table and it was really good having a rail and their support, it'll be a great memory. At the start of heads-up my confidence was really low and she ground me down. Fortunately I got lucky with A-4 against kings, that got my confidence up."
The start of the final table saw three players eliminated in the opening 25 minutes all at the hands of Boeree. The players hadn't even got comfy by the time Ciaran Heaney departed in eighth, his [Ah][Ts] started and stayed behind Boeree's pocket queens. A few hands later and Michael Kane was feeling the same pain. His 17 big blind shove with [Qs][Js] picked off by Boeree, who had flatted Dean Hutchison's raise with [As][Qc].
And 15 minutes later the start of final table short stack, Jacobus Visser, shoved five big blinds with [9s][6s] and lost out to Boeree's [Ah][7s]. Boeree now had almost half the chips in play, whilst everyone else had picked up an extra £15,000 whilst twiddling their thumbs.
So suddenly it was a party of five, however just 20 minutes later five became four. Tomasz Raniszewski losing a flip with pocket threes against Hutchison's [As][Qc] when a queen flopped.
Four handed play lasted an eternity - well in comparison - but after 40 minutes Boeree decided she quite fancied knocking another player out. She opened with pocket eights and called Eldon Orr's 25 big blind shove. The Northern Irishman had [Ah][Ks] but the pair held up to win the classic race.
During three-handed play each player took it in turn to have the chip lead and after Dean Hutchison doubled through Jason Beazley there was just six big blinds separating the three players. It would soon go heads-up though as Boeree won another race, this time she had the [Ah][Kh] but she outflopped Beazley's pocket tens and rivered another ace for good measure. Beazley, who started the final table as chip leader, collected £42,430 for his third place finish.
Sadly, for Boeree the fairytale ending to go with the dream start didn't materialise."It was almost the perfect final table," she said.
UKIPT4 Edinburgh Final Table result:
1st. Dean Hutchison, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player - £93,900
2nd. Liv Boeree, United Kingdom, Team PokerStars Pro - £59,180
3rd. Jason Beazley United Kingdom - £42,430
4th. Eldon Orr, United Kingdom - £33,700
5th. Tomasz Raniszewski, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier - £26,430
6th. Jacobus Visser, Netherlands, PokerStars Qualifier - £20,710
7th. Michael Kane, United Kingdom - £15,570
8th. Ciaran Heaney, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier - £11,060
That's it from UKIPT Edinburgh, the PokerStars Blog will be back with EPT Deauville coverage from Sunday. To read all of today's coverage click here and to see all 63 in the money finishers click here.
All photos are copyright of Rene Velli