After the Day 1 Max Silver had, it was up to everyone else to stop him. It was looking like no one could but then Kevin Killeen did and denied Silver the second UKIPT crown he so desperately wanted.
The heads up battle lasted around two-and-a-half hours but it was almost over within minutes of it beginning. Killeen was all in with pocket nines and survived the race with Silver's king-queen. Silver got the better of most of the pots that weren't all-ins but when all the chips were at risk, Killeen had the goods, or got there. Three more times his stack was a risk and all three times he found a double up.
When Silver was short and needed to make a move, he found himself dominated and out. He four-bet all in with queen-eight but was called by Killeen holding the dominating king-queen. Five cards later and Silver was covered in drink from Killeen's rail as they charged the tournament floor to celebrate with their man.
Silver took the defeat well and told the blog, "Oh well! Hurts more coming second than not winning a second title. I don't regret anything about the final."
On Kevin he said: "Nice guy, he played really well."
The whole day had been surrounded by a very jovial atmosphere. By the time heads up play got underway, the two supporting camps were polarised in their approach to supporting their man. When Silver won a hand a polite ripple of applause could be heard from his support; when Killeen won a hand his rail, most dressed in animal onsies, leapt up and down and sung football chant style songs.
After his victory Killeen spoke to the blog:
"I'm absolutely delighted to have won UKIPT Dublin, words can't describe how I feel. The rail kept me believing, they were loud, and they were great. Max is a very good player, it took me a while to find my rhythm but once I got even I believed I could win.
"I said at the beginning of the year that I wouldn't shave my beard until I'd had a 50k score so I guess the beard's got to go! The money's one thing but I'm just absolutely delighted to make a run like this and to be crowned champion of Dublin is fantastic."
Back to the beginning of the day and it only took three hands of play to lose the first player. Lone Italian Ivan Tononi moved his short stack all in with [js][8d] but ran into Robert Sturman's pocket queens and left with €8,748 for just over three days work.
Twenty-five minutes later Larry Ryan joined him on the rail and it was pocket queens that did the damage again. He and Killeen made it to the river of a [7h][jc][kh][jd][qc] board where the chips went in. Ryan had made a straight with ten-nine but that was no good against Killeen's rivered boat.
The final table settled down after that as chips moved around from one player's stack to another. Silver and Joeri Zandvliet contested the UKIPT1 Edinburgh final table that Nick Abou Risk won, and when the Dutchman secured his second title at UKIPT2 Dublin, Silver finished fourth. The rivalry extended to a friendship and the two met at a third UKIPT table today, and inevitably locked horns.
Silver called Zandvliet's three-bet all-in with pocket sevens. Zandvliet was in trouble with king-seven and failed to hit the type of three-outer that came to his rescue more than once yesterday.
As had been mentioned many times this week, the event was open to Rational Group employees who wished to play. Dirk Thijssen had only played two live poker tournaments before but that didn't stop him being the last employee in and the only representative at the final table. He played aggressively, always with a broad smile across his face though. His day came to an end when his king-ten failed to stay ahead of Silver's eight-nine. Office bragging rights and €23,100 equals a good week in most people's minds.
PokerStars qualifier Robert Sturman won his way into this event for just €8 and managed to turn that into €29,100 and a fourth-place finish. His pocket tens failed to stay ahead of Christopher Wood, who had called with ace-nine. This was the plasterer's second ever UKIPT and he was delighted to be able take the money home to lavish on his four-week-old baby.
The unofficial nine-handed table only lasted four hands last night and the first three of them saw Wood move all in. All three shoves got through but it just shows you the predicament he was in. For him to be able to ladder up to third place for a €38,400-score is some achievement. His exit hand came after he three-bet all in with six-seven after a Killeen raise. The Irishman called and hit a queen to send Wood back to Hartlepool.
UKIPT4 final table results:
1st. Kevin Killeen, Ireland, PokerStars Player, €87,700
2nd. Max Silver, United Kingdom, PokerStars Player, €53,700
3rd. Chris Wood, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, €38,400
4th. Robert Sturman, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier - €29,100
5th. Dirk Thijssen, Isle of Man, Rational Group staff - €23,100
6th. Joeri Zandvliet, Netherlands, PokerStars qualifier, €17,700
7th. Larry Ryan, Ireland, PokerStars qualifier - €12,830
8th. Ivan Tononi, Italy - €8,748
That's all from Dublin. The next Season 4 stop promises to be a special one as the tour returns to Dusk Till Dawn and has a whopping £1 million guarantee. It takes place from May 7-12 and satellites are already running on PokerStars so it'd seem silly not to try and be involved.
To catch up on all today's action and to see who finished in what spot, please click on the links below:
Levels 25-28
Levels 29-31
UKIPT Dublin Videos
Prize pool and payouts
All pictures copyright of Danny Maxwell. Check out his pictures here.