Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway Main Event Day 2: Germany's Michels Leads as 51 Advance
The Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway Festival continued on Saturday without the €10,000 Super High Roller, which was unfortunately cancelled. Despite that, the remaining 282 players from an 860-player field returned for eight more one-hour levels of play in the Main Event. By the time the sun set on the west coast of Ireland and the players bagged and tagged for the night, just 51 players remained with Tim Michels, who qualified for this tournament through PokerStars, and his stack of 835,000 leading the way.
Michels got a good deal of his chips in the penultimate level of the night when Aidan Connelly bet 25,000 on a 4♣6♣5♥ flop and Michels raised enough to put Connelly all in. The latter tanked for several minutes before calling off his stack with 10♣10♦. Michels flipped 8♦6♦ for a pair and a gutshot. The turn was the 7♦ and Michels hit his straight. The river was the7♠ and Connelly's dreams were crushed while Michels were just getting started.
With a €140,000 overlay, everyone had their sights set on making the money at the top 104 and claiming a portion of the guaranteed €1,000,000 prize pool (which was actually €970,000 after fees were taken out). The two men best positioned to make the money, and a run at the €205,600 first-place prize for that matter, were Day 1A chip leader Alan Gold and Day 1B chip leader Damian Porebski, both of who made it through to Day 3.
Other notables who returned to action were Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody; Team Online's Dale Philip; Full Tilt Player Danielle Andersen; well-respected UK pro Max Silver; and Irish Poker Championship winner Trevor Dinneen, but only Phillips and Silver survived the day with 293,000 and 435,000 respectively.
The day kicked off with a bevy of eliminations, including that of Quisito Alfandega, who opened for 4,000 in first position only to have Cody three-bet to 25,000 in the small blind. The big blind folded, Alfandega called and the flop came down 5♠10♠8♠. Cody led for 20,200 and then called when Alfandega moved all in. Cody quickly tabled the K♣K♥ and was well out in front of Alfandega’s J♣J♥. Neither the 4♦ turn nor 6♦ river changed a thing and Alfandega headed to the exit.
Others who hit the rail shy of the money, and there were a lot of them, were 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event 12th-place finisher John Magill; 2007 WSOP Main Event fifth-place finisher Jon Kalmar; Dave Masters; Daniel Bavec; Chris Derrick, Liam Flood and Full Tilt Poker Croatian Ambassador Hana Soljan.
Soljan feel in Level 12 (1,000/2,000/300) in brutal fashion. It happened when she shoved all in under the gun for around 50,000 and UK's Nathan Gallagher ended up making the call.
Gallagher: K♠K♦
Soljan: AxAx
Soljan had the granddaddy of all hands and was in a prime spot to double to over 100K. The 7♥3♥Q♥ flop was safe enough, as was the J♦ turn. All the lovely lady needed to do was dodge a king on the river to stay alive, but as stated she exited in brutal fashion. That's because the K♠ spiked on the river!
A couple of levels later, in Level 15 (2,000/4,000/500) to be exact, Cody fell when Hung Nguyen, a PokerStars player from Vietnam, moved all in and action reached the Brit in the big blind. “I guess I have to call.” Cody said and then called off with the A♦10♥. Nguyen showed the K♥2♣ and managed to get lucky after the board ran out 4♦8♣4♠2♠J♥. With that, Cody, who stone bubbled the High Roller earlier in the week, fell 12 spots shy of off the money.
Speaking of the money, it took just one hand to get there when down to 105 players. It happened later on in Level 15 when Nicholas Newport got his stack of 17,500 all in with the Q♣Q♥ only to run into the K♦K♠ of Full Tilt Poker qualifier Barry Donovan. The sizable rail let out a collective moan upon discovering the cooler, and as it was Newport was in bad shape, though the PokerNews Odds Calculator indicates that he had a 18.55% chance of coming from behind to win the hand. That percentage dropped to 12.02% after the 9♦A♥9♥ flop failed to help Newport, and the 3♣ turn knocked it down even further to 4.55%. Newport needed a queen on the river to stay alive, but it was not meant to be as the A♣ peeled off.
From there the in-the-money eliminations came at a rapid pace and included Niall Geraghty (104th - €2,180), Dinneen (95th - €2,180), David Docherty (87th - €2,430), Wesley Wiemes (82nd- €2,430), Derek Murray (75th - €2,430), Nguyen (68th - €2,910), Ambrose Travers (65th - €2,910), Athir Kamal Ali (60th - €2,910) and Roy "The Boy" Brindley (57th - €2,910).
While many fell there are still plenty of contenders remaining including Andrew Dwyer (813,000), Raul Paez (514,000), Padraig Parkinson (397,000) and Dino Sabatini (755,000), just to name a few.
Day 3 will kick off at Noon local time and the remaining players will look to play down to the final table. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action, so be sure to check back then. Until then, be sure to check out the following video about Cody getting bluffed big time on Day 2.
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