Yorky Pud

The inaugural World Poker Tour Ireland Main Event reached the money places in the early hours of Saturday morning and the man who bagged and tagged the most chips of any other player was the Betfair regular Dave “Dubai” Shallow.

Shallow ended Day 2 with a colossal stack of 951,000 chips, almost 80,000 more than his nearest rival Frenchman Franck Boyer on 873,000. The 28-year old former law student is famed for crushing heads-up sit 'n'go tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $500 to $5,000 but by the time this weekend comes to an end he could be better-known as being a World Poker Tour champion.

Despite his huge success online Shallow has so far failed to reproduce the same form on the live circuit. According to his Hendon Mob profile Shallow has just $36,406 in live tournament winnings, his largest score being for £7,000 and his last cash being in June of 2009 but that is all set to change when this tournament finishes on Sunday. That is because Shallow has now locked up €5,550 for his efforts and if he makes it through to the six-handed final table he will be guaranteed to walk away with no less than €31,120.

At the start of Day 2 the eyes of the media did not know where to look as there was a whole host of household names amongst the 195 players but one by one they lost their chips and headed to the rail. The likes of Andy Black, Toby Lewis, Kara Scott, Mclean Karr, James Dempsey, Jon Kalmar, Sam El Sayed, Leo Margets, Marvin Rettenmaier, and the Day 1 chip leader Dave Callaghan all busted out before the money bubble burst.

The bubble was popped almost as soon as it was due to begin at just after 0100 in the morning. Just as hand-for-hand was about to start Oliver Nilsson and the aforementioned Boyer were all in on a 10h-9h-7h flop, Boyer holding 9s9d against the Js8s of his opponent that had flopped a straight. The dealer put out the 2s on the turn followed by the 2h on the river which improved a stunned Boyer to a full house and he saw his stack swell to 873,000. During all the commotion David Prince was also eliminated and the tournament director brought an end to proceedings with the TV screens around the room displaying “36 players remaining.”

The players will return to their seats inside the Citywest Hotel at 1400 this afternoon and will play down to the six-handed final table. Although most of the so-called big names or on their way back home there are still some very well respected players in the field. Keep an eye on Stuart Fox, Shaun Conning, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jan Larsen, snooker player Ken Doherty, Ross Boatman, Dermot Blain, Charles Chatta, Sam Macdonald and “Little” Dave Nicholson.

WPT Ireland Top 5 Chip Counts

1st: David Shallow: 951,000
2nd: Franck Boyer: 873,000
3rd: Steve Watts: 628,000
4th: William Dorey: 576,000
5th: Charles Harvey: 567,000