Jason Tompkins Leads UKIPT Dublin 2011

County Kildare poker player, Jason Tompkins, heads the final table of the PokerStars sponsored UKIPT Main Event in Dublin, after a display of aggressive poker which saw the home favourite leap from mid-table obscurity on Sunday lunchtime to substantial chip leader at the close of Day 3.

Jason, who already has three UKIPT cashes to his name, leads by almost 400,000 chips from compatriot Noel O´Brian who is closely matched with Dutch player Joeri Zandvliet with a big gap to the chasing back.

A Day of Comebacks

However, none of the final eight players who take their seats can be easily discounted. Hungarian poker player Robert Csire mounted an astonishing comeback from 27,000 chips on Sunday evening to finish the day on 1.145 million, David Docherty bounced back from off-loading most of his chips on Noel O´Brian and last year´s UKIPT Dublin Main Event winner, Max Silver, will be looking to re-create the run which saw him recover from having just 12,000 chips on Saturday to 699,000 when he takes his seat today.

Fabian and Curtis Make Up the Dublin Eight

Neither American Charles Fabian nor Irishman Rory Curtis played the sort of poker that resulted in big pot headlines or glorious returns from adversity, but both had a solid game throughout the weekend – Charles Fabian taking handfuls of small pots from aggressive betting on the feature “live stream” table prior to removing 400,000 chips from Noel O´Brian with a paired {A♣}, while Rory Curtis stacked up through Callum Smith late in the day when his {Q♣} {J♣} turned a straight.

Queens Set Up Tompkins

Jason Tompkins charge up the leader board was largely due to a little “luck of the Irish” in the first million chip pot of the tournament. Holding {Q♠} {Q♦}, Tompkins got all-in against the {A♥} {K♣} of Day 2 chip leader Emmet Mullin and it looked as if he had picked the wrong time to commit his tournament life when the flop fell {A♦} {6♥} {5♣}. However, the river {Q♥} crushed Mullin and sent Tompkins to the top of the leaderboard – a position he used to his advantage throughout the remainder of Sunday.

A New Record Set for UKIPT Dublin

PokerStars will be delighted with the turnout for the UKIPIT Dublin Main Event – having guaranteed a prize pool of €250,000 and seeing that trounced by a total of 718 paying the €560.00 buy-in or qualifying through online satellites. The total pool reached €348,230, and the top ninety players will all receive some form of reward for their efforts, with whoever is eliminated first from Monday´s final table receiving €8,000 and the last man standing collecting a cheque for €83,400.

Back-to-Back Max?

Although a glance at the chip counts indicates a repeat performance of last year´s victory looks unlikely for Max Silver, the way this tournament has shaped up to date you could not bet against it. When play resumes at 1.00pm (BST) the blinds will be 15,000/30,000 (ante 3,000) with the average chip stack 1,346,000. The desire for a home victory may be the drive for the three Irish players, but Silver and Zandvliet will both be looking for their second UKIPT titles while Charles Fabian will be looking to emulate compatriot Matt Waxman´s victory in the WPT Paris – making a big 1-2 for American players.

UKIPT 2011 – Final Table Chip Counts

1	Jason Tompkins	Ireland	PokerStars Player	2,388,000
2	Noel O´Brian	Ireland		1,991,000
3	Joeri Zandvliet	Netherlands	PokerStars Qualifier	1,835,000
4	Robert Csire	Hungary		1,145,000
5	Charles Fabian	USA		1,023,000
6	David Doherty	United Kingdom	PokerStars Player	958,000
7	Rory Curtis	Ireland		725,000
8	Max Silver	United Kingdom		699,000

 

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