David Shallow entered final table play at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Ireland Main Event as the overwhelming chip leader. It is commonplace to see someone with a healthy chip advantage to begin the final day – maybe a couple million chips – but leads like Shallow’s are something to see. With 6,155,000 chips, he lorded over the other four competitors (a double elimination to end Day 3 created a 5-handed final table), who had just 4,310,000 combined. If a mad scientist would have fused them all into a single, mutant poker player, Shallow still would have been a significant favorite. So that means David Shallow won WPT Ireland, right? Exactly.
Here were the chip counts to start the final table:
David Shallow – 6,155,000
Steve Watts – 1,600,000
Patrik Vestlin – 1,100,000
Charles Chattha – 835,000
Ronan Gilligan – 775,000
While the final table was very short by World Poker Tour standards, coming in at under three hours, it wasn’t a totally smooth ride for Shallow. Right off the bat, he doubled-up both Patrik Vestlin and Ronan Gilligan, causing his chip stack to fall to 4,276,000. Gilligan rode the momentum, eliminating Steve Watts in 5th place. Watts had moved all-in pre-flop with T-T for his remaining 1,130,000 and Gilligan called him with A-K. The flop was Q-J-7, which was generally good for Watts, but it did give Gilligan a straight possibility if he could hit one of the remaining two Tens to go along with the 6 outs he already had. No dice on the turn, but the river produced one of those Tens, allowing Gilligan to knock Watt out with a Broadway straight. That pot took Gilligan up to 2,898,000, which was still a good chunk behind Shallow, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome. It looked a whole heck of a lot better than the more than 5,000,000 chip deficit he faced about a half-hour earlier.
Just a few minutes later, Gilligan continued his hot streak. Patrik Vestlin raised pre-flop and Gilligan called from the big blind. The two saw a flop of 9s-7s-3s and Vestlin made the first bet with As-Qc, giving him the nut flush draw. Gilligan check-raised to 450,000 with Js-9d – top pair and a flush draw – and Vestlin shoved for 1,750,000. Gilligan thought a bit about his decision, but decided it was worth the risk and called. The turn was the Tc; black, but the wrong black. Another tease presented itself to Vestlin on the river in the form of the 8c and Gilligan’s hand held up. Vestlin was gone in 4th place and just like that, less than an hour into play, Ronan Gilligan, the shortest stack to start the final table, was the chip leader. He had 4,852,000, Shallow had 4,259,000, and Chaz Chattha had 1,029,000 chips.
After that, though, it appeared that Gilligan’s confidence may have gotten too high, as he began making some reckless raises and calls with marginal holdings. Having watched his stack take several hits, he once again made a call of a David Shallow pre-flop raise with just 3-4 in the hole. Shallow had T-9 and the flop was friendly to both, giving top pair to Shallow and an open-ended straight draw to Gilligan. Shallow led out on the turn for 215,000, Gilligan raised to 525,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Gilligan called. Gilligan couldn’t find the outs to complete the straight on either the turn or river and he was eliminated in 3rd place.
Going into heads-up play, David Shallow once again had a large chip lead over Chaz Chattha, 7,280,000 to 2,860,000.
Shallow was very aggressive heads-up, a style for which he is known, but that style came back to bite him less than 20 minutes into the one-on-one match. Looking at just K-3 suited, he watched Chattha raise pre-flop to 140,000 and decided to three-bet it to 360,000. Chattha took it up to 600,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Chattha quickly called. And no wonder. Holding pocket Queens, Chattha was a big favorite over most hands. Shallow hit a 3 on the flop, but nothing else materialized and all of a sudden, Chattha had a slight chip lead, 5,180,000 to 4,960,000.
Just after that, Shallow regained a small edge, taking a couple small pots, and that was all he needed when the big hand was dealt. With Q-Q, Shallow raised pre-flop to 135,000, only to see Chattha re-raise him to 380,000 with 9-9. Shallow raised him back, making it 825,000 and Chattha moved all-in. Shallow made the call. The flop ran out K-K-2, pretty much as bad as it could get for Chattha without a Queen showing up. The turn 8 and river 3 sewed it up for David Shallow, who won WPT Ireland along with the €222,280 first prize and a $25,000 seat in the season-ending WPT World Championship.
World Poker Tour Ireland – Final Table Results
1. David Shallow – €222,280 ($289,031)
2. Charles Chattha – €111,130 ($144,502)
3. Ronan Gilligan – €74,090 ($96,339)
4. Patrik Vestlin – €52,600 ($68,396)
5. Steve Watts – €39,270 ($51,063)