Black Belt Poker were once again out in full force this weekend, with the majority of troops marching to Dublin to tackle the latest stop of the UKIPT and vie for the final title before October's Grand Final.
A mere 718 flocked to the Ballsbridge Inn, including flag-fliers Kevin Williams, Tom Drew, Joe Roberts and Cork Champion Sam Razavi. They all hit the deck prior to the money, leaving David Docherty and Andy Miles to cover the front line.
Although Andy was stretchered off in 31st for €1,530, David gave his best war cry and charged all the way to the final table, armed with 958,000 (sixth in chips) and the chance of becoming Black Belt Poker's third UKIPT Champion to date.
David was wounded early on when he clashed with chip leader Jason Tompkins. On a four-way flop of Qc-7s-4s, David flat-called a c-bet of 180,000, and then 244,000 on the Kd turn, before folding to an all-in on the 8h river.
Down to 660,000, David became the first casualty of the day when he moved over the top of Joeri Zandvliet's open of 82,000 with Ah-Jc. The Dutchman made the call with 8h-8s which stood firm on an uneventful 9s-6d-9h-Qc-7h board to send the Scottish pro back to base.
This pot catapulted Zandvliet into a commanding lead. He went on to become the last man standing, capturing his second UKIPT title - after winning last year's Manchester leg - not to mention the small matter of the €83,500 treasure chest. David, meanwhile, was forced to settle for a consolidatory €8,000.
"I'm pretty gutted to be honest," confessed David. "I was feeling very confident this morning despite being one of the shorter stacks. It sucks to bust in eighth and I do feel like I could have done one or two things differently, but ultimately you have to win some showdowns anyway. If I win the flip against Joeri, I have 1.2 million and overtake him in chips. That would have been a big momentum switch, but it wasn't to be on this occasion."
1st Joeri Zandvliet (Netherlands) -- €83,500
2nd Chuck Fabian (USA) -- €49,600
3rd Robert Csire (Hungary) -- €22,650
4th Max Silver (United Kingdom) -- €22,650
5th Jason Tompkins (Ireland) -- €17,600
6th Noel O'Brien (Ireland) -- €13,950
7th Roy Curtis (United Kingdom) -- €10,450
8th David Docherty (United Kingdom) -- €8,000
On the other side of the Irish Sea and deep in the heart of the East Midlands, fellow Vegas 8 member Jamie Burland was also enjoying a deep run and final table appearance, this time in the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final.
A respectable 374 stumped up the £200+20 buy-in fee before taking their seats at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham alongside the likes of Carlo Citrone, Ian Frazer and Tony 'tikay' Kendall.
Jamie made the final with 20 big blinds, but suffered the same fate as David when he was snipered down in eighth. He received £1,712 for his efforts.
1st James Williams -- £22,264
2nd Astel Cowan -- £13,015
3rd Kristian Downer -- £7,809
4th Alan Jenkinson -- £5,480
5th Saifon Lambe -- £4,110
6th Daniel Green -- £3,082
7th Sian Dyson -- £2,397
8th Jamie Burland -- £1,712
9th Richard Beauchamp -- £1,370
And so ended a weekend of close-but-no-cigar moments for Black Belt Poker; we advanced to the nitty-gritty, but were unable to get our mitts on the big bucks. But the road is long, and as another tournament closes, another one opens. Next mission: Operation EPT London.
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