Emmett Mullin Wins UKIPT Galway: Ronan Gilligan Misses Out Again

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 21 February 2012 / Leave a Comment

Emmett Hammil (Photo: Mickey May / PokerStars)

The media were already preparing their best headlines but they had to be re-written as Mullin smashed his way through the remaining players on his way to a memorable victory.

The UKIPT Galway Main Event came to a conclusion yesterday when Irishman Emmett Mullin did his best impression of a one-man wrecking ball and eliminated six of his eight opponents on the final table!

When the nine-handed final table got under way Hammil's name was not one that had been touted around as a potential winner. Although he had obviously reached the final table on merit his place there was being overshadowed by the fact Nick Abou Risk had a very realistic chance of becoming the first player to win three UKIPT titles and the fact Ronan Gilligan had lost heads-up in a UKIPT Main Event. The media were already preparing their best headlines but they had to be re-written as Mullin smashed his way through the remaining players on his way to a memorable victory.

Mullin's first victim was Joris Ruijs who found himself short-stacked an in the need to make some moves. He made one such move with Kh5h but did not count on Mullin waking up with As10h. An ace on the flop sealed Ruijs' fate and the final table lost a player.

Next to go was Richard Haile who headed to the rail just five minutes after Ruijs. Himself short of spare chips Haile moved all in with KsQs and nobody could fault him for it at all. Least of all Craig Burke who woke up with KhKc. No help from the board from Haile and eight became seven. These seven then became six with the untimely demise of Risk. Mullin opened with a standard raise then snap-called when Risk three-bet shoved all in for 605,000 chips. It turned out he had done this with KsJh and Mullin had made the call with AhJc. The board ran out Kd-Ad-5h-10c-4s and Risk's quest for an unprecedented third UKIPT title will have to wait until Notthingham in April.

Play slowed down after that spell of eliminations but 45-minutes after Risk had busted another flurry of activity saw the tournament become severely short stacked. First John Willoughby's AsQd lost out to the Ad7d of Aleksandras Rusinovas and then Rusinovas himself was eliminated when his Ac10c failed to outrun Mullin's AsQd.

Mullin turned executioner again to dispatch of Burke, his As7s snapping off the three-bet shove made with Ah3d. This left the tournament three-handed and the remaining three players headed off for an unscheduled break. When they returned it became public knowledge they had struck a deal that saw €14,900 taken from the eventual winner's purse with €10,000 of that going to second place and the last €4,900 to the third place finisher, who ended up being Joe Roberts who ran KsJs into Mullin's JcJh.

This left Mullin, whose previous largest cash was for €2,050, heads-up against Gilligan who had so publicly finished as runner-up to Max Silver in the 2010 UKIPT Dublin Main Event and then came third in the recent WPT Ireland Main Event. If only he knew lightening can and does sometimes strike twice. Initially it looked like Gilligan was on course to make amends for falling at the last hurdle, especially when Mullin committed his chips with bottom set on a 3s-2h-5h-6c flop when he held 4s3h for the flopped straight. However, the river was the 6s which improved Mullin to a full house and left Gilligan trailing by almost 2:1 in chips.

It was all over shortly afterwards when Gilligan min-raised on the button to 200,000 and Mullin made the call. A flop reading 6s-3d-2c saw Mullin check-raise Gilligan's 400,000 continuation bet to 950,000 then call a shove from him. Gilligan turned over 7s7c which were absolutely crushed by the 3s3h of Mullin that had made another set. The turn and river blanked off, busting Gilligan and crowning Mullin as the UKIPT Galway champion.

UKIPT Galway Main Event Final Table Results

1st: Emmett Mullin: €100,000
2nd: Ronan Gilligan: €73,650
3rd: Joe Roberts: €51,900
4th: Craig Burke: €30,750
5th: Aleksandras Rusinovas: €24,150
6th: John Willoughby: €19,400
7th: Nick Abou Risk: €14,700
8th: Richard Haile: €10,900
9th: Joris Ruijs: €7,800