Nick Abou Risk Wins PokerStars UKIPT Galway 2010

Canadian poker pro Nick Abou Risk has won a historic second UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) title after triumphing in Galway yesterday.
The 25-year old won his first title four months ago on August 19th at the UKIPT Edinburgh, where he picked up $81,433 for his first place victory.
A short time down the line and Nick Abou Risk has now added UKIPT Galway to his tally, having succeeded in overcoming the 266 player field over three days in Ireland to collect the title and the €67,100 ($89,683) first place prize.
 
As the final table of nine got underway, Nick Abou Risk was the table leader with a big stack of 1.32 million chips, followed by Eoin Olin (Ireland) on 857k, and Maurice Silke (Ireland) on 780k. Other players at the table included Vytenis Navickas (Lithuania) on 542k, Dan Rankin (Ireland) on 514k, Trish Mallin (Ireland) on 437k, Roar Aspaas (Norway) on 391k, Johan Meyer (Germany) on 252k, and a short-stacked Aonghus Farrell (Ireland) on 114k.
Just a few minutes into play Nick Abou Risk holding Ks-Js cracked Aonghus Farrell’s pocket aces to eliminate him in 9th (€5,700) followed shortly by Johan Meyer in 8th (€7,975) whose As-Js failed to improve against his opponent’s pocket tens.
Over an hour later Roar Aspaas collected €10,100 for a 7th place finish, before Dan Rankin too found himself on the rail in 6th (€12,725) when his Qd-Jc failed to improve against Navickas’ Ks-Js.
Eoin Olin was then eliminated in 5th (€15,400) after three-bet shoving his last 22 blinds holding Js-2d against Maurice Silke’s open raise with Ah-9c.
Lithunanian PokerStars qualifier Vytenis Navickas, 19, collected €18,600 in 4th, but would have felt disappointed that his A-K failed to hold against Trish Mallin’s Ac-7c, which developed into a flush.
After Nick Abou Risk holding pocket 8’s knocked Maurice Silke (Ac-Tc) out in 3rd (€25,250), the heads-up phase of the tournament got underway with Abou Risk holding a healthy 3.3 million lead over Mallin on 1.9 million.
Soon after, however, the decisive hand was played on a 10d-9h-5s-4h board after Abou Risk holding 10h-2h called Trish Mallin’s semi-bluff shove with 8c-7h. A 10s on the river sealed her fate and so Malin walked away with €41,300 for her runner-up finish, while Nick Abou Risk was crowned the 2010 UKIPT Galway champion and finished the day €67,100 ($89,683) better off.