Gareth Walker has won the 2011 UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Nottingham, after overcoming a record field of 1,058 players over four days to lift the title, and collect the £109,000 ($175,309) first place prize.
The ever increasing popularity of the £500 Main Event was clearly evident after Day 1a attracted an impressive 478 hopefuls, only to be topped by a further 580 players entering on Day 1b.
Among the notable names entering the competition were such pros as Liv Boeree, Dave “El Blondie” Colclough, James “Flushy” Dempsey, Nick Abou Risk, Jake Cody and Neil Channing.
By the time Day 2 got started 215 players were still in contention who were then whittled down to just 12 players by the end of play. The final days play then saw four more players eliminated to get the final table of eight underway.
First to leave the final table was David Heaton in 8th (£7,950),who pushed with A-J but was called by pocket kings. Soon after Thomas Rolfe departed in 7th (£13,750) in a pocket sixes race versus his opponent’s A-Q and the next hand Chris Dowling too was gone holding Ac-Qs to his opponent’s Ah-Qd. Unfortunately for Dowling Brett Angell hit a flush on the turn to eliminate him in 6th for £19,050.
In a case of terrible timing, Mike Hill picked up £24,350 in 5th after making an all-in bluff holding 9-4 on a J-5-5-10-8 board only for Romano Pizzo to call and flip his 8-5 full-house. Pizzo holding pocket jacks then eliminated Tim Bettingen with K-10 in 4th (£31,700) but then exited himself next in 3rd (£40,750) setting up the heads-up battle between Brett Angell and Gareth Walker.
As the heads-up commenced, Walker held an 11m to 4.6m chip lead over Angell and just one hour later it was all over when Walker (9c-6c) raised and called Angell’s shove with 10h-10d. However, the board then ran out Kc-3c-4d-5c-10c to leave Brett Angell the runner-up and £68,700 richer, while Gareth Walker was crowned the 2011 UKIPT Nottingham champion.
