PokerStars UKIPT Manchester 2010 Won By Joeri Zandvliet

Joeri Zandvliet was crowned champion at PokerStars UKIPT Manchester 2010 after defeating a field of 518 players over three days to claim the title and the £63,200 first place prize.
The 21 year old Dutch student from Utrecht was clearly delighted with his victory at the £550 buy-in main event and commented: “I feel very happy and lucky. There were five relatively strong players at the final table. Whatever I did today didn’t really work too well but I managed to get lucky a couple of times..The tournament had a great structure and was very well organised.”
Zandvliet was third in chips as he took his seat amongst the remaining nine finalists, which included Jack Ellwood, Mike Hill,Tony Millan, Dean Lyall, Chris Brammer, Dan Owston, Tim Brown, and Julian Hasse.
Chris Brammer and Dean Lyall stood out as two of the most aggressive players at the table, with Lyall constantly badgering his perceived biggest threat at every given opportunity. Dean Lyall’s strategy seemed to be working and he was manoeuvring himself into an enviable position until a few too many drinks at the bar saw the 22 year missing 4 orbits of hands, and he was eventually eliminated in 5th for a £12,100 pay-day.
The final table was 8 hours old when Zandvliet and Jack Ellwood went heads up for the UKIPT title, and just seven minutes later all the chips were in the centre of the table pre-flop with the bigger stacked Zandvliet holding pocket 9’s to his opponents A Q. Ellwood must have been relieved to see a Q on the flop, but his joy was short lived after a miracle 9 fell on the river to hand Zandvliet the victory. Meanwhile, Jack Ellwood had to be content with his £37,500 runner-up prize.
As the tournament drew to a close, UKIPT host Nick Wealthall said “We were blown away by the reception we got in Manchester. To have so many players for the first UK event, the second of the tour, was an amazing experience for everyone. Not only that but the tournament and the final table were played to an incredibly high standard. We have already discovered some names for the future that will go onto great things in the world of poker. We are all looking forward to setting more records at the future events on the tour.”