UKIPT Manchester 2011 Won By Matthew McDerra

Matthew McDerra has triumphed at the UK & Ireland Poker Tour Manchester, after defeating a field of 615 players over five days to lift the title, as well as collect the £74,000 ($120,521) first place prize.
The £500 buy-in tournament managed to create a prize pool worth £307,500 with 81 players getting paid.
Eventually, as the tournament played down to its eight remaining finalists, Mateusz Warowiec was the chip leader on a 2.032 million stack, followed by JP Kelly (1.751 million), and Robert Angood on 1.504 million. Also at the final table was Michael Fletcher (1.209 million) and Paul Nash (1.018 million), while bringing up the rear was Matthew McDerra on 792k chips, Michael Birt (472k) and Owen Shiels (358k).
Despite being behind in chips, Matthew McDerra managed a well needed double up earlier on holding pocket aces to  Owen Shiels’ A-K, before eventually eliminating Shiels in 7th (£9,500).
Matthew McDerra then went on to dispatch Mick Fletcher in 4th (£20,300) and Robert Angood in 3rd (£27,600) to force the heads-up play between himself and start of the day chip leader Mateusz Warowiec.
Although Matthew McDerra took a lead into the final battle, he soon found himself in trouble against his Polish opponent after both players made trip aces but with Warowiec having the better kicker.
However, McDerra soon turned things around in dramatic fashion after being dealt pocket kings to his opponent’s A-10. Warowiec made a straight on a J-9-Q-K-9 board only to lose to McDerra’s rivered full-house and so the record heads-up battle raged on for another three hours, and six in total before the final hand was played.
McDerra flopped trip fives to Warowiec’s top pair  king kicker to reduce his opponent to half a big blind  before eliminating him the next hand.
Warowiec then collected £43,500 for his runner-up finish while Matthew McDerra was crowned the UKIPT Manchester champion and walked away richer by £74,000.