Andrew Couldridge wins UKIPT Nottingham
Monday, 17 May 2010
A whopping field of 650 runners gathered at Nottingham's Dusk Till Dawn club for the latest leg of the PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour but none could match Andrew Couldridge.
The 44-year-old from London started the final day fourth in chips but a dominant trio of hands in the middle of the day saw his stack rise from 1m to 6m chips and catapulted him to the top of the leader board. It was a lead he wouldn't relinquish, eventually seeing off Oliver Schaffmann to seal the victory.
It's fair to say that Couldridge got a little bit of luck heads up though. After limping from the small blind, Couldridge called Schaffmann’s 350k raise. Schaffmann bet 600k on the KK6 flop only to see Couldridge come over the top with a 3.5m all in re-raise. The German made a fantastic call and looked in great shape with poker nines against the Londoner's Q4. Schaffmann's delight soon turned to anguish though as a Queen on the turn left him needing a miracle. Another Queen on the river compounded his misery and kept the title on British soil.
The delighted winner said, “It’s been a very tiring three days of ups and downs. This was my first UKIPT event; it’s a very good tour with lots of play and [it] was a very enjoyable tournament.” Couldridge revealed that he would use some of his £80,000 winnings to follow his football team, Spurs, around Europe next season to watch their Champions League performances.
Tour Host Nick Wealthall commented, “We arrived at Dusk Till Dawn with great expectations that the event somehow managed to exceed. The card room must be one of the best places in Europe to play poker - the number of players and the level of play lived up to the setting. We’ve also broken our duck and finally have our first UK winner, so Andrew has made a bit of history for himself and for UKIPT.”
The final table positions and payouts were as follows:
1 - Andrew Couldridge, United Kingdom, £80,000 (+ £5,300 package to EPT London)
2 - Oliver Schaffmann, Germany, £46,700
3 - Andros Spyrou, United Kingdom, £30,000
4 - Owen Robinson, Ireland, £21,400
5 - Graham Giles, United Kingdom, £16,500
6 - Piotr Majewski, Poland, £13,200
7 - Nicholas Gavriel, United Kingdom, £9,900
8 - Gareth Walker, United Kingdom, £7,600
9 - Mark Aldridge, United Kingdom, £5,300
The UKIPT heads to Killarney for the next leg of the tour from 24th to 27th June 2010. €250,000 is guaranteed for the €1,000+€100 Main Event with qualifiers up and running at PokerStars.