Gareth Walker wins UKIPT Nottingham

Gareth Walker wins UKIPT Nottingham

Tuesday, 15 February 2011

Gareth Walker has won the biggest attended tournament in UK poker history after taking the £500 UKIPT Nottingham Main Event at Dusk Till Dawn yesterday.

Walker, from Newcastle, outlasted a mammoth field of 1,059 players from 39 countries to take home the £109,000 first prize. The 28-year-old went into the final table as one of the short stacks and eventually worked his way to a heads up clash with Brett Angell (no, not the former Stockport County and Southend striker).


Walker eventually sealed the deal as the clock approached 5am. His 6c9c looked to be in terrible shape against Angell's pocket tens but the board brought a flush to give the computer programmer the title. The unlucky Angell took £68,700 for his runner up finish, still a fine ROI on a £500 investment.


Dusk Till Dawn is obviously a favourite venue for Walker who made the final table last year's UKIPT Nottingham event. The £109,000 prize dwarves the £7,600 he earned for his eighth place finish in 2010 though. And what does Walker plan to do with his new windfall? He intends to use it to finance his poker career – after buying a new car.


The final table positions and payouts were as follows:


1. Gareth Walker (UK) £109,000
2. Brett Angell (UK) £68,700
3. Romano Pizzo (Italy) £40,750
4. Tim Bettingen (Germany) £31,700
5. Mike Hill (UK) £24,350
6. Chris Dowling (Ireland) £19,050
7. Thomas Rolfe (UK) £13,750
8. David Heaton (UK) £7,950
9. Ian Gilchrist (UK) £5,800


The UKIPT heads north to Manchester for the next leg of the season two tour, starting on 10 March. Qualifiers will be running at PokerStars.


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Image courtesy of Neil Stoddart.



Tags: Poker News, Gareth, Walker, wins, UKIPT, Nottingham