United Kingdom Poker Report: A Very 'Devilfish' January
Devilfish Starts 2009 With a Bang
The last couple of years have been relatively quiet by Dave "The Devifish" Ulliott's usual standards, but 2009 is starting as a big year for the UK legend. Ulliott turned a lot of heads on the first weekend of January when he won a €750 side event at the Irish Poker Championships for €33,000, beating fellow UK legend Surinder Sunar heads up, and quickly followed that up by winning the main event of the Euro Finals of Poker in Paris for €133,880.
Ulliott continued his great January by reaching the last two tables of the EPT Deauville main event, after having the chip lead at the start of Day 2 play. Playing in France was a last-minute change in schedule for the Devilfish, who had originally planned on travelling around the globe to the just-completed 2009 Aussie Millions Poker Championship.
Bernard Litman Wins Brighton GUKPT
The popular Grosvenor UK Poker Tour returned to Brighton earlier this month for its third season, and the tourney produced a rare main event win for an amateur player. 53-year-old entrepreneur Bernard Litman survived a long period as a short stack to overcome a final table that included EPT Dortmund Champion Andreas Hoivold and up-and-coming online star James Sudworth. Litman won £70,520 and has also booked a seat in the GUKPT's "Champion of Champions" event at the end of the year.
Dave "El Blondie" Colclough was among the notable players who won a GUKPT side event and a seat into the Champions tourney, and local player Shana Casaletto won back-to-back side events, becoming the first player in GUKPT history to do so. Casaletto also became only the second female player to triumph in a GUKPT event.
Life's a Gamble with Roy "The Boy"
Roy "The Boy" Brindley has had a colorful journey on his way to becoming one of the top players in Europe. The Irish poker star has survived gambling addiction, homelessness and trouble with the police to emerge as one of the most respected players in the Ladbrokes Poker stable of sponsored pros. Brindley will retell his fantastic rags-to-riches story in his new book, Life's a Gamble which will be published next month.
New Venue for European Deepstack Championship
The European Deepstack Poker Championship, a mouth-watering €1,650 tournament which gives every player 1,000 big blinds to start play, has changed the venue for next month's annual event. The tourney will now be held at the Red Cow Hotel in Dublin. The main event will be held in the exhibition centre and the dates and times remain the same, Feb 5-8, 2009. Any players who have already booked in at the original venue, the Green Isle Hotel, can cancel with a full refund if they would prefer to book into the Red Cow Hotel instead.
