Brandstrom Stays Hot, Wins WPT UK for $330,000
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A dream 2019 continued for Simon Brandstrom as the Swedish player took down WPT UK $3,300 Main Event for $330,000. Brandstrom got through a field of 690 entrants for his second-biggest live cash.
Readers who have been following tournament reporting on PokerNews will quickly be able to recall the only one bigger. Just over a month ago, Brandstrom chopped the EPT Barcelona Main Event for about $1.4 million.
Furthermore, just this spring, Brandstrom chopped WPTDeepStacks Barcelona for over $200,000. According to the WPT, Brandstrom is the first player to win both a WPTDS and a WPT Main Tour title.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Home Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Brandstrom | Sweden | $330,000 |
| 2 | Ryan Mandara | U.K. | $221,650 |
| 3 | James Rann | U.K. | $168,500 |
| 4 | Matthew Eardley | U.K. | $128,500 |
| 5 | Maria Lampropulos | Argentina | $98,500 |
| 6 | Paul Siddle | U.K. | $76,000 |
A $1.5 million guarantee for the event was easily surpassed as the 690 entries created a prize pool just a hair above $2 million. Among the 100 cashing were the star-studded group of Bertrand Grospellier, Matas Cimbolas, Martin Jacobson, Jeff Gross, Sam Trickett and Adrian Mateos.
True to form, Paul Newey made a short stack work for some time, but he would fade out in 10th to bubble the final day. James Rann set him in blind versus blind for 19 bigs and had his A♣6♦ prevail over K♦Q♥, according to the live reporting.
Brandstrom had the chip lead but the final table featured a tough lineup that included former PCA champ Maria Lampropulos and German star Manig Loeser, among others.
Name Brands Out Early
The early portion of Day 4 was not good to Brandstrom as he lost a series of pots to cede his position at the top of the chip counts to Rann. He continued to lose steam until he was down to 13 big blinds, which he jammed with A♠8♠. Loeser woke up with A♦Q♦ to set him at risk, only to see an eight arrive on the turn to save the Swede.
Meanwhile, many of the big names fell as the field was whittled to short-handed play. Longtime British grinder Paul Jackson was among them as first to go, with Leo Worthington-Leese following in a flip. Loeser then busted in seventh when he couldn't recover from Brandstrom's beat.
At the official final table of six, Paul Siddle busted first after losing two consecutive flips to Matthew Eardley.
That allowed a short-stacked Lampropulos to ladder as she busted the very next hand shoving ace-deuce and running into Rann's pocket eights.
Brandstrom Gets Lucky then Closes Out with Bluffcatch
Brandstrom had one of the short stacks and stayed afloat with shoves, as well as a double with queens against ace-king. He outlasted Eardley, who lost a big flip to Rann, but Rann and Brandstrom were well behind Ryan Mandara, who had about 60% of the total chips.
Mandara had a chance to go heads up with Rann holding an overwhelming lead, however, the deck had other ideas when Brandstrom shoved A♥4♥ over Mandara's button raise and ran into J♥J♣. The spot turned sour for Mandara as the Q♣A♣2♣ flop left him in need of several outs, which bricked on the turn and river to give Brandstrom a double to 7 million at 125,000/250,000/250,000.
That would prove costly to Rann as he busted about 10 hands later shoving 4.7 million with A♦2♥ and running into Mandara's pocket sevens in the blinds. No help arrived and the Brit bowed out in third.
Down a little more than 2-to-1 in chips, Brandstrom would even things almost immediately. On the seventh hand of heads-up play, he had a slight lead when he defended the big blind with 9♥7♠. As the board ran out 9♣7♣3♦4♣K♥, Mandara opted to barrel off, shoving the river for 7.5 million into 5.5 million. When Brandstrom called with his two pair, Mandara was forced to reveal J♠10♣ for a bluff and settle for a second-place payout.
