Lawrence Cullen Wins Record-Breaking Unibet UK Poker Tour London
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UK's Lawrence Cullen outlasted a bumper field of 714 entrants to win the 2020 Unibet UK Poker Tour London £220 Main Event at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City for £25,500.
This was the first big cash for Cullen who never had the lead in the event until heads-up play.
"I won a smaller tournament a few weeks ago but this is my first big win and means a lot to me," Cullen shared with PokerNews. "The smaller win gave me some confidence after struggling a lot during the year I have been playing tournaments."
Cullen would have been satisfied with simply a final table result and he was on top of the world after winning the event.
"I enjoyed every second of the event and was just happy to make the final table," said Cullen. "To win it is a dream!"
2020 Unibet UK Poker Tour London £220 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lawrence Cullen | United Kingdom | £25,500 |
| 2 | Callum Pooles | United Kingdom | £18,319 |
| 3 | Damien Pilkington-Lewis | United Kingdom | £12,200 |
| 4 | Micahel Isguzo | United Kingdom | £8,800 |
| 5 | Bartas Samoska | Lithuania | £6,500 |
| 6 | Valentin Ghioca | Romania | £5,250 |
| 7 | Martin Tse | Hong Kong | £4,350 |
| 8 | Mark Wong | Singapore | £3,480 |
| 9 | Vlad Munteanu | Romania | £2,610 |
First Stop of 2020 Season Smashes Records
To say the Unibet UK Poker Tour London was a success would be an understatement. Not only was the £50,000 guarantee smashed by almost triple with a £141,372 prize pool, it also set a massive new attendance record for the tour.
The previous record was established in 2018 when Paul Romain outlasted a field of 289 entrants to win the £13,000 top prize. That event generated a £57,800 prize pool.
This is not all as there were plenty of promotions surrounding the event by both Unibet Poker and Aspers Casino with plenty of goodies handed out including t-shirts, phone popsockets, and free beverage service for the entire final table.
Unibet Poker also held a special Last Longer contest for its online qualifiers won by Russia's Aleksandr Lebedev, who finished in 33rd place for £805. Although the cash was nice, the last longer prize was even nice as Unibet Poker awarded him a Unibet Open Tallinn package valued at €2,000 held on May 20-24 in the Olympic Casino in the Estonian capital.
Last longer contests for online qualifiers will be held at all future Unibet UK Poker Tour events this year including the next one at Aspers Casino Newcastle on May 28-31. Players can qualify through feeder tournaments for just €0.50.
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A total of 119 began the final day with 80 players guaranteed at least a min-cash of £400. The bubble broke before hand-for-hand play even began after Louis Zimmermann ran his jacks into the queens held by Egidijus Alsauskas.
Among the notable players to cash short of a final table finish included Unibet Poker Ambassador David Lappin (49th - £595), Antonis Poulengeris (22nd - £1,050), William Kassouf (19th - £1,180), and Unibet Poker Finnish Ambassador Jorma Vuoksenmaa (13th - £1,555).
Lappin, Vouksenmaa, and Dara O'Kearney, who unfortunately didn't cash, were all gracious ambassadors and happy to mingle with the everyday poker player at Aspers Casino.
At the final table, it was Callum Pooles, who was playing his first big live tournament in a casino, putting the pedal to the metal coming in as the chip leader and showing relentless aggression throughout the table. Pooles' eventually ended heads-up with Cullen sporting a 4:1 chip lead, but the lead didn't last long.
Cullen wrestled the lead away from Pooles after a timely double before the final hand was played. Pooles got jacks and was up against the queen-seven suited held by Cullen. Cullen flopped a flush with a king on the board and called a bet from Pooles. Another king came on the turn to pair the board. Pooles check-jammed and got snap-called by Cullen. Neither a king or jack came on the river to give him the full house and he was eliminated in second place.
Upcoming 2020 Unibet UK Poker Tour Events
The Unibet UK Poker Tour will be back in May in Newcastle before Aspers London will be revisited twice, including the tour's Grand Finale in December. The first events carry £220 buy-in Main Events with a £50,000 guarantee, while the Unibet UK Poker Tour Grand Finale in December has everything doubled with a £440 buy-in event that carries a £100,000 guarantee.
| Date | Location | Buy-in | Starting Flights | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 28-31 | Aspers Newcastle | £220 | 4 | £50,000 |
| September 24-27 | Aspers Stratford, London | £220 | 4 | £50,000 |
| December 9-13 | Aspers Stratford, London | £440 | 5 | £100,000 |
There is also one extra starting flight for the Grand Finale. Players are allowed two re-entries per starting day, with the option to take their largest stack through to the Final Day.
In addition to the cash prizes at each stop, a €2,000 Unibet Open package will also be awarded in an exclusive Last Longer competition for Unibet Poker online qualifiers. 10% will be retained from each buy-in to cover registration fees.
All Unibet UK Poker Tour events are live covered by our UK PokerNews team, so make sure to check out the UK site for all live reporting action. To read back all the coverage from the first leg of the 2020 season, click here.
The Unibet UK Poker Tour is a grassroots poker at its finest. Be sure to head to Unibet Poker to try to qualify for the next event in Newcastle on May 28-31.
*Photos courtesy of Lyle Bateman
