It's time for the Final Day of the PokerStars UKIPT Blackpool Main Event, running at the Grosvenor Casino at The Sandcastle. There are now just six players remaining in contention for the title and the tournament will play down to a winner today.
The Main Event attracted a total of 262 entries, which made for a prize pool of £254,140. The next player to be eliminated will take £10,800 and the outright winner is set for a payday of £53,630.
Manchester-based Tuan Le is the Day 2 leader with 2,161,000 chips. Right behind him is Teodor Evstratiev of Bulgaria with 1,838,000 chips. Ali Zia is in third place with 1,300,000.
Full Day 3 Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
1
Tuan Le
UK
2,161,000
2
Teodor Evstratiev
Bulgaria
1,838,000
3
Ali Zia
UK
1,300,000
4
Beihao Wang
China
1,042,000
5
Daniel Jackson
UK
871,000
6
Jacob Mulhern
UK
830,000
Day 3 kicks off at 12 p.m. local time. Blinds will resume part way through the level at 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 big blind ante. Levels will run for 60-minutes with regular breaks throughout the day.
Stacks are relatively deep and so the event is still anyone's for the taking. By this evening, a new UKIPT champion will be crowned.
PokerNews will be bringing you coverage straight from the tournament floor, catching every elimination along the way until the winner emerges.
Jacob Mulhern raised to 40,000 from the button and was called by Daniel Jackson in the big blind.
The flop came 6♠8♦10♠. Jackson checked and Mulhern bet 25,000, which Jackson called. The turn was the 7♠. Jackson checked again and Mulhern bet 60,000, which Jackson called.
The river was the 5♥. Jackson checked for a third street and Mulhern bet 225,000, which Jackson called. Mulhern showed 8♠6♠ for two pair and Jackson mucked his hand. That left Jackson with just a few hundred thousand behind.
The following hand, Ali Zia raised from the button and Jackson moved all in from the small blind for 295,000. Zia made the call and players flipped their cards, with Jackson at risk.
Daniel Jackson: 9♥9♣
Ali Zia: A♠10♠
The board ran out 2♥6♣K♥A♦Q♠. Jackson had pocket nines and Zia turned a pair of aces to win the pot. Jackson was eliminated from the tournament in sixth place for £10,800.
Beihao Wang open limped the button and Teodor Evstratiev raised to 125,000 from the small blind. Wang moved all in for around 460,000 and big stacked Evstratiev called.
Beihao Wang: 5♥5♦
Teodor Evstratiev: A♠9♦
Wang had pocket fives and Evstratiev had ace nine. The board ran out 7♦9♥K♠4♣K♣ to give Evstratiev a pair of nines on the flop. He won the pot and Wang was eliminated in fifth place for £14,040.
Tuan Le raised from the button and Jacob Mulhern called in the small blind.
The flop came 5♦9♠3♠. Mulhern checked, Le made a continuation bet and Mulhern went all in with a short stack. Le called and players flipped their cards.
Jacob Mulhern: Q♠J♠
Tuan Le: K♠9♦
Mulhern had a flush draw with overcards and Le had a pair of nines.
The turn came the 9♣ to give Le trip nines. The river was a blank, the 8♣. Le held and Mulhern was eliminated from the tournament in fourth place for £18,260.
With that, less than two hours after it kicked off six-handed, the final table was down to the final three.
Teodor Evstratiev complete the small blind and Tuan Le raised to 100,000 from the big blind. Evstratiev reraised to 260,000 and Le four-bet to 575,000. Evstratiev called and action went to the flop.
The flop came 8♠5♦3♦. Evstratiev checked, Le bet 450,000 and Evstratiev made a huge shove all in. Le quickly called and had Evstratiev slightly covered.
Teodor Evstratiev: J♦9♦
Tuan Le: A♠A♦
Evstratiev had a flush draw with overcards to the board. Le had pocket aces.
The turn came the Q♥ to bring backdoor straight options for Evstratiev and sweats for Le. The river fell the K♠ and Le held up.
The two big stacks had clashed in a mammoth pot. Evstratiev was eliminated in third place for £23,730. Le goes into the heads-up with a huge chip lead over Ali Zia.
After just 27 hands of the heads-up, Tuan Le raised to 60,000 from the button and Ali Zia moved all in from the big blind for a little over 1,000,000 chips. Le made the call and players flipped their cards.
Ali Zia: A♦6♥
Tuan Le: A♥K♥
Le had Zia dominated with ace king. The board ran out 5♥K♣6♦3♣2♠. Zia did pair up his sixes, but Le paired his kings to win the pot.
Zia was eliminated from the tournament in second place for £33,230.
The PokerStars UKIPT Blackpool Main Event, running at Grosvenor Casino at The Sandcastle, has reached its conclusion.
A total of 262 entries were recorded across three starting flights, which made for a £258,990 prize pool. Of those, 40 players made it through to Day 2 to lock up the £1,710 min-cash.
Those 40 players were then whittled down to the last six players, who returned to the felt for the third and final day.
Tuan Le of the United Kingdom started Day 3 as chip leader and continued to chip up to emerge as the outright winner. He won the top prize of £53,630.
Ali Zia held on throughout the day and laddered up when Teodor Evstratiev clashed with Le for mountains of chips. Zia came second for £23,730 and Evstratiev finished third for £33,230.
UKIPT Blackpool Main Event Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1st
Tuan Le
United Kingdom
£53,630
2nd
Ali Zia
United Kingdom
£33,230
3rd
Teodor Evstratiev
Bulgaria
£23,730
4th
Jacob Mulhern
United Kingdom
£18,260
5th
Beihao Wang
China
£14,040
6th
Daniel Jackson
United Kingdom
£10,800
7th
Robert Boon
United Kingdom
£8,660
8th
Fraser Bellamy
United Kingdom
£7,220
9th
Maz Bako
United Kingdom
£6,010
Ali Zia_Tuan Le
Final Day Recap
Although stacks were relatively deep, the Final Day of the Main Event was over in the blink of an eye. None of the final six players seemed scared to get involved in pots, and so the tournament concluded within just three hours of restarting.
Daniel Jackson was the first to bust. Zia eliminated him to finish in sixth place after his ace-ten got there against Jackson's pocket nine.
As the action went three-handed, Zia was sitting on a short stack, while Evstratiev and Le were close to even.
It looked like Zia would be next to go until the two big stacks clashed for all of their chips. After a blind versus blind raising war, Evstratiev got his flush draw in on the flop against Le's pocket aces. Le held to eliminate Evstratiev and enter heads-up with a significant chip advantage.
It was an advantage he would soon capitalize on. The first 20 hands of heads-up were uneventful, consisting mostly of single raises and bet-folds on the flop. Zia then took a hit to his stack before shoving from the button with a dominated ace. Le had ace-king and held out to win the tournament.
Tuan Le
Tuan Le "Winging It" All the way to the Win
Manchester-based Le works full-time as a beautician and finds time to play live poker four to five times a year.
"I'm a family man," said Le. "I'd love to play poker professionally, but I know I'm not good enough. Also, I'd miss the kids too much".
Despite playing a solid game and coming out on top, Le said, "I'm not as good as the players here. I feel like I'm winging it all the time!"
Le has had a second-place finish in a GUKPT event, but this is his first win in a major event. He will use the prize money to "get the Missus something" and has booked a trip to London. "That's as far as I can see right now," said Le.
Congratulations to Tuan Le, to second place Ali Zia, and to all the players who cashed in the tournament.
That concludes the coverage of PokerStars UKIPT Blackpool Main Event. Thanks for tuning in to PokerNews.
