Lawrence Cullen from the UK won the 2020 Unibet Poker UK Tour London £220 buy-in Main Event at the Aspers Casino. He outlasted a record-breaking field of 714 player entries to bring home the prize money worth £25,500.
First Stop of 2020 Season Smashes Records
Unibet Poker's UK Poker Tour London in Aspers is just the first stop for this year's season, but it has already smashed records. Not only was the £50,000 guarantee smashed by nearly three times with a £141,372 prize pool, it also set a massive new attendance record for the tour.
The previous record was back in 2018 when Paul Romain outlasted a 289-player field to claim the top prize worth £13,000 top prize. That event created a £57,800 prize pool.
Unibet Poker also conducted a special ‘Last Longer' contest for their online qualifiers, eventually won by Russian player Aleksandr Lebedev, who finished 33rd for £805. Not only that, Unibet Poker also awarded him with 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 shall take place on all upcoming Unibet Poker UK Tour events, including the next one at Aspers Casino Newcastle on May 28-31. Interested players can qualify via feeder tournaments for only £0.50.
Final Day Action
The 714 player field got whittled down to 119 on the final day, with 80 players guaranteed at least £400 cash.
Some of the notable players to cash in the event but did not make it to the final table include 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) represented Unibet Poker as ambassadors and were happy to mingle with other poker players at Aspers Casino.
At the final table, Callum Pooles, who was playing his first big live tournament in a casino, came in as the chip leader and showed relentless aggression most of the time. Pooles finally went into heads-up with Cullen, having a 4:1 chip lead, but things turned out differently afterwards.
Cullen took the lead from Pooles after a double before the final hand was played. Cullen held Q-7 against Pooles' Jacks. 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 so he was eliminated in second place.
2020 Unibet Poker UK Tour London £220 Main Event - Final Table Results
|
|
Player
|
Country
|
Prize
|
|
1
|
Lawrence Cullen
|
UK
|
£25,500
|
|
2
|
Callum Pooles
|
UK
|
£18,319
|
|
3
|
Damien Pilkington-Lewis
|
UK
|
£12,200
|
|
4
|
Michael Isiguzo
|
UK
|
£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
|
This was the very first big cash score for Cullen, who actually never had the lead in the event until heads-up play. He said, "I won a smaller tournament a few weeks ago but this is my first big win and means a lot to me. The smaller win gave me some confidence after struggling a lot during the year I have been playing tournaments."
Cullen mostly thought he would be satisfied already if he just got into the final table, so he was extremely happy to end up winning the event, "I enjoyed every second of the event and was just happy to make the final table. To win it is a dream!"
Upcoming 2020 Unibet Poker UK Tour Events
The Unibet Poker UK Tour shall return in Newcastle in May before Aspers London will be revisited twice, including the tour's Grand Finale in December. The May and September events have a £220 buy-in Main Events with a £50,000 guarantee, while the Unibet Poker UK Tour Grand Finale in December has everything doubled with a £440 buy-in event that carries a £100,000 guarantee.
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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
|
Another thing with the Grand Finale is that it has one extra starting flight. Players are allowed 2 re-entries each starting day, with the option to take their biggest stack through to the Final Day.
Aside from 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.
Source: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2020/03/lawrence-cullen-unibet-uk-poker-tour-london-winner-36755.htm
