Alex Spencer has taken the crown at the inaugural Sky Poker UK Poker Championship Main Event for a cool £125,000 at Dusk till Dawn (DTD) in Nottingham.
The inaugural Sky UK Poker Championships has been a monumental success and the man all the media outlets have stuffed into their headlines is 20-year old Alex Spencer, from Doncaster, winning £125,000 after victory in the £1,100 Main Event.
It doesn’t matter what level of the poker strata you hang around in the rules are pretty much the same. Take the ‘heater’ as an example. Young Spencer had never won a prize over $2,500 until the turn of the year, before victory at the £220 25/25 Grosvenor series in Sheffield saw him bank $21,813, followed by third in the £550 £150,000 GTD Deepstack event at DTD for $23,006.
Now he has third big score of the year – and his biggest by a country mile – after winning £125,000 and a $15,000 tournament package after topping the UKPC leader board.
And he wasn’t the only player weaving gold dust either.
Allan Graham of Leicester turned a £2.80 satellite entry into a £12,500 score and Deborah O’Connell turned a £1 satellite entry into a £16,000 payday, as the grass roots of poker really broke through much to the delight of the organizer, and owner of DTD, Rob Yong.
Spencer was always going to be the favorite as he sat down for the televised final table with 2m more chips than Danny Blair in second place, and it was always going to be tough with the likes of Charles Chattha lurking on the final table.
Unfortunately, for the former Hit Squad member, Chattha would bow out in sixth place A5<77 when he fell short and moved all-in against James Rimmer.
Heads up would fall between the two guys who started the day with the most chips and once again it was Spencer with the advantage with 13.8m v 4.8m chips.
A daunting chip lead, but that didn’t stop Blair from mounting an amazing comeback to take the lead before losing a TT<AK flip to hand the initiative back to Spencer.
With just 6bb remaining Blair moved all-in with QQ and Spencer called with K3o and a king on the flop handed the young man the title of a contest we are hoping will remain in situ for many years to come.
Final Table Standings
1st – Alex Spencer – £125,000
2nd – Danny Blair – £75,000
3rd – Paul Delaney – £50,000
4th – James Rimmer – £37,500
5th – Steven Sargent – £28,000
6th – Charles Chattha – £21,000
7th – Deborah O’Connell – £16,000
8th – Allan Graham – £12,500
9th – John Haigh – £10,000
