Sam Mitten-Laurence and Ivan Luca are the big winners in Season 5 of the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour in Dusk till Dawn Nottingham, after bagging victories in the Main Event and High Roller.
PokerStars have waved bye-bye to Dusk till Dawn (DTD) for another year, and the pairing of Sam Mitten-Laurence and Ivan Luca have written all of the headlines. For Mitten-Laurence, this will be a new feeling. For Luca, it’s a feeling he is 
getting very used to indeed.
First to Sam Mitten-Laurence and his wonderful run in the Season 5 £1,100 United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Main Event. According to the Hendon Mob database this was Mitten-Laurence’s first live score, and what an impressive one it was. He overcame a field of 914 entrants to take the first prize of £182,000, in the £1m Guaranteed Event.
The quality was there to see as we reached the race to the final table. The Dane Morten Mortensen finished 30th, the Spaniard Sergio Aido finished 16th, and the impressive Brit Ben Vinson finished 12th.
Despite the loss of those three bright stars, the final table was still lit up well. Trevor Pearson was following the recent trend of making back-to-back final tables. In Season 4 he navigated his way through a field of 1,223 entrants to finish third, and here he was again one year later.
Pearson wasn’t the only final table incumbent with previous form. Kuljinder Sidhu is a former Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Main Event winner, and had finished 8th at the Season 4 European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in London. Patrick Clarke was the 2014 Irish Open Champion.
It was never going to be easy for anyone. But when is it ever? Mitten-Laurence eventually got to the heads-up stage against the impressive Pearson. He had a 3:1 chip lead, and it didn’t take long for them to find hands worthy of one final punch up. Pearson calling off with AJ, but Mitten-Laurence had him dominated with AK. The jack remained in the box, and Mitten-Laurence took the title. Pearson was immense though. What an achievement to finish 3rd and 2nd in back-to-back fields of that size.
Final Table Results
1st. Sam Mitten-Laurence – £182,000
2nd. Trevor Pearson – £110,100
3rd. Richard Jones – £77,400
4th. Patrick Clarke – £58,100
5th. Krzysztof Jacyk – £44,700
6th. Kuljinder Sidhu – £32,800
7th. Sunil Pancholi – £24,200
8th. Luke Perrot – £17,320
Ivan Luca Wins the £3,200 High Roller
The £3,200 No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller – 8 Handed Single Re-Entry had a £150,000 Guarantee slapped on the tin. It fell short. Only 45 entrants culminating in a total prize pool of £144,000.
If Pearson’s back-to-back UKIPT run at DTD was impressive, then what about the London based Lithuanian Matas Cimbolas. The kid loves Rob Yong’s gaff.
His DTD run of glory started in Nov 2014 when he picked up £200,000 for winning the World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event. Then in February he finished 4th in the Sky Poker UK Poker Championships Main Event for £55,000, and then won the High Roller for £60,000. Onto this week and he cashed in the Main Event and only Ivan Luca stopped him walking away with the High Roller title.
Cimbolas is not the only player feeling the heat right now. The Argentinian Ivan Luca is also playing out of his skin. He has won close to $800,000 in 2015 alone including a runner-up position in the recent EPT High Roller in Malta, a 5th place finish in the EPT Deauville High Roller, and 4th place finish in the France Poker Series (FPS) Main Event.
When heat hit heat it was Luca that came out on top.
The final table also included the former November Niner Felix Stephensen and the talented American Bryn Kenney.
Final Table Results
1st. Ivan Luca – £46,800
2nd. Matas Cimbolas – £33,750
3rd. Thiago Nishijima – £21,500
4th. Tom Mall – £16,300
5th. Mitchell Johnson – £12,600
6th. Felix Stephensen – £9,660
7th. Bryn Kenney – £7,800
