European Poker Tour (EPT) Champion Ludovic Lacay leads World Poker Tour (WPT) Montreal, Ben Mayhew defies the odds to take the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) title in Nottingham, and Matt Waxman takes down the WPT Regional event at the Seminole Hard Rock.
Three live poker tours to bring you up to speed on and the first is arguably the most prestigious as the EPT Champion Ludovic Lacay takes the lead at WPT Montreal at the end of Day 2.
It was a brutal shift as 10-levels of play saw the field condense from 357 players to just 59, with the Frenchman bagging and tagging 1,261,000 in his attempt to capture his second major title of his long and illustrious career.
The WPT has always been a good stomping ground for Lacay ever since he finished runner-up to Markus Lehmann in the 2007 WPT Spanish Championships in Barcelona. It was Lacay’s first-ever cash and handed him the bankroll to start his professional career.
Lacay also finished 3rd in WPT Marrakech in 2009 and 12th at WPT Venice earlier this year. He also finished as the runner-up to Noah Schwartz in the €3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Mixed Max Event at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) this year to maintain his superlative run of form.
Lacay will be joined on Day 3 with the likes of Jonathan Little (1,053,000), Guillaume Darcourt (952,000), Amir Babakhani (816,000) and Griffin Benger (474,000).
There is $500,824 up top and they are already in the money with 99 players getting paid.
Ben Mayhew Wins UKIPT Nottingham 6-Max
Reading the PokerStars Blog’s recap of Day 3 it seemed Ben Mayhew had used every ounce of his run good to somehow make it to the final table. Fortunately, for the young Brit, he still had some in reserve and is now £72,840 the richer as a consequence.
At one point in the penultimate day in the tournament Mayhew was sitting behind just a few big blinds. He shoved and kept shoving and somehow managed to go from the shortest stack in the contest to the only man holding any chips when a lady with a pork pie addiction started singing.
“I swear it’s my old man,” he told the PokerStars blog, “He passed away in March so I think he’s certainly up there. Every time I needed a card it was there, bink! I survived five or six all-ins as an underdog and somehow I got there.”
And got there he did.
Mayhew defeating Tony Salmon in heads up action to take home his first major title and largest score of his career.
Final Table Results
1st. Ben Mayhew – £72,840
2nd. Tony Salmon – £64,296
3rd. David Clifton-Burraway – £66,514
4th. Ben Vinson – £34,000
5th. Tim Wong – £26,750
6th. Sergio Aido – £20,700
Matt Waxman Picks Up Six Figures on the WPT Regional Tour
Matt Waxman decided to skip WPT Montreal in favor of the WPT Regional Seminole Hard Rock “Rock n Poker Open” and what a great decision it was.
The WSOP and WPT Champion captured $123,598 in prize money after cutting a deal when heads-up against Yuan Yangshen, to take his full live tournament earnings up to $2.8m.
The Rock n Poker event captured the imagination of 482 players including deep runs by Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi (10th) and Darryll Fish (5th).
Final Table Results
1st. Matthew Waxman – $123,598
2nd. Yuan Yangshen – $123,597
3rd. Tyler Stafman – $65,504
4th. Tom Gleason – $48,441
5th. Darryll Fish – $36,367
6th. Mark Morono – $29,135
7th. John Pizano – $24,295
8th. Kevin Spires – $19,375
9th. Javier Prado – $14,532
Photo courtesy of World Poker Tour Flickr
