Rapinder Cheema reigned victorious at the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour Season 5 Main Event, in London, after beating the UK-based Spaniard Fernando Marin, in heads-up action, to take the £78,825 first prize.
Those were the words of Rapinder Cheema moments after securing a pulsating pay day of £78,825, as the champion of the £770 United Kingdom & Ireland (UKIPT) Season 5 Main Event.
It was a wonderful moment and defined what the UKIPT is all about. In fact, the top five players only had a total of four live tournament cashes between them when they sat down at the final table.
742 entrants, and the £502,818 prize pool, was a little down on the 1,089 that turned up for the Season 4 event in Oct 2014. A young man named Brett Angell walked away with that title, and £115,083 in prize money, and he nearly stole the headlines again with a superb back-to-back run that saw him fall in a hand against Cheema in seventh place.
Cheema and his heads-up partner Marin were the two chip leaders when the final table began, and as often happens they were the only two left to contest this thing. Marin started with a 3:1 chip lead, but that didn’t stop the pair agreeing to share the money equally – with an additional £15,000 to play for – an amount that’s now gathering interest in Cheema’s bank account.
“I’m a bit drained. I need to work on my stamina.” An excited Cheema told the PokerStars blog before dashing off to celebrate with his family. “I do it all for them anyway.”
The next UKIPT5 stop is a massive £1m guaranteed event scheduled to take place in Nottingham’s Dusk till Dawn casino April 13-20.
UKIPT London Main Event Final Table Results
1st. Rapinder Cheema – £78,825
2nd. Fernando Marin – £74,275
3rd. Martin Hanham – £41,000
4th. Lawrence Bayley – £31,000
5th. Christopher Yong – £24,600
6th. Paul Simmons – £18,600
7th. Brett Angell – £13,300
8th. Joakim Sorensen – £9,138
Other notables that cashed in the event include Chaz Chattha (22nd), Andy Black (24th), Ross Boatman (26th), Nik Persaud (41st) and Kevin Allen (46th).
