UKIPT London Bursts into Life with PokerStars Ambassador Meet-Up Game

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Editor & Live Reporter
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PokerStars Ambassadors

The PokerStars United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) jaunt to London may have begun on August 4, but the festival in England's capital turned up a notch on Tuesday with the PokerStars Ambassador Meet-Up Game (MUG).

Hundreds descended on The Hippodrome Casino to battle against the faces of the Spadie brand, where plenty of prizes were up for grabs. A plethora of Power Path Passes were dished out in the poker fiesta, with smiles, excitement and camaraderie filling the room as UKIPT London shifted into fifth gear.

Ponomarev Bests the Team Pros and Wins Main Event Seat

Nikolay Ponomarev
Nikolay Ponomarev

The MUG played out as a Hyper Turbo Bounty Freezeout and had a buy-in of ��220. Each of the 265 players had a ��100 bounty on their head, and the PokerStars ambassadors also had their own special bounty prizes in the form of Bronze ($109 value) and Silver ($2,500) Power Path Passes.

Nick Walsh, Ben "Spraggy" Spragg, Adam McKola, Rory Jennings, Barny Boatman, Felix Schneiders, Lex Veldhuis, Georgina "GJReggie" James, Marle Spragg, James Hartigan, Sam Grafton, Joe Stapleton, Lasse Jagd Lauritsen (Wistern), Alex Romero and, Elliot Hackney were the players patched up and they had to navigate a minefield to get a slice of the ��58,300 prize pool.

Ambassadors Wistern & James Hartigan
Ambassadors Wistern & James Hartigan

Spraggy and Hartigan suffered early exits after being stacked by Stewart Downes and Huw Rhys Jones, which started the onslaught of streamers, pros, influencers, and commentators. Only Schneiders (19th����290) and Walsh (5th����1,320) were the representatives to finish in the paid places.

Poker grinder Nikolay Ponomarev, who has more than $1 million in live tournament earnings, was the last player standing. He defeated Jack McDermott in heads-up to claim the ��5,010 winner's prize, along with ��700 in bounties plus a UKIPT ��1,100 Main Event seat��not a bad day at the office!

The two Silver Passes went to Gurminder Jandu and James Conteh, and they could be handy with Day 1b of the Main Event kicking off on Thursday, August 8.

UKIPT London MUG Full Results

PlaceNamePrize
1Nikolay Ponomarev��5,010
2Jack McDermott��3,120
3Juan Manuel Avila��2,230
4Vygintas Zemonis��1,710
5Nick Walsh��1,320
6Craig McCorkell��1,010
7Jenson Golds��840
8Renato Lordao��700
9David McConachie��580
10Danas Gerdziunas��510
11Amir Steven Alam��510
12Robert Ayton��440
13Stuart Wilson��440
14James Conteh��380
15Simon Turner��380
16Roland Boothby��330
17Bhisham Kumar Kukar��330
18Mikey Prinsen��290
19Felix Schneiders��290
20David Shepherd��290
21Gurminder Jandu��250
22Giulio Stanzione��250
23Thales Anis Salomao Filho��250
24Jodi Hurly��220
25Niall Farrell��220
26Daza Turriago��220
27Martin Gallagher��220
28Cameron Hunt��190
29Sophie Stubbs��190
30Rosarie Roberts��190
31Hiroyuki Fukuda��190
32Atanas Pavlov��160
33Matas Gerdziunas��160
34Huw Rhys Jones��160
35Louie Ogrady Andreas��160
36Ignacio Tortajada��160
37Chan Sing Lee��160
38Terrance Alan Bridges��160
39Aaron Ayad��160
UKIPT London

Check Out the 2024 UKIPT London Schedule

2024 UKIPT London Winners So Far

Benedict Van Der Schalk
Benedict Van Der Schalk

Before Ponomarev's triumphs, several players had already bagged their own Spadie trophy.

France's Matthieu Rodriguez reigned supreme in the ��330 Warm Up Mystery Bounty, collecting a ��11,210 payout topped by ��2,750 in bounties. Two ��5,000 Mystery Bounty prizes were also on the table, with runner-up David McConachie and Hon Chun Choi receiving the jackpot bounties.

Benedict Van Der Schalk was next on the winner's podium. He took down Sunday's ��220 NLH Single Re-entry for ��5,256. Spraggy also made the final table, bowing out in sixth-place for ��1,200.

Renato Lordao's trip from Brazil was made worthwhile following his champion's performance in the ��330 Pot Limit Omaha, which helped him to a ��7,456 payday. EPT Paris Main Event winner Boatman also put in a deep run, falling in fifth place for ��2,110.

Unibet Poker ambassador and popular podcaster David Lappin had to settle for the silver medal in Monday's ��220 NLH Single Re-entry. He was pipped to the winner's photo by Ersan Khan.

EventEntriesPrize PoolWinnerPrize
��330 Warm Up Mystery Bounty300��86,400Matthieu Rodriguez��13,960*
��220 NLH Single Re-entry103��19,776Benedict Van Der Schalk (pictured)��5,256
��330 Pot Limit Omaha97��27,936Renato Lordao��7,456
��220 NLH Single Re-entry135��25,920Ersan Khan��6,620
��220 Ambassador Meet-Up Bounty265��58,300Nikolay Ponomarev��5,710 + UKIPT Main Event Seat*

*Includes Bounty Prizes

Click here to see full UKIPT London Results

The Eight Past PokerStars UKIPT London Main Event Champions

What's Next on the Schedule?

UKIPT London Trophy

Wednesday, August 7 sees the start of the ��2,200 NLHE UKIPT High Roller Day 1, which begins at 4 p.m. local time. Those looking to get in on the cheap can hop into the ��250 Qualifier that gets underway two hours earlier.

The following day sees Day 1b of the Main Event commence and the High Roller finish. Day 1c and 1d of the Main Event play out on Friday with the field merging for Day 2 on Saturday. The finale then plays out on Sunday, where a champion will be determined.

There are still plenty of qualifiers for the Main Event, and should anyone's Main Event run come to an early finish, there are several side events to flick a few bullets into.

DateTimeEvent
Wed 7 Aug2:00 p.m.��250 Qualifier to ��2,200 High Roller
 4:00 p.m.��2,200 NLHE UKIPT High Roller Day 1
 8:00 p.m.��125 Qualifier to Main Event
Thu 8 Aug1:00 p.m.��250 Qualifier to Main Event
 2:00 p.m.UKIPT High Roller Final Day
 2:00 p.m.��1,100 NLHE Main Event Day 1b
 9:00 p.m.��250 Qualifier to Main Event
Fri 9 Aug12:00 p.m.��1,100 NLHE Main Event Day 1c
 12:00 p.m.��250 Qualifier to Main Event
 7:00 p.m.��1,100 NLHE Main Event Day 1d
Sat 10 Aug11:00 a.m.Qualifier Freeroll
 12:00 p.m.NLHE Main Event Day 2
 1:00 p.m.��330 NLHE UKIPT Cup Day 1
 8:00 p.m.��220 NLHE
Sun 11 Aug12:00 p.m.NLHE Main Event Final Day
 12:00 p.m.NLHE UKIPT Cup Final Day
 12:00 p.m.��220 8-Game
 2:00 p.m.��220 NLHE Bounty
 5:00 p.m.��165 NLHE Deepstack

Cai Bags Best in Day 1a of UKIPT London Main Event

Haoran Cai
Haoran Cai

The first flight of the ��1,100 UKIPT London Main Event was a rollercoaster, with Haoran Cai grabbing nearly a quarter of the chips in play. He transformed his starting stack of 30,000 into a whopping 453,000 as the field shrank from 59 players to just nine. On any other day, Lin Chen's impressive stack of 319,500 would have topped the charts, but it claimed second place instead. The next big stack belonged to James Starkey, boasting 193,000.

Each Main Event flight played down to the final 15% of its field, meaning everyone who made it to Day 2 (Saturday, August 10) was guaranteed a prize.

UKIPT London Main Event Day 1a Chip Counts

NameCountryChip Count
Haoran CaiChina453,000
Lin ChenUnited Kingdom319,500
James StarkeyUnited Kingdom193,500
Gocer AlperEngland180,500
Renato LordaoBrazil172,000
Vygintas ZemonisLithuania160,000
Michael FosterUnited Kingdom141,500
Liam RawlingsNew Zealand108,000
Cassandra YongUnited Kingdom42,000

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Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game. Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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