Bull Rides his Luck to UKIPT London Main Event Title

Young Scottish poker player Robert Bull acknowledged in a post-victory Tweet that “everything went my way” en route to winning the UKIPT London Main Event.

After Ludovic Geilich´s victory in Marbella and Alan Gold´s victory in Galway, Robert Bull became the third Scottish player in a row to win a UKIPT Main Event when taking down the PokerStars sponsored tournament last night at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London for £113,405.

However, whereas Geilich and Gold had started their respective final tables as chip leaders, Robert Bull had to do things the hard way – starting the eight-handed final table sixth in chips, after having lost his chip advantage on Saturday when he open-folded pocket Aces against pressure from Day 1 chip leader Dario Sammartino (J♥ 9♥) on a board of 8♣ 4♠ J♦ / 5♠ / 8♦.

Final Table Gets Underway without Zimbler

There was plenty of live poker experience at the final table – Jack Salter and Robert Bull both had five-figure payouts in previous UKIPT events, while Ian Simpson took down the Irish Poker Open in April around the same time as Mario Sammartino was winning the IPT San Remo Ho Rollers.

However, the player with more live poker experience than the rest of the table put together – Paul Zimbler – was absent from the final table when the cards were in the air for the remaining 30 minutes of Level 26 (blinds 25,000/50,000 – ante 5,000), as he was stuck in London´s notorious Sunday morning traffic.

Zimbler Jogs In and Runs Cold

As soon as he arrived, Zimbler was quickly involved in the action. An unanswered pre-flop shove and a chopped pot with Dario Sammartino enabled Zimbler to recover the blinds and antes he had forfeited with his late arrival.

However, it was not to be third shove lucky for the “running man” when, at the start of Level 27 (blinds 30,000/60,000 – ante 10,000) Zimbler moved all-in from the cut-off with A♥ K♥ and received a call from Karl Mahrenholz (Q♣ J♣). Zimbler missed all his options on the board of 10♦ 5♠ Q♥ / 5♦ / 10♥, while Mahrenholz paired his Queen to bust Zimbler from the UKIPT Main Event final table in eighth.

Bull Starts Running Hot – Slusarek Runs Out of Gas

Robert Bull´s hot run started when he took more than 250,000 chips from Dario Sammartino with a rivered two pair, and he moved closer to the top of the leader board when his J♥ 10♥ flopped the J♠ to best Jack Salter´s pocket Fives for another 440,000 chips.

There was no such good fortune for Polish player Patryk Slusarek who moved all-in with K♦ 10♦, but who could not improve past Ian Simpson´s A♣ Q♥ – a hand which eliminated the Pole from the final table and placed Ian Simpson at the head of the chip counts – a position he quickly relinquished (to Jack Salter) when he doubled up Dario Sammartino J♣ J♦ > A♥ 9♣ in the very next hand.

Two More Fall – Leaders Flip-Flop

The final table of six was reduced to a final table of four during the next level (Level 28 blinds 40,000/80,000 – ante 10,000) after Jack Salter eliminated Karl Mahrenholz (A♠ Q♠ > 8♦ 8♥) in sixth and Ian Simpson found pocket Aces to bust Dario Sammartino (K♣ 10♣) in fifth.

However, Robert Bull moved into second place with some aggressive pre-flop and post-flop play which included a three-bet shove into Jack Salter for a pot worth more than half a million chips, and Salter fell from first to third when Ian Simpson bluffed him out of a 1.5 million chip pot with a missed straight draw.

Going into Level 29 (blinds 50,000/100,000 – ante 10,000), the relative chip stacks looked like this:-

Big Turn Cards Determine Heads-Up

The Turn card in two significant hands determined who would be competing in the heads-up for the UKIPT London Main Event title. Robert Bull caught the diamond he needed to complete his flush draw on the Turn to bust Lasse Frost in fourth place (A♦ 7♦ > J♠ 10♣ – flopped top pair) and Ian Simpson caught a straight on the Turn to eliminate Jack Salter in third (J♦ 8♣ > 10♠ 8♠ – also flopped top pair).

Ian Simpson took a 7.850 million -v- 6.895 million chip advantage into the heads-up and, because of the big pay jump between first place (£136,875) and second (£83,400), the two players made a deal which would see Ian Simpson locking up £106,870, Robbie Bull taking £103,405 and leaving £10,000 and the UKIPT London title to play for.

Engrossing Heads-Up Goes to Robert Bull – after More Good Luck

An engrossing heads-up ensued in which Robert Bull took an early lead with another Turned flush and a hero call with trip Sevens against Ian Simpson´s failed bluff. However, Simpson battled back and regained the advantage with three streets of value on flopped trip Nines, and then flopping a set of Deuces in a hand in which Robert Bull (7♠ 5♥) had Turned two pair.

Ian Simpson had built up a 2:1 chip advantage by the start of Level 31 (blinds 80,000/160,000 – ante 10,000), but Robert Bull twice came from behind in big hands to claim the UKIPT London Main Event title. In the first, Ian Simpson was marginal favourite to win the tournament in an A♥ 8♦ -v- J♦ 10♣ confrontation, but Robert Bull connected with the flop of J♣ K♣ 9♣ to give him top pair and outs to a club Flush (which arrived on the 3♣ River) and enabled him to double up into the chip lead.

In the final hand Ian Simpson (A♠ 8♠) was an even stronger favourite when put all-in by Robert Bull (A♣ 4♦). The flop of J♦ Q♦ 6♣ kept Simpson ahead in the hand, and the A♦ on the Turn made a chop the most likely scenario; however the 8♦ on the River gave Robert Bull a runner-runner flush and victory in the UKIPT London Main Event.

UKIPT London Main Event Result

747 players either ponied up £1,100 buy-in or qualified online on PokerStars for the UKIPT London Main Event (as did winner Robert Bull). The top 111 players cashed in the event, with those who made an appearance at the final table (even a belated appearance) receiving the following:-