£1,000,000 Guaranteed UKIPT Nottingham Won by Duncan McLellan
Monday saw the final table of the PokerStars UKIPT Nottingham play out with Duncan McLellan winning the UKIPT’s biggest prize pool for a first prize of £202,372 following a deal heads up. This was his second UKIPT title after he won the inaugural UKIPT Isle of Man title last year. This was the second visit for the UKIPT to the Dusk Til Dawn card room this season, with the 6-Max event also being held here in November last year.
The day started with the eight players remaining taking their seats and unbagging their chips in preparation for a day at the table. Three of these players had earned their way onto this event by satelliting in on PokerStars, but we also had a UKIPT champion in McLellan, and a former WSOP final tabler in Ramey Shaio.
This was expected to give an interesting final table dynamic, especially as the stacks at the table were so spread out.
The stacks going into the final day were:
Seat 1: Trevor Pearson – 965,000
Seat 2: Anthony Flynn – 2,495,000
Seat 3: Duncan McLellan – 3,320,000
Seat 4: Ramey Shaio – 1,770,000
Seat 5: Juan Benito – 4,385,000
Seat 6: Angelo Milioto – 2,455,000
Seat 7: Ryan Spittles – 3,305,000
Seat 8: William Elliot – 5,625,000
The early stages of the final table were all about Willie Elliot from Scotland. He came to the table as the chip leader, and was only in this event after winning a £162 satellite on PokerStars. He had some pedigree after winning the recent Scottish poker Series for £12,000.
Early “Table Captain” Willie Elliot
Elliot started off bossing the table, and assuming the position of Table Captain in the process. The only one who seemed capable of stopping the man from north of the border was McLellan, who fought back to eat into the Scotsman’s lead.
In fact, McLellan busted the first player of this eight handed final table.
With the pressure Elliot had been applying to the table with his high three bet percentage, McLellan decided to shove his remaining 30 big blinds holding 4d4s. In the next seat to his left, Ramey Shaio had picked up AdQh and with a stack approaching only 10 big blinds, he decided it was time for death or glory, pushing his chip into the middle with McLellan’s.
The remaining players mucked their cards, and the board was dealt to decide Shaio’s fate. The cards turned face up on the felt were 7c6h3h5d9h to send the former WSOP nearly boy to the rail in eighth place for £20,800.
With Elliot bullying the table with his massive 10 million plus stack, the other players were scrambling to accumulate chips when the massive stack wasn’t in a hand. Again, McLellan was the one to take advantage. Barely 15 minutes after the demise of Shaio, we saw another elimination. The action folded to Anthony Flynn in the small blind, and he shoved his remaining 12 blinds over the line. Duncan McLellan was sitting next to him in the big blind, and after seeing his cards, made the call to give Flynn a sweat.
Flynn was ahead holding the Ac7s, while McLellan was still very much in the hand holding QhJh. The flop didn’t change anything as it fell showing 4s3d4h. The turn however changed everything as the Qd was exposed, and joined the other 3 community cards in the middle of the table.
This left Flynn praying to Barry Greenstein to see an Ace on River, but the cards were deaf to his pleas as the 4d hit the felt to give McLellan a full house, and the pot. Flynn hit the rail with £29,300 more than he arrived with. Flynn had previously promised his kids a veritable cornucopia of presents if he won, including a new car. I hope they don’t mind him bringing home a second hand Fiesta rather than the sparkling new car they were hoping for.
It had to happen, but following Flynn’s exit we finally saw Willie Elliot lose a significant hand. Elliot had raised to 275k from the hijack with the blinds at 50k/100k and a 10k ante. He held Ad7s, and was probably not too happy to see a call from Pearson in position. Pearson was behind preflop having only KhQh in his hand. The flop changed that as the first three cards were placed on the middle of the felt showing Ks5d3c to give Pearson top pair.
Willie, still in Table Captain mode, shoved his massive stack over the line, and Pearson snapped off the call in a heartbeat. The Turn of the 3s and the river of 8h made no difference to the outcome, and Pearson doubled up to 3.69 million chips. Elliot dropped below 10 million for the first time in a while, but still had a commanding lead over the table with 9.265 million, more than double anyone else at the table.
6th Place Juan Benito
The next to leave the table was the single non Brit at the table, Spaniard Juan Benito. Again, doing the damage was Duncan McLellan. The UKIPT Isle of Man winner opened the action with a 2.5 big blind raise to 250k, which Benito three bet to 500k. Duncan was having none of it, and announced he was all in, and the Spaniard made a quick call for his tournament life.
The cards were flipped over, and McLellan was slightly ahead in the race for this pot. His 9h9c was marginally ahead of Benito’s AcKd. The board ran out Th7h8d9sQd to send the chips to the bricklayer from Northampton, and the Spaniard back to his home in Bournemouth, albeit with an extra £38,400 as a reward for his work over the weekend.
Benito had actually come to the final table as a real challenger for the title, but a combination of aggression from Elliot and McLellan and a cold deck left him little room to move, and a 6th place finish.
This final table was looking like the end to a turbo event, with players busting left, right and centre. Next to go was Ryan Spittles, disappointing the legions of UK Poker fans who watch him regularly on the TV, as he analyses poker for a dedicated satellite channel.
He had blinded down to just 11 big blinds, and had to make a move as he had the shortest stack at the table. He shoved his remaining chips holding KsJd, and got a call from Angelo Milioto after his stack was formally confirmed. Angelo was ahead holding AdTs, and satyed that was as the cards were dealt to determine Spittles’ fate. After all was said and done, the board read 7c4s6d6hQh, and Ryan Spittles exited in 5th place for £51,700 for his biggest ever live payday.
Willie Elliot was still doing his best, but had slipped to just 5.865 million in chips following some big pots that didn’t go his way. With the blinds up to 60k/120k with a 20k ante, Willie continued to be at the centre of action at the table.
A preflop war broke out between Elliot and McLellan, with McLellan sitting on the button, and Elliot having been the one to have to bet from the big blind. The flop was finally dealt to leave Ac2c8h staring up at the players from the felt. Elliot checked his 3c3d, while McLellan continued by betting out 525k. Willie called, bringing the turn card of the Ah to the party. The action went check/check, and the river was dealt as the Ad.
The pot was standing in the region of 1.8 million, and McLellan decided to take advantage of Elliot’s final check in the hand as he overbet the pot by adding 2 million to the chips in the middle. Willie obviously wasn’t a believer, and announced he was all in. McLellan bit his arm off with the call, and tabled As3s for quad aces. The cheeky check on the turn was probably what sent Elliot to the rail in 4th place, and left Duncan in a dominating lead with over 50% of the chips in play. Elliot picked up £67,000 for his weekend south of the (Hadrian) wall, and provided some very entertaining moments during his UKIPT Nottingham run.
It was at this point a deal discussion was started in earnest, but the players decided to wait until the end of the level before agreeing anything. Trevor Pearson probably rues that decision as he was the next to leave the table.
McLellan opened the action at the three handed table to 375,000 with AcKc and Pearson promptly shoved his remaining 2.18 million chips over the line. Duncan snap called, and was ahead when Pearson flipped over his cards to show the AhJs. The board ran out 2d5c7s9h9c to send the event into heads up play, and Trevor Pearson to the rail with a cheque for £89,900.
With a break being put in place to re-arrange the table for heads up play, a deal was done between Duncan McLellan and Angelo Milioto to flatten the payout structure. Leaving £34,000 to play for, Angelo pocketed £143,728, while Duncan added £168,372 to his winnings from his UKIPT win last year.
Ten minutes after the deal had been confirmed, we had a winner. Angelo opened to 350k on the button holding Qs6h and Duncan called holding 8c7c. The flop could have been descibed as a little wet as it was dealt as 5c6d6s giving Angelo trips, and Duncan an open ended straight draw. McLellan checked, and Angelo fired out another 350k bet. This time Duncan wasn’t finished with the action and re-raised to 920k and Angelo just called in position. The turn was the 4d, which completed McLellan’s straight. He checked it over to Milioto who bet 1.3 million into his trap. Duncan saw his chance, and moved all in and Angelo snap called. With the cards on their backs, Milioto was left hoping to see either a Six or for the board to pair. The River came the Ad, which saw the chips, the title and £202,372 go to Duncan McLellan for his second UKIPT title in seven months.
UKIPT Nottingham Winner Duncan McLelland
What may surprise a lot of people is that today, Duncan was back up the scaffolding at this day job as a bricklayer.
“It was hard work, harder than the Isle of Man,” McLellan told the PokerStars Blog afterwards,
“I had no fear of going broke. You can’t win a tournament without getting your chips over the line. This has just been a weekend away really. I want to go out to Vegas and play the main event but I’ll be back on the scaffold tomorrow!”
This was the fastest ever final table for a UKIPT Main Event, lasting only three hours 49 minutes. The previous fastest table was when Max Silver won his UKIPT title back in Dublin during Season 1. This was the last record to fall in a week of record breaking as this was also the biggest prize pool ever on the UKIPT.
The tour will be back for it’s “holiday” at UKIPT Marbella in June, while PokerStars will be streaming the Canada Cup from Montreal later this month.
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