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


Name Surname

Editor & Live Reporter

5 min read

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

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

Event Entries Prize Pool Winner Prize
£330 Warm Up Mystery Bounty 300 £86,400 Matthieu Rodriguez £13,960*
£220 NLH Single Re-entry 103 £19,776 Benedict Van Der Schalk (pictured) £5,256
£330 Pot Limit Omaha 97 £27,936 Renato Lordao £7,456
£220 NLH Single Re-entry 135 £25,920 Ersan Khan £6,620
£220 Ambassador Meet-Up Bounty 265 £58,300 Nikolay 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.

Date Time Event
Wed 7 Aug 2:00 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 Aug 1:00 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 Aug 12:00 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 Aug 11:00 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 Aug 12:00 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

Name Country Chip Count
Haoran Cai China 453,000
Lin Chen United Kingdom 319,500
James Starkey United Kingdom 193,500
Gocer Alper England 180,500
Renato Lordao Brazil 172,000
Vygintas Zemonis Lithuania 160,000
Michael Foster United Kingdom 141,500
Liam Rawlings New Zealand 108,000
Cassandra Yong United Kingdom 42,000

Never Miss a PokerStars Tournament Again

Have you used the CelestialPoker Online Tournament Calendar yet? Our free-to-use tool allows you to see upcoming online poker tournaments and in-play tournaments at several online poker rooms, including PokerStars. You can even take advantage of a PokerStars sign up bonus. Apply filters to narrow your search, including buy-in, game type, and even prize pool guarantees, enabling you to find your perfect online poker tournament in seconds, all without leaving CelestialPoker!


Share this article

author

Editor & Live Reporter

Calum has been a part of the CelestialPoker 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 CelestialPoker, 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).




Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *