Aido Wins UKIPT Grand Final; EPT London; Team Negreanu Wins Showdown

Spaniard’s Fiesta at UKIPT London

A light fandango and a flourish of chips gave Sergio Aido cause to celebrate on Saturday after he banked the largest win of his at UKIPT London’s Main Event.

The Spanish pro and his rail enjoyed a fiesta inside London’s Victoria Casino after he overcame the UK’s Thomas Ward to scoop the second title of his career and £144,555.

Having seen 1,097 players fall before them, Aido and Ward were left to cut a deal before engaging in one last dance for the trophy.

Holding the lead when play commenced it looked as though Aido would close out the match with ease. However, a coup with [Ks] [2s] reversed the momentum and gave Ward the slight advantage.

His revival was short-lived, though, as Aido put together a two-punch knockout combination that saw him regain the lead and eliminate his opponent.

A-J would prove the decisive hand on both occasions, with the pivotal pot sliding across the Aido after he caught a fortunate flop against Ward’s pocket tens.

Having topped the largest tournament field to ever hit the UK’s capital, Aido now holds two live titles and over $365,000 in tournament winnings.

*Denotes a deal was made

EPT London’s Main Event

From the shadows of UKIPT’s Grand Final a twinkling of poker stars emerged for the opening day of EPT London’s Main Event.

With £5,000+£250 ready to invest, the likes of Liv Boeree, Annette Obrestad, Vanessa Selbst and Luke Schwartz formed part of the 236 player crowd that descended on the Victoria Casino for Day 1A.

While the above mentioned pros managed to survive the first cut, it was Canadian Marc-Andrew Ladouceur who led the way.

Bagging 163,500 chips, Ladouceur finished the day just ahead of Adria Balaguer (160,000), Antonio Matias (141,000) and Timothy Davie (136,800).

Today’s second starting session has seen another stellar tapestry drape itself over the tables and in the early offing the likes of Illari Sahamies, Isaac Haxton and Chris Moorman have all increased their starting stacks.

Team Negreanu’s Professional Beating

Daniel Negreanu and his band of merry men (Isaac Haxton and Bertrand Grospellier) proved they were the deadly trio yesterday when they overcame “The Professionals”.

Made up of Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan and Viktor Blom, the team from Full Tilt took part in a $300,000 exhibition match against Team PokerStars before the start of EPT London’s Main Event.

Each player put up $50,000 cash in order to compete in a best-of-three showdown inside the Victoria Casino.

Playing on laptop at opposing ends of a poker table, first blood went to Grospellier after he swept Blom in a 3-0 drubbing.

Next to fight for their team’s pride was Haxton and Dwan. In a clash of styles, the match was poised at one apiece before Haxton caught a slice of fortune with pocket aces.

Watching Dwan move all-in with [Ac]-[Jc], Haxton soon shot down his opponent’s chances of success with bullets to take the overall score to 2-0.

Now playing for pride, Gus did his best to overcome Daniel, but with momentum on his side it was the latter that completed the 3-0 route.

Having taken the match and $150,000, Daniel thanked Hansen for the match before quickly offering him another showdown.