Live reporting by Aaron McBride & Lisa Yiasemides
Simon Brandstrom has won the 2019 WPT UK $3,300 Main Event at Dusk Till Dawn Poker Room for $330,000 and becomes the first person to win a WPT Main Tour and WPTDeepStacks title.
Back in April, Brandstrom won WPTDS Barcelona, the biggest outside of North America, as well as claiming the WPTDS Europe Player of the Year title.
In a fantastic story, Brandstrom used some of his $10,000 WPT Credits prize money to enter the WPT UK Main Event, in partnership with partypoker LIVE and managed to go all the way yet again.
The Swede turned a heads-up chip deficit against the UK’s Ryan Mandara into victory in just seven hands, and will now also compete at the $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions in 2020.
“This feels surreal,” said Brandstrom after his win.
“It feels like it shouldn’t be possible to have back-to-back wins, and I don’t feel like I am worth it.
Brandstrom, who has a young daughter, added he would celebrate with some champagne tonight, before spending the next two months on parental leave in Spain with his family, before heading home for Christmas.
Final Table Results
| 1 | Simon | Brandstrom | $330,000 |
| 2 | Ryan | Mandara | $221,650 |
| 3 | James | Rann | $168,500 |
| 4 | Matthew | Eardley | $128,500 |
| 5 | Maria | Lampropulos | $98,500 |
| 6 | Paul | Siddle | $76,000 |
| 7 | Manig | Loeser | $58,500 |
| 8 | Leo | Worthington-Leese | $46,000 |
| 9 | Paul | Jackson | $36,000 |
The final nine sat down to battle under the live stream lights at Noon, and it took over 90 minutes before the first elimination occurred.
Paul Jackson, who has been a well-known figure in the UK poker scene for over 15 years, saw his chip stack diminish and ultimately lost with ace-deuce against Brandstrom’s ace-queen.
Leo Worthington-Leese secured his biggest live cash in eighth place after losing a vital flip with ace-king against the pocket sevens of Mandara.
Germany’s Manig Loeser is no stranger to major final tables, and the high roller was looking to add yet another title to his name, but ultimately hit the rail in seventh place after losing with ace-queen against king-nine.
The final six then dropped to the last four in the blink of an eye after back-to-back eliminations.
Paul Siddle, who finished as runner-up in the Devilfish Cup earlier this week, departed when his ace-queen lost a flip against pocket jacks, and just moments later partypoker LIVE MILLIONS UK champion Maria Lampropulos followed Siddle to the payout desk after running ace-deuce into pocket eights.
The final four battled over another 60 hands before Matthew Eardley saw ace-nine lose against ten-nine, and it was to be James Rann who missed out on a seat in heads-up. Rann shoved ace-deuce from the small blind and saw Mandara snap-call with pocket sevens.
Mandara had been a dominated force at the final table and used his chip lead to full effect.
The Brit went into heads-up with the advantage, but Brandstrom came out storming, winning four of the first five hands before taking the title in the seventh.
Mandara raised with jack-ten, and Brandstrom defended with nine-seven. The nine-seven-three flop gave Brandstrom two pair, and he check-called a 550,000 bet from Mandara and check-called again for 1,600,000 on the four of clubs turn.
After Brandstrom checked for the third time on the king of hearts river, Mandara over shoved for 7,500,000 into the 5,500,000 pot. Brandstrom had 7,700,000 behind but thought for just 20 seconds before he called.
Mandara knew it was all over, and when the stacks were confirmed, the two players shook hands after a brief but exciting heads-up match.
An amazing story to finish up a brilliant event in Nottingham.
Next up on the WPT schedule is the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble followed by WPT Montreal.
That’s all from us here at WPT.com, but be sure to follow the continued coverage of the WPTDeepStacks UK Final Table, and check out all the WPT photos at Flickr! See you soon!
Photography courtesy of Tomas Stacha.
