Tuesday 11th October, 2016

Ted Jackson-Spivack wins UKIPT Birmingham

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What a way to go out. Ted Jackson-Spivack got what everyone wants for their birthday, a UKIPT title of course! He turned 24 today and tonight has a birthday card with £35,000 inside it and a cake topped with a shiny trophy. 

We returned with 22 players today and for so long it looked as if Ludovic Geilich was going to become the fifth and final double Main Event winner on the UKIPT as he bossed proceedings. But once play got five-handed Jackson-Spivack took control, eliminating three players in a row and then taking care of Geilich in a short heads-up battle. 

The Folkestone based player started heads-up with a two to one chip lead and it was one-way traffic to the title. On the final hand Geilich limped the button with queens and called all-in for just under 20 big blinds when Jackson-Spivack set him in with K♥4♣. A king on the turn sealed the deal for Jackson-Spivack and a gracious Geilich shook his hand as Jackson-Spivack was mobbed by his rail.

This victory is by far the largest live cash on Jackson-Spivack's poker résumé and completes a great few weeks for the mixed games specialist. Before the final table he told us he'd entered this tournament as he needed to take a break from online having grinded hard during WCOOP, where he finished third in Event #5 a $320 NL Omaha Hi/Lo, 6-Max tournament.

We were treated to another great episode of the 'Ludovic Geilich Show' here in Birmingham with the UKIPT4 Marbella champion putting on a relentless display of aggressive poker when he had chips, which was the vast majority of the time. He was in or around the chip lead in the run to the final table and but for a brief period where he found himself in 20-30 big blind territory he was very much the table captain. 

He played his usual expressive brand of poker, winning lots of small pots to chip up, when you mix that up with winning the majority of the big pots played that makes for a potent combination for a very dangerous player. He had running battles with Jackson-Spivack and third placed finisher Krishna Nagaraju throughout. This led Jackson-Spivack to remark at one point. "You're too good Ludo," when he'd put him in a particularly tricky ICM spot. Geilich showed off a full repertoire of skills today from correctly snap calling with ace high, to overbetting the pot for thin value. It was a fine performance from a man who so badly wanted that second UKIPT title and on another day he'd have been posing for the winner's photo.

Another man who was looking for the perfect ending was Mr. UKIPT himself aka Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody. He'd tied Thomas Ward's record for Main Event cashes when he made the money yesterday and today he had one thing is mind, winning the final UKIPT Main Event. Sadly, it wasn't meant to be as he was coolered out of the tournament in 11th place in a hand against Ben Morrison. The chips went in on the turn of a A♥J♠8♣K♥ board. Cody had top two but Morrison had flopped a set of eights and that was that. Cody almost won a trophy in a side event that he hopped in but came up just short in fifth place. When Morrison himself busted in ninth place the final table was set. You can see a full list of in the money finishers here.

Along with Geilich, it was David Clarkson, Jeremy Wray and Graham Parkin who were leading the pack, while David Wilkes and Nathan Webb were in the danger zone. They did a good job of hanging on as it took 75 minutes for the first elimination of the final table. When it happened it was a cooler with Wilkes running jacks into the queens of Nagaraju. 

It was at this stage the Geilich went on his downswing so much so that when Webb shoved for around nine big blinds with K♥T♥, Geilich had a decision for around 40% of his stack with A♥8♥. He called, held and was back in business with six left. For Webb, who was Day 1B chip leader, it was the end of a remarkable run.

The start of Geilich's sticky patch came when he lost a race to Wray. A few orbits later it was win some, lose some for the former Swindon Town chairman as he risked his final ten big blinds with pocket tens and lost out to Geilich's ace-king, the Scotsman flopped a king and rivered a flush just for good measure. 

If Geilich had been the lead actor up until this point he was relegated to the shadows as Jackson-Spivack came to the fore. In eight minutes he eliminated Parkin (jacks versus tens), Clarkson (kings versus ace-jack) and Nagaraju with 9♣8♣ against pocket sevens when he flopped two pair.

He took that momentum into heads-up play and soon had the scalp of Geilich to add to those that had gone before. Congratulations to Ted Jackson-Spivack on winning UKIPT Birmingham and becoming the final UKIPT Main Event champion, he's in good company. 

UKIPT6 Birmingham Main Event
Dates: October 6 - October 9
Buy-in: £700+£70
Entries: 244 (216 uniques, plus 28 re-entries)
Prize pool: £165,676