Joeri Zandvliet won the first ever UK event on the new PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour, otherwise known as the UKIPT. By winning the tournament played in Manchester, Zandvliet took home £63,200 and also receives a free entry into the £5,250 European Poker Tour (EPT) London event, which is the UKIPT’s season finale. In addition to those two prizes, he’s also currently sitting in first place on the Season 1 UKIPT leaderboard, which will award over £60,000 to the top 100 players for players. The overall leaderboard winner will receive all of their buy-in and hotel fees paid by PokerStars for Season 2.
Zandvliet is only 21 years-old and a native of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He came to the final table third in chips and faced a tough final table, with the nine remaining players taking eight hours to determine the winner. The college student was elated over his first big live tournament win to date.
When the action was heads-up, Zandvliet took only seven minutes to end the contest against Jack Ellwood. The final hand had Zandvliet enjoying a 2:1 chip lead over Ellwood. Zandvliet got all of his chips in with pocket nines, while Ellwood flipped over A-Q. The flop spiked a Queen for Ellwood, forcing Zandvliet to have hit a two-outer to finish the contest. The nine, of course, hit on the river and gave the 21 year-old college student the tournament victory and the £63,200 first place prize.
“I feel very happy and lucky. There were five relatively strong players at the table. Whatever I did today didn’t really work too well, but I managed to get lucky a couple of times,” Zandvliet commented after his win. “The tournament had a great structure and was very well organized.”
The tournament had 518 entrants, which included 279 PokerStars players. The prize pool for the event was £259,000 making it Manchester’s largest tournament in history. The PokerStars qualifiers in attendance received a special poker education seminar conducted by UKIPT host Nick Wealthall, EPT presenter Michelle Orpe, and new Team PokerStars Pro Julian Thew. The seminar focused on topics aimed at assisting online qualifiers who would transition to live tournament play.
“We were blown away at the reception we got in Manchester,” said UKIPT host Nick Wealthall. “To have so many players for the first UK event, the second of the tour, was an amazing experience for everyone. Not only that, but the tournament and the final table were played to an incredibly high standard. We have already discovered some names for the future that will go onto great things in the world of poker.”
Among the players who competed in the UKIPT Manchester event was former Manchester United legend Teddy Sheringham, who was recently featured on ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe. Notable Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren finished 25th for £1,650.
The next stop on the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour is the £550 buy-in Coventry event, which will kick off on April 8th at the G Casino. PokerStars is guaranteeing a £100,000 prize pool, with the winner receiving a free entry to the £5,250 EPT London season finale. After the Coventry event, the UKIPT moves on with the £550 Nottingham event from the Dusk Till Dawn Casino from May 13th to 16th, which will also feature a £100,000 guarantee. After that, the UKIPT Killarney event from the Gleneagles Hotel will be a £1,100 buy-in tournament starting on June 24th and concluding on the 27th with a £250,000 prize pool. On July 15th, the UKIPT Brighton event will occur at the Rendezvous Casino with a £1,100 buy-in tournament. The EPT London event has yet to have its venue or prize pool guarantee announced.
| Name | Country | £ |
| 1. Joeri Zandvliet | Netherlands | 63,200 |
| 2. Jack Ellwood | UK | 37,500 |
| 3. Mike Hill | UK | 23,500 |
| 4. Tony Millan | UK | 15,100 |
| 5. Dean Lyall | UK | 12,100 |
| 6. Chris Brammer | UK | 9,100 |
| 7. Dan Owston | UK | 6,500 |
| 8. Tim Brown | UK | 4,800 |
| 9. Julian Hasse | Germany | 3,650 |
