Massive Setup Wins Brice the partypoker LIVE UK Poker Championships!
After four days of poker, Chris Brice has won the partypoker UK Championships Main Event for £187,500 after a short heads-up battle against Daniel Clark. A field of 1,076 entries across four starting flights gathered at the Dusk Till Dawn Cardroom and Casino, Nottingham to create a £1,043,720 prize pool.
When the final table was set it featured Daniel Morgan, who had led the tournament since the start of Day 3, and Steven Morris who just days before had won the partypoker UK Poker Championship £5,300 Super High Roller for £70,000.
Brice was crowned the winner after his pocket kings held against Clark's ace-king during a heads-up battle that lasted all of 20 hands.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (GBP) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Brice | United Kingdom | £187,500 | $262,881 |
| 2 | Daniel Clark | United Kingdom | £115,000 | $161,251 |
| 3 | Thomas Hemming | United Kingdom | £75,000 | $105,164 |
| 4 | Ning Lu | United Kingdom | £50,220 | $70,418 |
| 5 | Steven Morris | United Kingdom | £40,000 | $56,091 |
| 6 | Daniel Morgan | United Kingdom | £30,000 | $42,068 |
| 7 | Andreas Olympios | United Kingdom | £22,500 | $31,551 |
| 8 | Ryan Mandara | United Kingdom | £16,500 | $23,135 |
“It’s not sunk in yet,” said Brice shortly after his victory. “It’s been such a good tournament. So prestigious. I’m just absolutely delighted.
"It’s been such a good tournament. So prestigious. I’m just absolutely delighted."
“It means a lot to my family and me, and I’m just very grateful obviously to partypoker, and Dusk Till Dawn for running such a great tournament.”
Brice lives in Cheltenham with his wife and family, which has curtailed his opportunities to play both here at Dusk Till Dawn and elsewhere, such as Vegas where he hasn’t played in some years. This victory has him chomping at the bit for more poker, both on the partypoker circuit and in Vegas later this year when he celebrates his 40th birthday.
According to Brice, he was never all in throughout the whole tournament, even coming down to the final hand where he was the effective big stack, calling the all in from his opponent.
“I never put my tournament at risk at any point,” said Brice. “Day 1 went relatively well, but Day 2 was very much a bit of a grind. There were certainly a few bumps in the road; I made a couple of technical errors.
“But today went very smoothly, again no bumps in the road. I had a tough table but thought I had a good measure of my opponents. I don’t think there were any obvious weak spots at the final table. I had great respect for all of the players I came up against. I made good decisions and had a good feel for where I was most of the time.”
So what next for the latest UK Poker Championships Main Event champion? Perhaps the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS in Barcelona? No chance says, Brice.
“I can’t make MILLIONS Barcelona because I’m away with my kids in Florida, so there’s no getting out of that one. But I think we’ll be having a bit of a good time with the family. That being said, I’d certainly like to look at the schedule and play some more tournaments in the future.”
Action of the final day
The final day began with just 13 players in the running for the title, and they were whittled down to nine within the first 90 minutes of play.
Raj Dhiri and Daniel Jackson were the first two players to depart on Day Four, before a hand that changed the whole dynamic of the tournament occurred. Germany's Patrice Brandt came into the day second in chips but could only manage 11th place after getting all his chips in against Steven Morris. After a battle of raises, the action concluded when Brandt five-bet all in and Morris snap-called.
After a battle of raises, the action concluded when Brandt five-bet all in and Morris snap-called.
"F*ck!" exclaimed Brandt who wasn't happy with the situation he had found himself in.
Morris held pocket kings, and Brandt was the player at risk with ace-king. The board ran out no higher than a jack and propelled Morris to the top of the chip counts with close to 26 million in chips.
After James Williams departed in 10th, the unofficial final table was drawn, and the unlucky man to bubble the official final eight was Daniel Charlton. With the board reading ace-seven-five-three, Charlton called a raise from Morris after initially taking the betting lead. When the nine hit the river, Morris moved all in. Charlton went into thinking mode before he eventually called holding top pair but was behind to Morris' straight and took home £12,500 for ninth-place.
The official final table began, and Ning Lu put early pressure on the chip leader Morris to close the gap on him before Ryan Mandara was the first man to be eliminated.
In hand number 38, Daniel Clark called a three-bet all in from Mandara with pocket nines, and he was up against pocket aces. Mandara kept his lead on the six-five-six-two flop and turn, but the nine on the river sealed his fate.
Morris, Lu, Brice, and Thomas Hemming started to separate themselves from the other three remaining players, and Andreas Olympios was the next player to exit. Olympios was all in from the cutoff with pocket fours and was unfortunate to see Hemming wake up with pocket aces in the small blind. There was no miracle in the cards for Olympios, and six-handed play got underway with Hemming taking the chip lead for the first time.
Clark's run towards the heads-up came after he got Lu to fold top pair on a five-eight-nine-ace-three board after he bluffed all in with a missed straight draw.
At this point, Morris had gathered himself and reclaimed a big lead, while the man to beat at the beginning of the day, Chris Morgan exited in sixth-place. The hand paved the way to the top for the eventual winner Brice after he called Morgan's all in and found himself ahead with pocket jacks against pocket nines. A nine of the flop gave Morgan the lead, and Brice was visibly annoyed. The turn was a queen, which gave him additional outs, and the jack on the river secured him the pot with a higher set and for the first time in Day 4 the overall chip lead.
Super High Roller winner Morris was full of confidence and had been three-betting quite regularly with almost 100 percent success. But he four-bet all in against Lu at the wrong time with king-queen and saw his opponent reveal pocket aces. Lu held, and Morris was now the short stack. Just a few hands later, he was eliminated in fifth place for £40,000 after shoving from the small blind with ace-six and losing to Hemming's pocket sevens. However, it was a fantastic week for Morris, who achieved back-to-back final tables, one title, and a combined winning total of £110,000.
Hemming took all of Lu's chips when his pocket tens improved to a set against his opponent's pocket fours on an ace-ten-king-two-five board. He then lost a 31m pot against Brice after he made two pair while holding ace-four on the ace-five-five flop, but was unaware that Brice's hand was ace-five for a full house. Both players checked the flop, and Hemming called a bet from Brice on the king turn. A jack completed the board, and Brice bet 12 million into the 7 million pot. Hemming thought for close to five minutes, before moving a single chip into the middle to signal a call and realized he had sacrificed more than half of his stack.
Clark raised to 1.8 million with ace-king and Brice three-bet to 7.7 million holding pocket kings.
Exactly ten hands later, Clark eliminated him when he three-bet all in with pocket deuces, and Hemming called with ace-ten. The five-eight-eight-nine-eight board gave Clark the pot with a full house and was now set for a heads-up battle with Brice for the title and the first-place prize of £187,500.
Clark sat with 40,450,000 and Brice led with 67,275,000. The duo had been trading small amounts of chips for about 45 minutes before the first real action occurred. It turned out to be the final hand. Clark raised to 1.8 million with ace-king and Brice three-bet to 7.7 million holding pocket kings. It was a dream scenario for Brice who watched Clark four-bet all in for 35 million. He made the call, and Brice was moments away from winning the title. The board ran out ten-nine-three-jack-five and Brice took the glory.
Clark's elimination in second place for £115,000 is his best live tournament result to date and eclipses the $100,000 he won for 3rd place in the partypoker MILLIONS Russia $2,700 8-Max event in Sochi less than six months ago. For Brice, it was also his best live tournament result and his first recorded victory.
Next up on the partypoker LIVE tour is the Latin American Poker Championship running 24 Feb - 4 Mar 2018 followed by The Irish Poker Open 2018 which includes the €220 €500,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool Grand Prix Ireland and the €1,275 €1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool Irish Open Main Event sponsored by partypoker.
Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
