For those of you with commendable memories, you should recall a news item from September in 
which I introduced the paddypowerpoker.com UK Tour, a series of £100 tournaments staged at venues such as Aspers in Newcastle, the Rendezvous in Brigthon, before finally climaxing at the Sportsman Club in London. [For those who missed the article, please click here.]
Well, yesterday saw the culmination of that Tour with the final Event at the Sportsman Club. And with the comp successfully maxing out (80 in all), it was Yilfet Sheuket who rose triumphant, taking home a rather lucrative £7,168. Other familiar names, who you may recognise from the list below, include Swansea Masters' Champion, Jeff Rogers, and renowned chatterbox, Paul Parker, who finished 3rd and 8th respectively.
1st Yilfet Sheuket -- £7,168
2st Valee Ti-Singh -- £4032
3rd Jeff Rogers -- £2,688
4th Parvez Rogers -- £2,240
5th Malke Nasser -- £1,792
6th Stuart Nash -- £1,344
7th Lawrence Tyler -- £1,120
8th Paul Parker -- £896
9th Samir Jabak -- £672
10th Andy Gilravey -- £448
But of course, this wasn't just a one comp Tour, the opening Event actually saw eager enthusiasts travel all the way to Edinburgh for their poker hit, another £100 jobby (this time a freezeout) which was won by John McCombie who took home £2,100.
1st John McCombie -- £2,100
2nd William Shields -- £1,800
3rd Isabel Watson -- £1,800
4th Lesley Devine -- £1,800
5th Robert Griffiths -- £1,800
6th Christopher Martin -- £1,000
7th Richard Gill -- £1,000
8th Elvio Marandola -- £1,000
9th Mark Cuggy -- £700
A couple of weeks later it was onto the highly acclaimed Aspers Casino in Newcastle. 126 players, a £13,600 prize pool and £1,000 added by Paddy Power meant that the £4,690 first prize was worth fighting for. And that last man standing was David Stephenson who fended off tough compeitition in the form of Martin Dunne and Christine Brown who finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
1st David Stephenson -- £4,690
2nd Martin Dunne -- £2,720
3rd Christine Brown -- £1,360
4th Ifrikher Ali -- £1,090
5th Hakan Ayke -- £950
6th Brian Hunter -- £815
7th Barry Burns -- £680
8th Andy Wilson -- £545
9th Mark Dolan -- £410
10th Norman Little -- £340
Next on the schedule was the wonderful Broadway Casino in Birmingham:
1st Chris Carr -- £5,400
2nd Joe Kuumi -- £2,700
3rd A Cartwright -- £1,350
4th Adrian Bates -- £1,080
5th Paul Jones -- £810
6th Tom Smith -- £675
7th David Mobbs -- £470
8th Chen Tam -- £408
9th Robert Hale -- £338
10th Kowsar Chowdray -- £270
And with Brighton being another sell out (no results available), the penultimate stop was Bambridge in Ireland where they managed to find seats for an impressive 146 players:
1st Lee Lindsay -- £4,900
2nd Sean Donaldson -- £2,500
3rd Damian McFall -- £1,800
4th Mickey Reavey -- £1,200
5th Alan Bowden -- £800
6th Emmet Haughion -- £500
7th Philip McCreary -- £300
8th Frances Kattourait -- £200
9th Keith gibson -- £200
And so, with the Tour concluded, it's clear to everyone that the paddypowerpoker.com UK Poker Tour was a roaring success, attracting large crowds wherever they staged their Event, be it England, Scotland or Ireland.
But of course, the important thing is that players were given the opportunity to play a well structured freezeout at an affordable price, with the added bonus of thousands of pounds waiting for them at the end of the rainbow. For this reason, Paddy Power have undoubtedly made the UK circuit a better place to play.