A quiet and reserved young chap, Ryan Fronda (left) has been diligently battling it out on the UK circuit for several months now, never bringing home huge slices of bacon, but always there or there abouts. So, in this sense, it was only a matter of time before the Victor Chandler player won an event outright, and as he prepared for battle one brisk afternoon in Luton, the stage was set for Ryan to take down his biggest scoop to date.97 players crammed into Luton this weekend, all eager to get their money-hungry mitts on that £25,300, and whilst the likes of Zippy Aslam, Ali Mallu and Willie Tann were among the pre-comp favourites, they were nowhere to be seen as Day 2 introduced its 9 finalists.
Seat 1: Anthony Kirkbride -- 224,000
Seat 2: Bill Davies -- 53,000
Seat 3: Chris Huyton -- 57,000
Seat 4: Driton Haxhiaj -- 207,000
Seat 5: Ryan Fronda -- 20,000
Seat 6: Paul King -- 92,000
Seat 7: Dick Shek -- 103,000
Seat 8: James Mcbride -- 139,000
Seat 9: Paul Webb -- 67,000
One familiar face who did make the final table was Ryan Fronda's shiny headed neighbour, Paul King, an ever-consistent presence on Day 2 of many a Main Event.
And although King (right) only had the 92,000 to play around with, he was by no means shortest stacked as Ryan himself was favourtie to hit the rail first with just 20,000. But, of course, as I have learned through my voyeuristic observations of late, Ryan is not one to give up easily and could perhaps be grouped in the same pool as Mickey Wernick in the sense that he is a superb short stack player.And this was indeed proved to be true as Ryan plugged away, looking on as Paul Webb, Chris Huyton, Dick Shek and the bizarrely named Driton Haxhiaj took 9th to 6th respectively.
But although he was predominantly a witness to these events, Ryan saw his own share of the action, first doubling through with J-8 vs A-8 on T-7-K-9 board, before doubling up yet again with A-K vs A-Q.
And after James Mcbride (outflushed A-6 vs A-6), Bill Davies and Anthony Kirkbride (A-5 vs A-Q), were sent packing for £5,000, £6,800 and £14,000 respectively, we were down to our final two and awaiting a lengthy heads up confrontation.
However, that marathon wasn't to be as both King and Fronda had agreed to a deal with Kirkbride (left) in which all three players took home £14,000 each leaving around 5k and the trophy left to play for.And within 30 minutes it was all over. A Flop of 4h-Ks-Js saw King move all-in with Ad-9d only to be called in double fast speed by Fronda's Jc-Qs. Blanks on the Turn and River and we had our new Christmas Cracker Champion, England's Ryan Fronda whose 2nd biggest victory had been a £7,200 4th place finish in May's Western Summer Festival.
So, a huge round of applause to all three players, but an especially big thumbs up to Fronda who turned a mere 20,000 final table chip stack into a rather more lucrative £19,100 in spondoolies. Well done that man and watch out Mickey, there could be a better short-stack player waiting to take over the reins.