Sergio Aido crowned UKIPT London champion

London’s second major event of the month reached its climax yesterday with Spanish pro Sergio Aido walking away as the newly crowned UKIPT champion. No stranger to the business end of big tournaments, in recent months Aido has taken down the WPT National Barcelona and he went deep in the EPT Prague. Now thanks to his Ireland Poker Tour Main Event victory in London, the Spaniard can add a further £144,555 to his rapidly growing bankroll.

 

Attracting a field of 1,099, packed full of pros and generating a total prize-pool of £745,542, the £770 Main Event lasted for six days and took place at ‘The Victoria Grosvenor’ Casino in London.

 

But it was Sunday that everyone was interested in. Heading into the final table, Aido had only the fifth biggest stack of the eight remaining players, but to his advantage the difference between each of the stacks was relatively small.

 

Known for his super-aggressive style of play, Aido made his intentions clear from the start, when he three-bet Philippe Souki’s pre-flop raise on the very first hand. A flop continuation bet was all that was needed to take down a pot worth half a million chips, moving Aido ominously up the leaderboard. And the rise would continue over the next few hands, in fact it took only seven, before the Spaniard found himself with the largest stack at the table following a huge double up against Irishman Chris Dowling.

 

A few hands later and Dowling was eliminated, only to be followed shortly after by a pair of Belgians; Wim Neys and Guy Goossens who finished in fifth and sixth respectively. 

 

With the blinds quickly increasing, Aido increased his aggression even further and was joined by UK player Patrick Simcoe. The pair dominated the table over the next few rounds, splitting most of the uncontested pots between them. 

 

Forced to do something with his chip stack dwindling away, UK player, Philippe Souki moved all-in but his timing was off and his 10♦-9♦was quickly called by Thomas Ward, whose pair of sevens managed to stay ahead eliminating Souki while giving Ward the pot and the chip lead. But soon after Aido regained his position at the top of the pile when he rivered a flush against Simcoe only to lose it again soon after to Ward when his A♦-Q♣ lost to Wards pocket Queens. With the lead constantly changing back and fourth between each player, the title was still anyones to win but when Simcoe made a bold move all-in with only A♦-3♦ on a flop of K♥-3♥-5♦, Aido had no choice but to call with his K♣-10♦ and top pair was enough to eliminate Simcoe. 

 

With only two players remaining Aido held a commanding 10 million to 6.2 million chip lead at the start of the heads-up battle, but this was quickly reversed when Ward hit two pair on the first hand and virtually doubled up. The pair shared the next few rounds of pots but in the end it would be a pair of flips that would decide this year’s winner, and luckily for Aido both went his way.

 

For the first, Ward five-bet Aido all-in with K♣-Q♣ only for the Spaniard to make the huge call with A♦-J♥. The board helped neither player and Aido took down the massive pot with his ace-high. The very next hand saw Aido again get dealt A-J and this time Ward found himself with pocket tens. All the chips went in pre-flop as you would expect. An ace on the flop followed by another on the river was more than enough to give the Spaniard the best hand and with it the final pot and the title.

Here is how the final table of the Main Event finished up: