Steve Ruddock
We have a lot of interesting stories to detail this week.
We’ll start off with one of the UK’s rising stars winning one of the biggest tournaments of his career (and $500k in the process); we’ll also let you know about another European poker player who may soon be getting a lot more exposure; we’ll update you on the latest details regarding the murder of UK poker player Mehmet Hassan; and we’ll finish up with the results from the PKR Mixed Max tournament.
We’ll bring you the details on all of these stories in this week’s installment of Around UK Poker.
Tom Middleton wins WCOOP
The biggest story this past week was Tom Middleton’s win in the PokerStars WCOOP Challenge Series.
Tom “hitthehole” Middleton is certainly a well-known player among his peers, and if he keeps binking major tournaments (he now has three of them), it’s only a matter of time before the general public starts talking about Middleton in the same way as Moorman, Trickett, and Cody.
So what tournament did Middleton take down?
Tom “hitthehole” Middleton, just pocketed a massive $500k score after defeating a very tough final table that included David Baker and Bryn Kenney in the WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event, the culmination of a nine-tournament online series at PokerStars.
- Tom “hitthehole” Middleton – $500,000.00*
- bboooommmmmm – $422,594.40*
- Stella948 – $292,320.00
- somnium89 – $217,616.00
- ventox – $154,280.00
- David “WhooooKidd” Baker – $121,800.00
- ShankingYou – $89,320.00
- jbrown8777 – $56,840.00
- Bryn “BrynKenney” Kenney – $32,480.00
This is Middleton’s second largest score of his career, trumped only by his 2013 EPT Barcelona victory (which was good for $1.2 million), and the fourth straight year that Middleton has earned a tournament score of at least $300,000 (with this one coming online, the rest were in the live tournament arena) according to his Hendon Mob page.
- 2011: 3rd place in the $2,500 buy-in No Limit Holdem tournament at the WSOP – $305,015
- 2012: 1st place in the $5,000 buy-in FallsView Poker Classic Main Event – $304,980
- 2013: 1st place in the EPT Barcelona Main Event – $1,260,100
- 2014: 1st place in the $2,100 buy-in WCOOP Challenge Series Main Event — $500,000
PKR loses and gains a Team Pro member
Middleton isn’t the only poker player making waves and getting their name out there, according to the rumors swirling around a now-former PKR Poker pro who may be moving up from First Division to the Premier League, Sofia “Wellbet” Lovgren.
PKR Poker has parted ways with perhaps their most well-known poker pro, Sofia Lovgren, who was replaced on the Team PKR roster by another potential female poker star of the future in Eleanor “Elz442” Gudger.
“PKR has been like my second family and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with so many genuine and nice people and to represent this unique poker site and community,” Lovgren said in her farewell statement on Facebook.
Lovgren had been a member of Team PKR for the past four years, and during that time she has blossomed into one of the top female tournament players in Europe. Her burgeoning stardom – and good looks (which whether we like it or not, matters in female poker sponsorships) – has many people wondering if she will land at PokerStars in the near future.
This potential move to a larger site was hinted at by PKR’s statement about their parting with Lovgren on their forum.
“After four fantastic, memorable years, Sofia leaves Team PKR Pro today to begin the next chapter of her poker story. She has been offered an opportunity which any of us would find hard to decline,” the site’s spokesman stated.
Three charged in Mehmet Hassan murder
Last week we brought you the very tragic news of the murder of Mehmet Hassan, a fixture in UK card rooms who was beaten to death during a home invasion robbery.
More details have come to light in the horrific slaying of popular UK poker pro Mehmet Hassan, and it appears that he was set up in what is known as a “honey trap,” where a young woman takes interest in an older man in order to set him up to be robbed. In Hassan’s case it appears things went way too far, and the robbers turned into cold-blooded murderers.
As we detailed last week, Hassan was a well-liked poker player and a gambler’s gambler; he will certainly be missed in the UK poker community.
UK News Bites
Jeff Kimber triumphs in PKR Mixed Max
This past week Jeff Kimber took down the inaugural PKR poker mixed max tournament at the Aspers Casino. The three day tournament drew 173 entrants, including new PKR Team Pro Eleanor Gudger.
For his victory Kimber added £11,000 to his career tournament earnings.
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