For the second year in a row a Scotsman has won UKIPT Newcastle, but Chris Ferguson was far from the Scottish reputation of tight, for the most part shoving his way to a £87,640 victory.
Sometimes tournament winners steamroll final tables, sometimes they get lucky and sometimes they just have their hands hold up when it matters. When he looks back on his victory today UKIPT Newcastle champion Chris Ferguson will probably admit that his victory owes more to the second and third categories than the first but I doubt he cares one jot.
The 23-year-old from Edinburgh came to the final table second in chips, after playing superbly on Day 3. However, he lost half his stack early on to overnight chip leader Jack Sambrook and never threatened to take the chip lead until well into his heads-up battle with Alex Jobling. "I doubted myself at quite a few stages," said Ferguson. "But when I got to heads-up I was more confident about winning."
That's some moxie as going into heads-up play Jobling held a 2:1 chip lead. And the latter had the first shot at winning the title, getting it in with [Ah][Kc] against Ferguson's [9s][5s]. By the turn Ferguson had a full-house and near chip parity. A deal was soon struck.
Soon after Ferguson took the chip lead for the first time, flopping a flush on a [9h][8h][3h] flop and finding Jobling willing to go to war with [7d][7s]. Just 15 minutes later it was all over, Ferguson's pair of eights dodging the overcards of Jobling's [Ah][Qh] to send the title to Scotland. "The tournament has been fantastic, well run, great atmosphere and winning feels incredible at the moment," said Ferguson on his win.
Jobling's path to heads-up hand been much smoother, he was either first or second in chips from the moment he all but ended overnight chip leader Jack Sambrook's tournament. But, like Ferguson he needed his slice of luck to make it that far. In an all-in pre-flop encounter Jobling held pocket jacks, Sambrook pocket aces. A jack on the flop sent a 2,750,000 pot to Jobling and Sambrook soon exited in seventh.
To be fair to Jobling once he got his break he never looked back and played an excellent game. He eliminated Anthony Shields in sixth, Ewan Brown in fifth and David Knight in fourth to have almost two-thirds of the chips in play with three left.
But, there was one man Jobling couldn't budge. His path to heads-up was, for most of the final table, blocked by a formidable foe in the shape of Sam Holden. With five players left Holden had the chip lead but he just couldn't hold when it mattered. Prior to his exit hand he was involved in five all-in showdowns, losing four and chopping one (in which he as a 63% favourite). He was between a 82% and 56% favourite in the other three where he got it in good and a 48%-52% underdog in the one where he got it in behind.
His exit hand summed up his day, three-handed and with 12 big blinds he moved all-in with [Ah][5h] and ran into Ferguson's [Ad][Qd]. The [2c][4c][7c][5d] board put Holden in front, but the [Qs] river gave the pot to Ferguson. There's no doubt Ferguson has talent but in contrast to Holden he won eight of his nine all-ins. On such vagaries are tournaments won and lost.
Tonight belongs to Ferguson and it sounds like he's going to have a good time. The first thing I'm going to buy is a deluxe holiday. But I will celebrate with a few drinks tonight," looking to the future he said. "I really want to play full-time, it felt incredible to win."
Final table results:
1st. Christopher Ferguson, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, *£87,640
2nd. Alexander Jobling, United Kingdom, PokerStars player, *£82,120
3rd. Sam Holden, United Kingdom, £39,030
4th. David Knight, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £28,780
5th. Ewan Brown, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, £22,240
6th. Anthony Shields, United Kingdom, PokerStars qualifier, , £17,880
7th. Jack Sambrook, United Kingdom, £13,520
8th. Dan Hemingway, United Kingdom, £10,250
*Denotes that a deal was done heads-up
To catch up on all today's action click the links below. To find out the names of the 72 players who cashes in UKIPT Newcastle click here. To find out a bit more about Chris Ferguson and the other seven finalists all you have to do is click here.
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