Jonathan Schuman claims UKIPT6 Marbella title and €96,159

At the start of the festival we wondered if the UK and Ireland could find an equaliser. This is the fourth collaboration of the UKIPT and Estrellas poker tours in Marbella and coming into this event Spain were leading 2-1. 

Well now we have the answer and it's a resounding yes as 47 year-old property developer Jonathan Schuman has won the UKIPT6 Marbella main event and €96,159. Perhaps though the score is more 2.5-1.5. Marbella is Schuman's home from home, and this casino as familiar to him as the Vic in his native London. This is his biggest tourney win, but Schuman has been playing live two or three times a week for 30 years, which is usually all the time he can fit around his property development business.    

For so long this final table was about Rodrigo Strong. The Brazilian came in as the chip leader and only lost the lead for a short time. Indeed by the time play was three-handed the LAPT9 Chile champion was back in charge. Play paused to discuss a deal and a chip chop deal, which left €10,000 to play for, was quickly agreed and Strong had secured the largest slice of the pie, €110,653 to be exact.

The deal was to be his downfall though as on the first hand after it'd been struck he'd lose a tournament defining pot to Janssens. You suspect he wouldn't have four-bet jammed [Jc][7c] without the safety net of the deal and Janssens may not have been as quick as he was to call with [Ac][Kd]. By the river Janssens' full-house had seen Rodrigo's tournament come crashing down. "If we hadn't done a deal he'd have won it!" said Schuman after the tournament was over.

He was left with just 12 big blinds and got them in soon afterwards with pocket kings. Schuman called with [As][5d] and flopped an ace to send him to the rail. The Brazilian was still smiling though and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the tournament

That left us heads-up and the two players had taken very different paths to reach this stage. In the red corner was Janssens, he'd eliminated the first three players at the final table and been the only player to hold the chip lead apart from Strong. He actually began with a chip deficit with Schuman starting with a two million chip lead (12 big blinds). 

The Englishman had entered the final table fourth in chips and seemed intent on preserving his stack rather than increasing it. But you sense he didn't care one bit. He was intent on being around for any deal negotiations (and he was). "I just didn't want to go out in 8th, so anything from 7th upwards, I was happy.  So now, it's an incredible feeling," he told the PokerStars Blog.

When Schuman did play a big pot, he had a big hand. We didn't really see him move a chip until play was four handed. At this point his jacks held to double up against Strong's ace-queen and for the first time he had chips and you sensed he wasn't going to part with them easily.

Whilst that hand with jacks got him back in the game, another hand with jacks was his tournament defining pot. He shoved with the hooks and Janssens snap called with aces. A jack on the flop gave Schuman a huge pot. If the bullets had held Janssens would've had 90% of the chips in play and Schuman would've been on the rail.

As is was Schuman would be the one who'd send Janssens to the rail. The Englishman had stretched out to a 2:1 chip lead by the time of the final hand. Janssens three-bet all-in for 38 big blinds with [Ad][Jd] but Schuman had him dominated with [Ah][Kh] and the board ran clean to give him the win.

As alluded to above Janssens played a major part in this final table, particularly in the opening stages as he eliminated three players in a row.

First to go was Nikola Ristivojevic, the Serbian shoved his final 13 big blinds with [Ac][Ts] and lost a race to the Dutchman's pocket nines. The physical therapist is used to helping cure aliments but he was only bringing the pain at this final table and Armin Zoike can attest to that. He had his pocket kings cracked by Janssens' [Qd][Jd] one queen on the flop and another on the turn doing the damage.

Thirty minutes later Janssens had his third scalp and he didn't need any help from the poker gods this time around. Michal Ozimek three-bet jammed for 12 big blinds with [Ad][9d] and Janssens snap called with [Ac][Qh]. Two diamonds on the flop gave the Pole a big sweat but he bricked the turn and river.

When play was five handed a deal was discussed but negotiations broke down when Milos Skrbic rejected the terms. Not 15 minutes later he was out. A limp jam from the small blind with [As][7s] went wrong as he ran into Strong's pocket aces to bust in fifth.

Strong's ascension back to the chip lead was complete when he took out Alexander Voytko in fourth. It was (almost) a classic race as Voytko's pocket nines got run down by Strong's [Kh][Qh] when a king flopped.

That's when the deal happened and when the tournament really began for Schuman. Having blended into the background for much of the final table he suddenly came to the fore and tonight he's the player who can proudly say he's the latest UKIPT main event champion.

Here are the official results:

UKIPT6 Marbella main event 
Players: 844
Buy-in: €1,000 + €100 
Places paid: 127 
Total prize pool: € 810,240

You can catch up on all the final table action here and see each and everyone of the 127 in the money finishers here.

The next UKIPT event is the £500+£50 Super Series and it takes place at PokerStars LIVE! at The Hippodrome Casino August 31st-September 4th. Satellites will begin in early July, keep an eye on the @UKIPT twitter account for an announcement about those satellites.

But from all the team in Marbella we hope you've had a wonderful time at the UKIPT's annual summer holiday. But for now buenas noches from Marbella.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 Marbella: Marc Convey and Nick Wright. Photos by Mickey May and Rene Velli. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog