Black Belt Blog: Robinson Denied Second UKIPT Final

Hot off the success of Jamie Burland's win in Brighton, the Black Belt Poker army once again ambushed the UKIPT as the PokerStars sponsored Tour made its latest stop in Edinburgh.

On this occasion, however, it was fellow Blue Belt Owen Robinson who shone brightest, ending Day 1 with a comfortable chip lead and looking odds on favourtie of repeating his final table performance at Leg 3 in Nottingham.

Heading into the final day, Owen was indeed present, but struggling as the shortest stack of 11 with 218,000. Among the remaining soldiers were EPT winner Jake Cody, as well as Manchester and inaugural winner Joeri Zandvliet, who was looking to become the first ever double UKIPT Champion.

Despite dodging the first two bullets, it was third time unlucky for Owen as he ultimately departed in ninth place, missing out on the 'official' final table by just one place. With blinds at 8,000 and 16,000 with a running ante of 2,000, Owen came over the top of Nick Risk's open of 33,000 for a total of 290,000 with Ad-Qc. Risk made the call with Ah-Tc, and duly spiked one of his three outs on a Ts-8s-Jc-4c-As board. Owen took away £3,400 for his troubles.

Having ended Day 1B as the biggest stack, Risk was able to continue his momentum throughout the tournament, eventually overcoming a tough, and eclectic final table to lap up the title and £50,000 first prize, not to mention £5,000 EPT London seat. On the final hand, runner up Mantas Puidokas of Lithuania found himself all in with Kh-9h, but was unable to fend off the Jc-6s of Risk as the board came down a cruel 6c-Jd-9c-6d-Td to hammer in the final nail and crown Risk as Champion.

401 players participated including familiar faces such as Julian Thew, JP Kelly, Vicky Coren and Jude Ainsworth. Black Belt Poker were equally well represented with Simon Mairs, Adam Latimer, Jamie Burland, Niall Farrell, Jesse May and Kevin Williams all flying the flag, the latter of whom sneaked into the cash in 56th. Also making the money was Neil Channing, the recent GUKPT Luton Champion exiting in 47th for £900.

"I love the UKIPT," commented Neil. "It's hard to justify the days off and the hotels for a smallish event, but I couldn't resist Edinburgh. In Brighton, we were watching Jamie Burland win the final and myself and two of the other Black Belt Poker players won three of the four seats in the satellite they had going, so we were very happy to be coming to Edingburgh, it's lovely. In the UKIPT, the age is a lot lower than in the GUKPT and you get a lot more Internet players, and it's nice to get out there and talk to those guys about Black Belt."

"I just wanted to say cheers to everyone for the support over the last week," added Owen. "I had a great time in Edinburgh, it's just a major shame that I couldn't go all the way. The Black Belt Poker team are the absolute stone cold nuts and I had a great night afterwards."

With the next port-of-call being the Burlington Hotel in Dublin in September, the UKIPT can expect to see Irishman Owen making another appearance, as well a handful of other Black Belt Poker pros including Green Belt Mike Carroll who triumphed in a satellite at the Edinburgh leg. Either way, Black Belt Poker will continue to make its mark on what has quickly emerged as the UK's most popular poker tour.

1st Nick Risk (Canada) -- £50,000
2nd Mantas Puidokas (Lithuania) -- £27,700
3rd Luke Marsh (England) -- £17,600
4th Joeri Zandvliet (Netherlands) -- £13,100
5th Richard Chadwick (England) -- £10,300
6th Max Silver (England) -- £8,200
7th Suzanne Pyefinch (England) -- £6,300
8th Mary Martin (England) -- £4,800
9th Owen Robinson (England) -- £3,400

All images courtesy of Anne Laymond. Anne is a highly sought after photographer in the poker industry. If you would like to contact her regarding offers of work or to purchase a high-res image, you can do so by emailing her at laymond@gmail.com.

Corn Exchange, Edinburgh