Karl Guiness defeated a huge 1,148 field to be the last man standing to win the GGPoker £560 United Kingdom Poker Championship Main Event for £84,875 in Nottingham at Dusk Till Dawn poker club.

Guiness started the day as an above-average stack and managed to maneuver his way through the 169 players who returned for Day 2 to find himself as chip leader heading into the final table. Guiness defeated Elliot Crowder heads-up in a grueling battle to win his first major title and earn his largest cash to date. Before this win Guiness had $75,000 in live tournament earnings.

His opponent Crowder was freerolling the tournament, having won a ticket via a Dusk Till Dawn email competition. Crowder had only been playing poker for three months, and only had a singular live cash to date on his Hendon Mob profile. But the construction industry worker took his chance to earn himself a £70,125 payday.

Early Action

The start-of-day action was all about the conclusion of the last longer contest between Team Robin and Team Firaldo. Only two members managed to make it to Day 2, with Lukas Robinson for his own team and Gurvinder Shergill for Team Firaldo. Ultimately it was Team Firaldo who was victorious as Robinson was eliminated early in the day.

Other notables were eliminated early in the day including Chris Da Silva, Adam Maxwell and Waheed Ashraf.

Andrew Wilson was primed for another deep run in a big field tournament as he maintained a big stack for the opening levels of the day but he couldn’t make another final table, following his final table appearance in the UKPC High Roller, as he was eliminated in 19th (£3,000) by eventual champion Guiness and his pocket kings.

The last woman standing was Kathleen Padovani. As the final table bubble approached Padovani was short and kept pushing all in. She was eventually called by Vincenzo Lupoli and lost a flip before being finished off by Guiness.

Final Table Action

Eventual champion Guiness went into the final table with a big chip lead which he would maintain throughout the final table. Italian Lupoli was first to be eliminated as he shoved ace-queen for a short stack only to run into Ashley Timms‘s pocket queens to be eliminated in ninth.

Next to go was John Adderley who was unlucky to lose ace-king to Guiness’s ace jack when all the chips went in preflop. He was shortly followed by the elimination of Algernon Buchanan whose ace-king also couldn’t defeat Guiness.

Timms was next to fall victim to Guiness as his king-seven couldn’t beat Guiness’s ace-ten when the chips went all in pre flop. Sandeep Shah had a comfortable stack at the final table but not in confrontation with Guiness. Guiness had shoved all in on the river and Shah went into the tank before calling but Shah’s set was no match for Guiness’s straight.

Three-handed action lasted a while before Chris Wood eventually fell at the hands of Guiness.

The heads-up battle between Crowder and Guiness was long and tiresome but Guiness was constantly winning small pots from Crowder. However, the chips eventually went in where Guiness shoved queen-jack only to be called by Crowder’s six-nine. Guiness managed to win on the river in order to be crowned the GGPoker United Kingdom Poker Championship Main Event Champion for a payday of £84,875.

Fast Forward is one of the most popular games on PartyPoker. If you’re unfamiliar with fast forward, it’s like any traditional online cash game but when you fold your hand, you get moved to a new table with entirely new players and get dealt a new hand immediately. This way, you get to play a load more hands than you would if you were at a standard cash table.

And one person who knows a thing or two about fast forward cash games is PartyPoker ambassador Jaime Staples. In the video below, Staples reveals some tips about some of the differences that come along when playing this format.

Don’t Be Afraid to Use the Fast Forward Button

By using the fast-forward button, you get to play so many more hands so it’s something to really take advantage of.

As you get to play more hands, you get to practice more which can accelerate your learning curve. You will get a lot more opportunities playing fast forward rather than at a regular cash table, so don’t be afraid to skip your bad holdings and move onto the poker hand.

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Steal More From Late Positions

It’s not a bad idea to try and try and steal the blinds more often with speculative hands when in the later positions. Opponents are more likely to fold as it’s so easy to pick up another hand.

Staples notes that as opponents get to be pickier, stealing the blinds becomes a bit easier.

“It’s less likely they’re impatient because they haven’t been dealt a [playable] hand, so they’re not going to play a crappy hand because they’re board,” says Staples.

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Stick to Fundementals

If you’re just starting out, you’re not going to know much about the people you are playing against. You don’t have any reads on any of your opponents and basically starting off with a blank canvas.

So, stick to fundamentals. It wouldn’t be the wisest move to make hero reads or try to would read people as you don’t have enough information yet. When you have a big enough sample on a player, where you know they’ll over-bluff a specific spot, that’s when you can start making some wider cools. Remember, information is key and at the beginning, you don’t have enough of it.

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The XL Winter series exploded into life at 888poker this weekend, with the first four events crowning their champions and awarding a combined $254,350 to those players that navigated their way into the money positions or helped themselves to a bounty or two.

The $109 buy-in XL Winter #02 – Mystery Bounty was the biggest event of the weekend, attracting 1,174 entrants, each vying for their slice of the $120,000 prize pool. 888poker dished out mystery bounties worth between $77 and a cool $12,000 once the 18th level of play kicked in, and it was some of the players that busted way before the final table that reeled in the biggest mystery bounties.

Richard “ChipsFool” Hoadley of the United Kingdom busted in 167th place with 180 places paid. That finishing position awarded Hoadley $120, but the Brit had opened three mystery bounties before being eliminated, one of which weighed in at $12,000! Only the eventual champion took away more prize money from this event!

Sweden’s “Ydavidy77” and Brazil’s “joaozinho9” may not have navigated their way into the top 80 finishing place but both opened bounty envelopes containing $3,600 prizes, the second-largest payouts from the mystery bounty prize pool.

$120,000 XL Winter #02 – Mystery Bounty Opening Final Table Results

The final table lost its first player less than ten minutes into the action. “Lowperformer” open-shoved for a little over 7.5 big blinds from the cutoff with queen-ten, and “tehnats,” the chip leader, flat-called on the button with king-jack. tehnats spiked a jack on the flop, but Lowperformer flopped an open-ended straight draw. The top pair held, and Lowperformer bowed out.

“8vincent8” saw their stack dwindle down to nine big blinds. They looked down at pocket sevens in middle position and decided those sevens were strong enough to move all-in with. Unfortunately, for the all-in player at least, “Avskedad” woke up in the big blind with the superior pocket tens, and called. The tens held on a draw-heavy board, leaving the final table with seven players.

Those seven became six with the untimely demise of Germany’s “gipsyisland.” The action folded to the runaway chip leader tehnats in the small blind, and they open-shoved for seven big blinds effective. Gipsyisland called with queen-jack in the big blind and was a substantial favorite over the lowly ten-five in tehnats’ hand. That fact only remained true until tehnats paired his five on the flop and gipsyisland could catch any of their outs.

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A rather sick hand took place shortly after gipsyisland busted which resulted in Avskedad heading for the rail. “Z1GGi” min-raised with ace-king, “ovidiu_maciu” set a trap by flat-calling with pocket aces on the button, which ultimately saw Avskedad rip in their 14.6 big blind stack from the big blind with pocket kings in the hole. Unsurprisingly, all three players ended up all-in, although Z1GGi had both of their opponents covered. An ace on the turn locked up the hand for ovidiu_maciu, who saw their stack swell to more than 45 big blinds, while Avskedad found themselves void of chips.

“Japa_Bill” of Brazil busted in fifth after a battle of the blinds against ovidiu_maciu did not go to plan. Japa_Bill committed their last 11.5 big blinds from the small blind with pocket fives, but was in a world of pain when ovidiu_maciu called from the big blind with pocket sevens.

The heads-up portion of the tournament grew closer when Z1GGi bowed out. Z1GGi never fully recovered from the aces versus kings versus ace-king hand, and saw their participation in this event end when they shoved 13 big blinds first in from the small blind with king-seven, and could not get there against the ace-trey of the hot-running ovidiu_maciu.

Heads-up was set shortly after the third-place finisher was confirmed when “ehbarone68” and tehnats clashed. ehbarone68 found themselves all-in with suited queen-jack against ace-seven, which they lost to despite flopping a queen.

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tehnats held a 75.9 big blind to 49.9 big blind advantage over ovidiu_maciu going into the one-on-one battle, but the chip lead changed hands several times before ovidiu_maciu made a full house against tehnats’ inferior full house. That hand put the ball firmly in the Romanian’s court, and the contest was over soon after.

The final hand saw tehnats limp in with pocket kings from a 15 big blind stack, and ovidiu_maciu check with ten-four offsuit. A three-four-ten flop was greeted by a check-call from ovidiu_maciu. Another four on the turn gifted ovidiu_maciu a boat, and they checked its arrival. tehnats bet 3.3 big blinds into the 4.3 big blind pot, and was obviously called. The river was a jack. ovidiu_maciu checked again, tehnats took the bait and shoved in their last ten big blinds, ovidiu_maciu called, and it was game over.

XL Winter Results So Far

Players from Lithuania and Romania have each won two of the opening four events, a superb start for those countries. “Raise1In” won the largest prize so far, $18,875 after taking down the $525 buy-in Mystery Bounty High Roller event.

*includes bounty payments

Don’t worry if you missed out on XL Winter glory in the opening events because there are 23 numbered tournaments in total plus a myriad of side events for you to get your teeth into. Don’t forget that you can claim up to $88 free in addition to an $400 first deposit bonus just for creating your 888poker account via PokerNews’ links.

Get ready for 10 days of PokerStars live streaming from the Baha Mar Resort!

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) will both see five days of coverage on the PokerStars YouTube channel, with plenty of analysis, player interviews and more.

“A $10,000 buy-in PCA Main Event is a huge tournament in its own right, and for that to serve as a warm-up to the PSPC is awesome”

PokerNews spoke with PokerStars presenter and commentator James Hartigan, who said that he was “incredibly excited” to be heading back to the Caribbean.

“It’s the first time in four years, but it’s a brand new venue,” he told PokerNews. “And this time the PCA precedes the PSPC — so we’ve got two big events back-to-back.

PCA Main Event Streaming Schedule

“A $10,000 buy-in PCA Main Event is a huge tournament in its own right, and for that to serve as a warm-up to the PSPC is awesome.”

Last time out at the PSPC, it was Ramon Colillas who triumphed, winning $5.1 million in the process at an action-packed final table, and Hartigan says that he’s looking forward to a similar atmosphere for 2023.

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“It genuinely felt like it was the entire poker community coming together. Everyone was represented! You had people from all walks of life, from every continent. The fact you had amateurs, pros, celebrities and sports stars all together…everyone was represented!

“It’s a big cliche, but poker really is a level playing field. You can find yourself at a table with anyone.”

PokerStars Players Championship Streaming Schedule

With over 400 Platinum Pass winners attending, there will be a huge diversity in the playing field, with several players living the dream in what is a once-in-a-lifetime event for some.

“There are so many people who are effectively freerolling in a $25,000 buy-in tournament! They might never have dreamt of playing in a live event anywhere near that buy-in, but they’ve been given this amazing opportunity through PokerStars.”

While Hartigan will spend most of his time in the commentary booth, he understands that he may be short of company if certain players such as commentary regulars Maria Ho (pictured) and Griffin Benger run deep.

“As a commentator, even I recognise that it’s a must-play event,” admitted Hartigan. “But if Maria, Griffin or any of the PokerStars Pros aren’t going to go all the way — the pressure’s gonna be on them to jump into the booth!

“And if they don’t go all the way, we want them in the booth sooner rather than later. The event brings out so many members of the poker community, and we’re hoping to get variety on the stream and bring ten days of incredible analysis and unforgettable poker moments.”

Executive Editor E.U.

Will Shillibier is based in the United Kingdom. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German, and then studied for a NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism at Sportsbeat in Manchester. He previously worked as a freelance live reporter, and video presenter for the World Poker Tour.