Gaspare Sposato Triumphs in Epic Heads-Up Duel to Win UKIPT London Main Event
The PokerStars UKIPT London £1,100 Main Event has been nothing less than a roaring success, packing out the Hippodrome Casino from floor to ceiling across four days of action. Out of 725 entries, 13 hopefuls returned for the final day to compete for the lion’s share of the £696,000 prize pool.
In the end, after over 12 hours of action, Gaspare Sposato of Italy emerged as the outright winner. The 28-year-old Italian poker pro has only recently stepped onto the live circuit and has come close to winning titles on several occasions before finally locking up the first-place finish in the UKIPT Main Event.
Sposato came into the finale as chip leader and went on to slog it out against Bulgaria’s Atanas Pavlov for several hours on his way to victory.
Pavlov is himself an accomplished player with more than $1.4 million in live earnings and multiple victories. He battled well, and the pair made a heads-up deal to even out the prize money. Pavlov took £99,340 for second place.
But it was Sposato’s time, and after a lot of back-and-forth, he earned himself the trophy and took £107,660 for first place.
UKIPT London Main Event Final Table Results
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | PRIZE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gaspare Sposato | Italy | £127,600 |
| 2 | Atanas Pavlov | Bulgaria | £79,400 |
| 3 | Alessandro Pichierri | Italy | £56,700 |
| 4 | Candido Cappiello | Italy | £43,600 |
| 5 | Saigokul Kannan | UK | £33,600 |
| 6 | Artus Gimenez | Spain | £25,900 |
| 7 | Colin MacAndrew | UK | £19,900 |
| 8 | Conor O’driscoll | Ireland | £15,350 |
| 9 | Joe Hindry | UK | £11,800 |
Final Day Action
The session started with 13 players, and within 25 minutes, the tournament was down to the final table of nine. Boris Velev was the first to bust, followed by Jamie Geraghty, who was eliminated after attempting a big river bluff. George Sandford shoved short and busted, and then Alex Romero, the last PokerStars Ambassador standing, lost a flip to hit the rail in tenth place.
The final table was formed, and after a short break, the action resumed. At that point, the bustouts continued at a rapid rate, with Joe Hindry the next to go after losing his all-in, followed by Conor O’Driscoll, whose top pair lost out when the river completed Sposato’s flush.
That left seven players in contention. What was to follow was a three and a half hour stalemate in which no eliminations occurred.
That’s not to say nothing happened. During this time, Day 1b chip leader Saigokul Kannan plugged away and maintained a solid stack. Alessandro Pichierri gained momentum, and eventual second-place finisher Pavlov doubled up twice.
Sposato’s stack was also reduced to just 15 big blinds before his comeback began. He then doubled up and then eliminated Colin MacAndrew in seventh place, ending the dry run.
Moments later, Artus Gimenez lost a flip against Candido Cappiello and was eliminated in sixth place. Kannan, who’d made a commendable run, was soon to follow as Pichierri paired up to send him to the rail in fifth.
At this point, with four players remaining, Sposato was the short stack until he found a huge double-up through Pichierri to bring things even. Three Italians were left, all friends, along with Pavlov.
One of the Italians, Cappiello got his ace-king in the middle for the most classic of poker races. He was called by Pavlov, who had pocket queens and held to bust Cappiello in fourth place.
That gave Pavlov a big chip advantage going into three-handed play. It was an advantage that Pichierri would briefly wrestle from him before the pair clashed in an enormous pot that cost Pichierri his entire stack. After losing with a flush to the nut flush, Pichierri was out in third place for £56,700.
Sposato Goes Heads-up With Pavlov
As the action went heads-up, Pavlov had 18 million to Sposato’s three million, and it looked like the tournament would soon be over.
Sposato managed to claw some back. Moments into the match, he moved all in preflop with king-queen against Pavlov’s pocket eights and found a king on the river to double his stack.
A marathon ensued. Sposato whittled Pavlov’s stack down and took a 3-1 chip lead before Pavlov got the double-up with jacks to bring it back.
At this point, with chip stacks reasonably even, the pair agreed on a deal, leaving £4,000 and the trophy to play for.
But both wanted the trophy, the victory, and the feeling of winning a prestigious PokerStars event. The battle wasn’t over yet—far from it. The two players went back and forth for several hours, Pavlov taking back the chip lead by a good margin and Sposato claiming it back with a double-up.
In the end, as is so often the case in tournament poker, the game was settled on a coin flip. Sposato had gained the majority of chips again and got his pocket sevens in against Pavlov’s ace eight. The sevens held, and Sposato won the pot and the tournament.
Following the deal, Pavlov took £99,340 for second place, while Sposato earned himself £107,660 and the PokerStars trophy.
Winner’s Reaction
“Poker is my life right now,” said Sposato in an earlier interview. “I mostly play online but this year I started playing more live tournaments, for example EPTs. I am enjoying it.”
As for the UKIPT, Sposato said that his experience had been, “Really, really good. London is a really lovely place to play and the tournament is great, the structure is great, the field is really good."
Speaking to PokerStars Blog following his victory, Sposato said, “I’m feeling great. A bit tired, it was a long marathon. Heads up was a battle but really exciting. The final was kind of weird as we had three Italians, all of us friends, so it was quite funny.”
“I was playing for the trophy. I was really close last year in Paris but I lost heads-up, and many times tonight I thought the same thing was going to happen again,” he said. “But this trophy is a present for my wife, it was her birthday yesterday. It’s a great moment to be all together with friends and enjoy it.”
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