James Rann “Ran” Good to Win UKIPT London Main Event
PokerStars is back with its live regional tours in a huge way with the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) drawing in huge numbers at the iconic Hippodrome Casino located in the heart of the British capital London.
The UKIPT London €1,100 Main Event trophy stayed on home soil after London’s James Rann aptly “ran” good to win the £86,569 top prize.
Rann agreed to a three-way deal as the short stack before sending both runner-up Lukas Dimsa and Rickie Vedhara to the rail to win the trophy and the extra £8,732 in cash still to play for.
Although this was the first time Rann found the winner’s circle in a major European event, he has managed two bigger scores including taking fourth place in the 2015 Aussie Millions Main Event for A$430,000 ($339,759) and winning $168,500 for fourth place in the 2019 WPT UK Main Event. Rann is now approaching $3 million in tracked lifetime tournament earnings with more than $1.6 million coming online according to PocketFives with nearly another $1.2 million from the live felts according to The Hendon Mob.
2022 UKIPT London Final Table Results
| PLACE | WINNER | COUNTRY | PRIZE (GBP) | PRIZE (USD) |
| 1 | James Rann | United Kingdom | £86,569* | $113,206* |
| 2 | Lukas Dimsa | Lithuania | £80,282* | $104,985* |
| 3 | Rickie Vedhara | United Kingdom | £80,204* | $104,883* |
| 4 | Joshua Boulton | United Kingdom | £40,960 | $53,563 |
| 5 | Alexios Zervos | Greece | £31,511 | $41,207 |
| 6 | Julien Sitbon | France | £24,242 | $31,701 |
| 7 | Kully Sidhu | United Kingdom | £18,644 | $24,381 |
| 8 | Lorenc Boci | Albania | £14,341 | $18,754 |
| 9 | Antoine Saout | France | £11,028 | $14,421 |
*Reflects three-way deal at the final table
The UKIPT Main Event attracted 645 entries to generate a £619,200 prize pool.
UKIPT London Final Day Action
According to the PokerNews blog, a total of 16 hopefuls came back for the final day of the UKIPT Main Event, each having locked up £5,146.
Many poker fans were rooting for PokerStars Twitch streamer Ben Spragg to run deep but his day didn’t last long as he was the second player on the rail of the day in 15th place for £5,920 after his ace-six suited was no match to the ace-jack held by French poker beast Antoine Saout.
After a few other eliminations, Joshua Boulton sent Dongze Hao to the rail on the final table bubble and kicked off the final table as the table captain with nearly the stack of his nearest competitor in Vedhara.
Meanwhile, the eventual champion Rann was only ahead of Saout and soon held the shortest stack in play with Saout’s ace-seven suited not getting there against Vedhara’s sevens.
Rann was still on the bottom of the pack six-handed after both Kully Sidhu and Lorenc Boci were both felted before he “ran” well with his king-jack suited improving to a flush to double-up against Boulton with big slick.
Boulton still had plenty of chips after this hand but Vedhara became the table captain not too much later with the help of eliminating Julien Sitbon in sixth place when his big slick held against king-nine.
This was not the end for Boulton quite yet as he managed to regain the chip lead during which time Dimsa doubled through Alexios Zervos before winning yet another showdown against him to take the rest of his chips.
After that, things quickly crumbed for Boulton on a coin flip. Boulton three-bet jammed with ducks and Vedhara went into the tank with his tournament life on the line with ace-jack. Vedhara eventually called and doubled into the chip lead after an ace spiked the turn.
Although Boulton hung around, time eventually ran out for the Day 2 chip leader. He first doubled up Rann when before unsuccessfully getting the rest of his chips in with ten-six suited against Vedhara’s nines.
Three-Way Deal
Vedhara began three-way action with the chip lead but soon after the stacks were fairly even with Dimsa holding a small lead when the trio agreed to a deal.
Rann then picked off a bluff by Vedhara to take the chip lead and never look back. He “ran” good to win a flip to send Vedhara packing in third place with sevens holding against king-queen before running even better against Dimsa to win the title.
Vedhara began heads-up play with double the stack of Dimsa before a cooler ended Dimsa’s run in second place as follows.
Rann limped the button with A 6 and Dimsa checked behind with 7 4 . Dimsa check-raised the 9 6 3 flop after improving to a flush and Rann called. Rann called a bet by Dimsa after he improved to trips after the 6 landed on the turn and was ahead of Dimsa’s flush after the 3 double-paired the board on the river. Dimsa checked and Rann won the tournament after he jammed and got a call.
UKIPT Heads to Dublin and Malta Next
If you missed this stop, rest assured there will be plenty more to come throughout the year. Next up is the UKIPT Dublin from May 16-22 at the Bonnington Dublin. Shortly after, the UKIPT heads to the island of Malta on June 18-26 at Casino Malta and the luxurious Intercontinental Hotel.
*Photos courtesy of Danny Maxwell / Rational Intellectual Holdings Limited
