EN
FR
European Poker Tour
European Poker Tour
European Poker Tour
$1,096,481,256
Share this page
European Poker Tour’s posts
Blog Post
Usman Siddique crushes all-comers to claim UKIPT6 London title

Very few people come to play poker at Hippodrome Casino and don't fall in love with the place. The UKIPT has made its London home here and it'd be hard to imagine playing anywhere else in this fine city now. At midday today there would've been 10 players who agreed with those sentiments. Seven hours later, at least one person would still agree.

UKIPT6_London_winner_Usman_Siddique.jpg

Siddique - champion!

That's all it took for start of day chip leader Usman Siddique to dismantle the hopes of nine very capable opponents. Siddique might've allowed himself to dream of the title from as early as midway through yesterday's play when he won a 2 million chip pot courtesy of an obvervational mistake by an opponent. That pot alone was good for a final table average stack and it gave the 23-year-old the ammunition to boss every table he was at from then on. He ended Day 2 as chip leader and, despite a short while today when Warren Russell overtook him, never let go of his grip on the tournament.

2016_UKIPTLon_MickeyMay_98186.jpg

Gassian lost heads up

On his huge pots yesterday, Siddique had this to say, "Yes it was really important but there were two stages. Firstly someone 5-bet ripped pocket jacks into my kings for 500,000 so that put me up to a million - then another player decided to get it in versus me in that huge pot."

The last man he had to get through was the main who started off the day on fire. French primary school teacher David Gassian pocked up kings in the opening moments of the day and used them to oust Anatolis Jevtejev in tenth place. The Lithuanian was unlucky as he had picked up a hand as well with jacks. That exit meant all players resided on one table and it was soon the official final table of eight when Gassian used pocket kings once more to Jack Hardcastle in ninth. That hand was also a cooler as the Portmouth native held ace-king but failed to find the three-outer he needed.

UKIPT6_London_FT_David_Gassian.jpg

Gassian - 2nd place

Gassian won another two big hands - once with aces and another with quads - and that helped keep him alive as Siddique destroyed all players around him. His luck ran out when he was heads up though. He was very short and moved all in with king-deuce; Siddique looked down at ace-six, made the call and went on to make two pair.

The official final table kicked off with the exit of Scottish pro David Docherty. This was the second time he's made a UKIPT final table (the other being Dublin, Season 2) and the second time he's been first out. Not much he could do with pocket aces though. Jack Slater had raised with queen-ten and called the three-bet shove before warning Docherty he was very lucky. He wasn't wrong and had the aces destroyed by the turn with a straight.

2016_UKIPTLon_DavidDocherty2_MickeyMay_97210.jpg

Docherty - 8th place

The only Norwegian to feature on the final day was next to go. He flopped overs and a straight draw, made his move, but was called by Siddique who had flopped top pair and an open-ended straight draw. The turn and river bricked to see six remain. Siddique also took out the next player - the dangerous Salter - and that, along with the seat draw, was key for him as he alluded to later.

2016_UKIPTLon_Mortenexit_MickeyMay_97989.jpg

Halvorsen - 7th place

"The table draw was really important - having Jack Salter and the other big stack on my right meant I had the nut table position. That and coming in as a big stack meant I was able to apply pressure at the right stages.

Also the big stack I had meant I could pass up some marginal spots and look for some bigger edges."

2016_UKIPTLon_jackexit_MickeyMay_98021.jpg

Salter 6th place

Winning the flip versus Jack, who I thought was the most dangerous opponent, was crucial. " Salter had a big hand with ace-king but couldn't hit to dislodge Siddique's pocket fives.

The one hand that Siddique seemingly wasn't involved in saw Daniel Harwood go in the fourth. The Cheltenham lad had been making lots of moves all day but wasn't getting called when he had it, and then when he made a move with a middling hand he ran into a big hand - his eights failing to come from behind to crack the jacks of Gassian.

2016_UKIPTLon_MickeyMay_98049.jpg

Harwood - 5th place


2016_UKIPTLon_MickeyMay_97930.jpg

Russell - 4th place

The tournament ticked over into Level 29 and a dinner break was scheduled at the end of it, but Siddique had it all wrapped up in 30 minutes. First he took out the dangerous Warren Russell, who was the only man who really threatened him today, playing his first ever tournament in Europe after relocating to London five weeks ago for work reasons. He held ace-ten but Siddique wasn't planning on losing any races today and his sevens navigated a bricky board with ease. Moments later Joe Hindry was his next victim. He pushed with ten-nine and Siddique called with ace-five, which went on to make two pair. That gave him an almost insurmountable leads heads up and he made light work of Gassian before enjoying all the post victory formalities.

2016_UKIPTLon_MickeyMay_97873.jpg

Joe Hindry - 3rd place

Siddique played well and ran really well - a dangerous combination. "It was just golden like a dream really. I ran really pure throughout the tournament. I kept expecting to get a beat somewhere along the line but it never really happened!" he said.

Here's the official final results:

POSNAMESTATUSCOUNTRYPRIZEDEAL
1Usman Siddique United Kingdom£84,100 
2David Gassian France£51,930 
3Joe Hindry United Kingdom£37,110 
4Warren Russell Canada£28,450 
5Daniel Harwood United Kingdom£22,540 
6Jack SalterPokerStars PlayerUnited Kingdom£17,550 
7Morten Halvorsen Norway£12,780 
8David DochertyPokerStars QualifierUnited Kingdom£8,731 

Spring is in full flow here in the UK with summer around the corner, and you know what that means? Yep, summer holiday time! For the fourth year in a row the UKIPT is going on its summer holidays, once more meeting up with it's Spanish cousin, the Estrelles Poker Tour (ESPT). Qualifiers are running online at PokerStars now, so get involved and join us June 14-19 in Marbella for sun, parties and a little bit of poker.

For now, this is us signing off from the centre of London. Thanks for reading all week and see you all in June!

Thumbnail image for UKIPT5_Marbella_TobyStone&DavidCurtis.jpg

These jesters (David Curtis & Toby Stone) will be in Marbella to entertain

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at UKIPT6 London: Marc Convey and Jack Stanton. Photos by Mickey May. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog


Ready to sign up for PokerStars? Click here to get an account.