Lucas Blanco Oliver emerged victorious from the first-ever Devilfish Cup, taking home a massive prize of £250,000, as well as the winner’s trophy and a guitar especially signed by Brian May. The tournament featured a guaranteed prize of £1 million and managed to gather a total players base of 204 entrants.
Among the total of 204 participants there were some of the most popular poker players in both the UK and Europe, who usually take part in some of the most elite tournaments. Some of the poker stars who took part in the competition were Tony Dunst, Steve O’Dwyer, Patrick Leonard, Nick Hicks, Jason Wheeler, Mike Sexton, Dara O’Kearney, etc. The event, which featured a buy-in of £5,300 as well as a £1-million guaranteed prize pool gathered a total of 161 unique entrants, 43 of whom re-entered.
Only the first 20 players got paid for their participation, so everyone was doing their best in order to remain as part of these 20. Unfortunately for Wahid Patel, he fell in 21st player, remaining without any cash portion of the guaranteed prize pool. The smallest prize paid in the tournament amounted to £9,700 and was granted to Richard Kellet after he got the first one to go bust inside the top 20 places.
After Patel, the remaining 20 players got eliminated one by one until the final nine-handed table was formed. The first one to bust was Ian Simpson. Aftwer Benjamin Heath left third, the final heads-up battle between Lucas Blanco Oliver and Paul-Francois Tedeschi started. It took them over an hour to reach to the final hand which left the Spanish player as the crowned winner of the tournament.
With the Spanish Lucas Blanco Oliver on top of the list, the runner-up position was occupied by Paul-Francois Tedeschi, who was granted with a consolation prize of £150,000. Benjamin Health got third, getting cash portion of £105,000 for his participation. The fourth place was taken by Simon Deadman.
Peter Roche remained fifth, followed by Barny Boatman who occupied the sixth position. The seventh place was taken by John Cynn, while the eighth and ninth positions were occupied by Manig Loeser and Ian Simpson, respectively.
- Author
Harry Evans
