There is finally a winner of the Unibet UK Tour Manchester. Michael Gilbert has emerged victorious from the Manchester-based leg of the Unibet Poker Tour, which took place at the Manchester235 Casino.
This year has seen the second season of the Unibet UK Poker Tour kick out, with a number of destinations across the UK featured by the tournament, including Brighton, Glasgow, Nottingham and Manchester. For the tour, the Unibet brand has been once again working in collaboration with Caesars Entertainment, hosting the events at some of the most lavish casino venues in the country.
The Unibet UK Tour featured a total of five stops over the current 2017 season, with Manchester being the final stop of the live poker tournament. Each of the stops featured a buy-in of £220, as well as a Main Event guaranteed prize pool of £40,000. Apart from the lion’s share of the guaranteed prize pool, the winner of each Main Event was also granted with a special trophy as well as a Unibet Open package estimated to €2,000. Such a monetary package was also awarded to the online qualifier who lasted longest in each event of the tournament.
The Manchester stop of the tournament was hosted at the Manchester235 Casino from December 8th to 10th. It offered two Day 1s on December 8th and 9th, respectively, as well as a Final Day of the event, which took place on December 10th.
Unibet UK Poker Manchester Final Day Play
The two starting flights gathered a total of 225 entrants in the Unibet UK Tour Manchester. After him surviving to Day 2 of the event with 83,500 in chips, the 23-year-old Gilbert made it to the top after beating the rest of the 55 players who returned on Day 2.
Michael Gilbert emerged victorious quite quickly, after only 90 minutes of play. He managed to defeat the popular Unibet community member Adrian “NMPfan” Nica in heads-up play and won a £12,300 monetary portion of the £45,000 guaranteed prize pool. For the time being, this is the largest cash prize Gilbert ha ever won in his live poker career, with his total live tournament winnings previously amounting to only a bit over £1,000. His previous largest cash prize was estimated to £260 and was generated at the time he won the 20 Pounder event at the Manchester235 Casino in 2016.
Gilbert’s last standing opponent, Adrian Nica, made a second runner-up finish in this year’s Unibet UK Tour, after in August he finished at the second position in the Nottingham leg of the series, taking home a prize of £8,966 and a €3,000 package for the European Open. This time, he scooped a guaranteed prize pool portion of £7,650.
Only twenty players were granted with monetary prize portions from the Unibet UK Poker Manchester. A number of Unibet Ambassadors managed to finish in the money, including Dara O’Kearney and Espen Jorstad.
- Author
Harry Evans
