Luke Tanner Takes Down the Hippodrome Winter Festival Main Event

The PokerStars Live at The Hippodrome Winter Festival Main Event saw 313 entries processed, mostly from players who call the United Kingdom home. However, Australian Luke Tanner emerged victoriously after a three-hour final table. Tanner turned his £550 investment into a career-high prize worth £27,415.

Tanner, who hails from Sydney, only had two results on his Hendon Mob profile before this £550 buy-in affair. He won an A$330 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at The Star Casino for A$14,500 in March 2019 and cashed in a low-stakes tournament in his native Sydney in June 2024. Tanner can now boast a five-figure prize and his first title on British soil.

PokerStars Live at The Hippodrome Winter Festival Main Event Final Table Results

The 2010 Irish Open champion, James Mitchell, was the first of the nine finalists to head for the exits. Having lost all but 0.5 big blinds when his ace-king failed to get there against Justin Tsui‘s pocket queens, Mitchell was forced all-in from the small blind with king-deuce. Akshat Bansal raised preflop with ten-nine of clubs and found himself all-in against Mitchell. A nine on the flop and another on the river was enough to bust Mitchell in ninth place.

Eighth place went to Kalpesh Parmar when he open-shoved for a shade over five big blinds from the button with king-ten, and Wantao Tang moved all-in from the small blind with ace-eight. Tang caught an unnecessary ace on the river to reduce the player count to seven.

Those seven became six after Dylan Perry’s demise. The action folded to Tang in the small blind, and he moved all-in with king-trey after counting Perry’s stack. Perry snap-called off his 13 big blinds with ace-ten, and lost despite flopping an ace because the turn put four hearts on the board, with Tang holding the king of hearts.

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The players had not long returned from a scheduled break when Akshat Bansal was relieved of his chips. Tanner raised to 175,000 on the button with king-trey of clubs during the 40,000/80,000 level, then called after Bansal three-bet all-in for 345,000 from the big blind with pocket deuces. You need to win coinflips to win poker tournaments, but Bansal must not have received that memo. Tanner had 16 outs by the turn, and one, the king of diamonds, landed on the river.

Bulgaria’s Boris Velev was the next finalist heading to the cashier’s desk. Tanner opened to 175,000 under the gun with ace-seven, Velev three-bet all-in for 785,000 with king-queen in the small blind, and Tanner pondered his actions before settling on a call. An ace on the flop proved enough to bust Velev and extend Tanner’s lead at the top of the chip counts.

The remaining four players were now guaranteed a five-figure score. Tang was the first player to receive such a payout; £11,283 to be exact. The action folded to Kallum Bascombe in the small blind, and he moved all-in with ace-four. Tang called off his last ten big blinds from the big blind with king-nine. The five community cards ran without nines or kings, and Tang was gone.

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Heads-up was set after a dramatic hand involving Tanner and Tsui. Tanner opened on the button with pocket queens, and Tsui called in the big blind with nine-eight. Tsui checked on the jack-ten-trey board, allowing Tanner to test the waters with a half-pot bet. Tsui went for all the cookies with a check-raise all-in, which Tanner snapped off. A queen on the turn improved Tsui to a straight, but the river was another jack, improving Tanner to a full house! Game over for Tsui.

Tanner held a massive 65 to 13 big blind advantage over Bascombe at the start of heads-up, yet it took almost one hour for the champion’s crowning. Tanner thought he’d won it when Bascombe called an all-in with king-ten when tanner held the superior ace-nine, but a king on the flop spoiled the party.

The Australian did eventually come out on top. After grinding Bascombe down to four big blinds, Tanner moved all-in with jack-seven, and Bascombe called all-in with king-nine of clubs. A jack-high flop catapulted Tanner into the lead, but a deuce of clubs on the turn gave Bascombe additional outs to a flush. The river was a non-club jack, busting Bascombe in second place for a career-best £19,447 and leaving Tanner to become the Winter Festival Main Event champion, a result worth £27,415, also a best-ever score.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.