Eurosport - Wed, 05 Nov 18:48:00 2008
Andy Teng took victory in the latest round of the UK Poker Tour in Thanet and booked a seat in November's £3,000 Grand Final.
The £68,380 was comfortably the biggest cash of the 22-year-old Londoner's career as he defeated fellow online pro Jamie Brown to take the leg eight success in Kent.
Brown held a chip lead of 1,800,000 to Teng's 400,000 going into the heads-up but Teng hit back to become the 18th winner on the UK Tour.
Teng's previous best live result was a very creditable 126th place in the main event of the World Series of Poker earlier in the year.
A field of 226 players assembled for the four-day £1000 buy-in event and Brown took the lead into the final table after the 23-year-old claimed 485,800 chips with an aggressive game that eliminated a former UK Poker Tour champion Praz Bansi.
Blackpool pro Paul Riggs was on 409,600 chips ahead of Dave Penly (352,700) and Mike Moore (280,000) who had finished the first day of the tournament with a massive chip lead.
William Martin (233,800) was also ahead of Teng who back on 178,300 with Liverpool youngster Paul McIntyre (146,500), Karl Mahrenholz (128,600) and Simon Trumper (50,600) making up the rear.
Nottingham's Trumper soon saw his pocket eights cracked by Brown within the first lap of the table and one of the most recognisable faces in UK poker, having won the second series of Late Night Poker, departed with £5,650.
Mahrenholz was the only one of the finalists to have previously made a UK Tour final table, having finished runner-up to Bansi in the inaugural event in Bolton in 2007, but was eliminated in 8th place.
22-year-old McIntyre who has recently completed a degree in marine biology at Swansea University finished in seventh place while Limousine hire company owner Martin was sixth.
Pro Penly has already won two side events on this year's tour but this was the first time he has graced a main event final table and he could only manage fifth with Riggs, who just missed out on a UK Tour final table back in August when he finished in 12th place in Luton, departing fourth place for a payday of £19,210.
Brown then eliminated professional sports photographer Moore to set up the heads-up which he began with a 4.5:1 stack lead.
Teng, who put himself in contention early on day three before taking a few hits and sneaking on to the final table, quickly doubled up with an Ace, King beating an Ace, five.
After two hours, the heads-up clash reached a conclusion when Teng raised holding pocket eights and then called Brown who moved All In over the top with pocket fours but gained not help from the board.
The next stop for the tour will be in Blackpool from November 13-16 before the Grand Final in London two weeks later and the season concludes with the exclusive £75,000 Champion of Champions tournament in Luton on December 4 and 5.
Walsall leg two winner Jeff Kimber won a side event and now currently has the largest amount of starting chips for that event while Tony Phillips also booked his place in the field with a side event victory.
Result:
1st Andrew Teng £68,380
2nd Jamie Brown £39,550
3rd Mike Moore £28,250
4th Paul Rigg £19,210
5th Dave Penly £14,600
6th William Martin £11,300
7th Paul McIntyre £9,040
8th Karl Mahrenholz £6,780
9th Simon Trumper £5,650
10th Liam Pettman £3,390
11th Sami Yusuf £2,820
12th S Nash £2,820
13th Martyn Frey £2,820
14th Jonathan Gale £2,260
15th Bernard Litman £2,260
16th Matt Heeps £2,260
17th James Browning £2,260
18th Andrew Clarke £2,260
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