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Scottish amateur Brian Clarke won the ninth and final leg of the 2008 UK Poker Tour in Blackpool.

He triumphed in the £1,000 buy in main event after overcoming a massive chip deficit to beat Zachary Ford in the heads-up to take the £96,500 first prize.

The main event was the culmination of the nine-day festival with 341 players contributing to a £226,000 prize pool.

Clarke, a nightwatchman who now lives in Blackpool, began the final table with just 132 thousand chips, the smallest stack.

Andreas Hoivold, who was only the second Norwegian to make the final table of a UKPT event and who won the EPT Dortmund event in 2007, led with 838 thousand.

Darren Hickman (509k) and Alan Vinson (497k), who had previously made a final table of a UKPT main event, and Gareth Jones (394k) - a two-time winner of the British Championships and former Scottish Champion - followed.

Damian Evans (337k), Guy Johnson (301k), Eddie Lundon (244k) and Ford (217k) who was third in Manchester earlier in the year came next

Evans went out in ninth place for £7,650 when Vinson hit a five on the flop to land a pair and eliminate him; Johnson followed when he went All-In and was instantly called by Ford who held pocket rockets; and a pair of Aces for Vinson then saw Jones, who had gone All-In holding Ace, King, eliminated in seventh.

At the dinner break Vinson and Ford were close to a million chips with Clarke down on 130 thousand. But he doubled up twice in quick succession before Lundon went out in sixth for £16,200 after going All-In from the big blind with King, Queen only to lose out to Hoivold's Ace.

Hoivold was the executioner again as he made Queens to end Hickman's hopes before Vinson, not long after holding the chip lead, went out in fourth for £27,300 as the man looking to become the first Scandinavian player to win a UKPT event sent him packing with his pairs of jacks.

Clarke doubled up several times before Ford called Hoivold's All-In and his Ace, King bettered the Ace, Queen. The board brought no help to Andreas and he took £40,900 back to Norway.

Clarke took the first hand of the heads up battle when he rivered a five to take the pot and after one hour of heads up play he emerged victorious as Clarke rivered queen trips to beat Ford's pair of Aces.

Clarke will now take his place at the £3,000 Grand Final in London later this month where Marc Goodwin will enter the tournament top of the UK Poker Tour rankings after taking top prize in the £150 PL hold'em freezeout, the largest side event in the tour's two-year history with 237 players.

Luton winner Sam Trickett also tasted success at leg nine as he took down the £300 NL hold'em event, outlasting a field of 133 players.

Results:

Event: £1000 NL Hold'em Freezeout Main Event

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Brian Clarke £96,500 150

2nd Zachary Ford £56,250 120

3rd Andreas Hoivold £40,900 96

4th Alan Vinson £27,300 78

5th Darren Hickman £21,300 66

6th Eddie Lundon £16,200 54

7th Gareth Jones £12,800 42

8th Guy Johnson £10,250 30

9th Damian Evans £7,650 24

10th Stephen Slavin £5,100 18

11th Sunny Chattha £3,400 12

12th Martyn Cavanagh £3,400 12

13th Herbert Kasbauer £3,400 12

14th Mohammed Shoahebe £2,550 12

15th Jason 'Trey' Jones £2,550 8

16th Paul McIntyre £2,550 8

17th Martino Libertini £2,550 8

18th John Marles £2,550 8

Event: £300 NL Hold'em Freezeout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Sam Trickett £12,760 45

2nd Mark Ridley £7,180 33

3rd Antonio Di Cesare £5,190 24

4th Abed Eid £3,590 18

5th Tom McCready £2,690 12

6th Stephen Croft £2,190 9

7th Alan Steam £1,800 6

8th Paul Murphy £1,400 4.5

9th Billy Ngo £1,000 3

10th Paul Wilson £600

11th R Whitmore £500

12th Sean Allen £500

13th David Stanley £500

Event: £150 NL Hold'em Freezout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Gavin Ball £10,750 45

2nd Jamie Lucas £6,220 33

3rd Daniel Hook £4,440 24

4th Todd Robinson £3,020 18

5th Sue O'Connor £2,310 12

6th Dave Gardiner £1,780 9

7th Mark Wilson £1,420 6

8th Andrew Steel £1,070 4.5

9th Andrew O'Flaherty £520 3

Event: £300 NL Hold'Em Freezeout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Marc Goodwin £18,790 60

2nd James Green £10,870 44

3rd Tony Kendall £7,760 32

4th Andy Thurbon £5,280 24

5th Lynne Beaumont £4,040 16

6th John Hopkins £3,100 12

7th Alan Barnacle £2,480 8

8th Lee Biddulph £1,860 6

9th Paul Stewart £1,550 4

10th Mark Wilson £930

11th Neil Rutter £780

12th Chao Li £780

13th Paul Jackson £780

14th Kendra Agnew £620

15th Suzanne Pyefinch £620

16th James Browning £620

17th Pippa Flanders £620

18th Vita Lockhart £620

Event: £500 NL Hold'em Freezeout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Ben Callinan £23,780 75

2nd Paul Murphy £13,740 55

3rd Thomas Middleton £9,810 40

4th Neil Greenhaigh £6,670 30

5th Iwan Jones £5,100 20

6th Ash Hussain £3,920 15

7th Rana Gurnham £3,140 10

8th Andrew Steel £2,360 7.5

9th Gary Chatterton £1,960 5

10th Joe Grech £1,180

11th Ian King £980

12th Daniel Hook £980

13th Mark Greenwood £980

14th Gavin Ball £780

15th Tom Cunningham £780

16th Simon Zach £780

17th Tony Caygill £780

18th Gex Hilton £780

Event: £250 PL Omaha 1 Rebuy

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Reyaaz Mulla £12,160 30

2nd Mickey Wernick £6,790 22

3rd Frank Deeming £5,000 16

4th Ian Woodley £3,580 12

5th Mark Cullumbine £2,500 8

6th Sam Wardlaw £1,970 6

7th Marc Goodwin £1,610 4

8th Karl Mahrenholz £1,250 3

9th Dave Colclough £890 2

Event: £100 NL Hold'Em Freezeout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Loraine Healy £3,240 15

2nd James Mitchell £1,800 11

3rd James Gray £1,330 8

4th William Fry £950 6

5th John Collins £660 4

6th Mark Winnemore £520 3

7th Tom Cunningham £430 2

8th Paul Taylor £330 1.5

9th Lee Barrett £240 1

Event: £100 NL Hold'em Freezeout

Result (Prize / UKPT Ranking Points)

1st Kevin Rigby £2,600 (+ a seat in the Champion of Champions tournament) 15

2nd Mick Oakes £1,250 11

3rd James Gray £920 8

4th Aaron Barry £660 6

5th Paul Fox 460 4

6th Peter Walling 360 3

7th Craig Byrom 360 2

8th Allan Aasterud 230 1.5

9th Kei Lueng 160 1

Angus MacKenzie / Eurosport