Ace no Matas as Cimbolas crowned WPT king

London-based Lithuanian Matas Cimbolas became the latest name to be etched into the World Poker Tour's Champions Cup after defeating Ben Warrington heads-up to win the 2014 Partypoker WPT UK main event at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.

Cimbolas took his seat at the six-handed final table with 3,534,000 chips to lead the way from Ben Warrington in second place on 2,616,000, with Tamer Kamel third on 1,844,000, Antoine Saout fourth with 1,086,000 and Patrick Leonard next on 836,000. Phillip Mighall was the short stack on 710,000.

Leonard was the first to leave the final table, busting out with trip fives against Warrington's set of sixes.

Brighton's Mighall was the next out after a three-bet shove for 275,000 with deuces. Warrington called instantly with AD-KD and went ahead on the 5H-QC-AS flop, with a nine on the turn and river sending Mighall home.

Saout soon followed him to the cashier's desk after also coming off worse in a clash with Warrington. The action folded to Warrington in the small blind and he raised all-in to put Saout to the ultimate test for his remaining 800,000 chips.

Saout decided to call with the AC-6S only to discover Warrington had him dominated with the AH-7H. By the river the board read 8S-KD-KS-3D-5D and Saout, a former World Series of Poker main event final-tabler, busted in fourth place.

Three-handed play spanned across three hours and ended with the demise of Kamel, who ran his AS-KC into Warrington's pocket nines, which improved to a set on the 4H-9S-10S flop.

Cimbolas went into the heads-up battle with Warrington trailing by 3,150,000 to 7,475,000 chips, a position that worsened from the word go as it was one way traffic in Warrington's favour. Cimbolas looked completely out of contention until one hand gave him some breathing room, boosted his confidence and turned the contest around.

That hand saw Cimbolas shove for 1,645,000 with AS-5H and Warrington call with AH-6C. The 9C-8H-QC flop meant Warrington was two cards away from becoming a WPT champion, but the 5D on the turn changed everything and the 2C on the river meant Cimbolas was right back in contention.

From that moment on he looked like a different player and took the lead soon after when he turned two pair and was paid off handsomely by Warrington who had flopped top pair.

Warrington won plenty of pots, but Cimbolas seemed to be claiming the more meaningful ones and when Warrington announced he was all-in for around 3m with 9S-7S, Cimbolas called with KD-JH to put Warrington at risk of elimination.

The 5C-3S-2C flop missed both players, as did the 3C on the turn, with the AD on the river sealing Cimbolas' moment of glory and sending Warrington out in second place.

Partypoker WPT UK
1 Matas Cimbolas £200,000
2 Ben Warrington £140,000
3 Tamer Kamel £92,000
4 Antoine Saout £67,000
5 Phillip Mighall £48,000
6 Patrick Leonard £39,500