Shuffle Up and Deal
Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima de Melo was awarded the privilege of addressing the players before the start of the tournament and after a brief speech she issued the instructions to, “Shuffle up and deal.”
PokerNews spoke to the defending champion Duncan McLellan just before the event started about his year since his victory. He told us that just four weeks after his win in the Isle of Man he took down the Nottingham Cup for £10,000 and numerous other deep runs have now put him at fifth place on the UKIPT Leader board. First place is entry to UKIPT events next year so he told us he had, “One eye on that and one eye on the money.”
McLellan was also in Vegas at the WSOP where he satellited into the Main Event and proudly showed us the watch he bought with the money he saved. McLellan is in a confident mood and fate has decreed that the player he beat heads-up last year, none other than de Melo, is sat at the same table as him today. They greeted each other warmly as play got underway and it wasn’t long before McLellan was stealing her big blind.