Tom MacDonald has been crowned Leeds champion in the second event of the 2009 Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour.

Tom, an 18-year-old student from Hull, beat 93 other players to take the title, the first prize of £14,300 and a seat at the season final play-off for the coveted Coral.co.uk sponsorship deal in 2010.

Outlasting a final table that included tour regulars Eddie Lundon (2^nd in Edinburgh) and Jamie Coonan (qualified online), Tom was heads-up against Jamie Sykes with a 3:1 chip lead; it was over in just 30 minutes when 10h fell on the river and made Tom’s flush against Jamie’s two pair, giving us our second champion of the tour.

Asked how he felt after the presentation, Tom said: “Oh, it’s great! I’m glad that I won – it’s good to have a tournament win on the British live poker scene. I thought that it was well run and it started on time and I thought that the structure was really good.”

Next stop for Tom, who despite a young age has already chalked up £46,000 in career earnings, is University, but he intends to keep up his appearances at British Masters events; “I’m going to Newcastle University in September to study maths and economics. I learned to play online, and I usually prefer to play online but I’ll play in the other legs now as they’re not too far away.”

Coral.co.uk’s head of poker, Mark O’Donnell, said: “Tom played well throughout and thoroughly deserved his win. He’s only 18 so I think we’ll see plenty more of him.”

Mark added: “That’s the second seat at the end of year play-off [for the 12010 Coral.co.uk sponsorship] sorted and there are six remaining so everyone has got a shot at it.” *

The total prize money for the weekend’s three events was £70,900, with full details of finishing positions and prizes outlined below.

The next event on the tour is Teesside, 24-26 July, at the Gala Casino Teesside. Online qualification is available on  www.eurobet.com.

Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour, Leeds 19-21 June 2009 results:

20-21 June 2009: £500+50 NLHE Main Event Freeze-out

Entrants: 94; Total prize pool: £48,000

19 June 2009: £200+20 NLHE Freeze-out

Entrants: 75; Total prize pool: £15,000

21 June 2009: £100+10 NLHE Freeze-out

Entrants: 79; Total prize pool: £7,900

* The End-of-season play-off is a live 8-seater event, comprising the winners of the six 2009 Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour events, the top money winner on the 2009 tour, and the highest online points scorer (points are awarded for finishing position in CBMPT online finals on www.eurobet.com. The winner of the play-off will receive a £10,000 poker sponsorship package for 2010 from Coral.co.uk.

The dates and venues for the 2009 CBMPT are as follows:

·         Edinburgh – Gala Maybury Casino: May 15 to 17

·         Leeds – Gala Casino Leeds: June 19 to 21

·         Stockton-on-Tees – Gala Casino Teesside: July 24 to 26

·         Nottingham – Gala Casino Maid Marion Way: August 14 to 16

·         Liverpool – Gala Leo Casino: September 18 to 20

·         Bristol – Gala Harbourside Casino: October 23 to 25