Last Woman Standing: Hong Pham Wins UKPC Main Event (£101,000)

The 2026 UK Poker Championships (UKPC) have wrapped up at Nightfall Until Daybreak in Nottingham, and it’s Hong Pham who will ceaselessly be often called the 2026 UKPC Foremost Occasion champion. Pham, who performed whereas being 35 weeks pregnant, battled her means via a 1,159-strong crowd to get her arms on £101,000 of the £556,320 prize pool.

Pham’s spectacular victory takes her lifetime earnings in dwell poker to greater than $522,000, regardless of most of her buy-ins being between £200 and £500.

£560 NLHE UKPC Foremost Occasion Closing Desk Outcomes

After a number of UKPC Foremost Occasion flights, the four-figure subject was reduce to a way more manageable 16 on Day 2. Such luminaries as Endrit Geci, Man Taylor, Stephen Bean, Michael Rosaman, Jack Allen, Yucel Eminoglu, Adria Dalmau, and Simon Higgins cashed on Day 2 however didn’t progress to the ultimate day.

Amir Zaregairizi began the UKPC Foremost Occasion’s remaining day with a sizeable chip lead, however he finally bowed out in tenth place and burst the ultimate desk bubble. Alternatively, Pham began on the backside of the pack however sat down on the remaining desk with the chip lead in tow.

Alistair Massie’s time on the remaining desk was short-lived. He busted after making an ill-timed shove, bluffing with queen-high, solely to find Haydn Dickinson held an overpair to the board. Dickinson known as, received the hand, and Massie headed to the cashier’s desk to gather a career-best £5,250.

Dickinson then discovered one other pair on the good time to ship John Corridor residence. Corridor four-bet shoved 18 large blinds with pocket queens, just for Dickinson to snap-call with the superior pocket kings. These kings flopped a set and swerved a coronary heart flush draw to bust Corridor.

Seventh place and £10,250 went to Jose Bazan, who endured a torrid time earlier than being eradicated. He ran ace-nine into pocket aces in a battle of the shorter stacks, then misplaced with pocket nines towards ace-five when the latter turned a wheel. His remaining motion within the UKPC Foremost Occasion was to get his micro-stack into the center with ace-jack and lose to the ace-five of Nicholas Rose.

Pham claimed her first remaining desk scalp through the stage after Bazan busted. She opened with ace-queen from beneath the gun, Dickinson known as within the cutoff, and Stephen Blow jammed all-in for seven large blinds on the button with ace-ten. Pham known as, Dickinson folded, and Pham’s kicker performed on a king-high runout.

Nearly instantly after Pham despatched Blow packing, she pruned Rose and despatched him to the showers. Pham moved all-in from the small blind with queen-ten, and Rose known as all-in for 5 large blinds with the dominated queen-nine within the large blind. Once more, it was Pham’s kicker that received her the pot and that despatched her opponent to the cashier’s desk.

Fourth-place and £29,370 went to Jacque Ramsden, the 2023 Asian Poker Tour Phu Quoc champion. Ramsden dedicated his final seven large blinds from the small blind with ace-seven of golf equipment, and Pham known as with jack-eight. An eight on the river was sufficient to bust the harmful Ramsden from this occasion.

Paul Tait three-bet with king-queen of hearts from the large blind after Pham had opened on the button with a pair of aces within the gap. Tait fired a continuation wager on the eight-high flop, which Pham known as. Tait determined to tear it in on the flip after choosing up a flush draw, and Pham immediately known as. The river was purple, but it surely was a diamond, not a coronary heart, and Tait crashed out in third place for a career-best £43,450.

That hand gave Pham a 73 million to 43 million chip benefit going into heads-up. Though Dickinsom fought valiantly, Pham by no means relinquished the chip lead. One thing lastly gave through the 1,000,000/2,000,000 stage. Dickinson moved all-in for twenty-four.4 million, and Pham beat him into the pot with a snap-call. It was ace-five for Dickinson, pocket kings for Pham, and a drama-less jack-high board meant Pham was the 2026 UKPC Foremost Occasion champion and recipient of a £101,000 rating, her first six-figure prize.

Pham is One to Watch

Pham performed beautifully all through the UKPC Foremost Occasion and was deserving of her trophy and £101,000 payday. Since her first recorded dwell money on The Hendon Mob Database in June 2021, Pham has racked up 10 five-figure scores and this six-figure haul, regardless of continuously taking part in in tournaments on the decrease finish of the buy-in scale.

Previous to this end result, Pham’s largest rating weighed in at £64,500, her reward for a runner-up end within the £1,100 WSOPC Foremost Occasion in March 2023. She additionally reached the ultimate desk of the €550 Colossus on the 2024 WSOP Europe for €24,750, and received a £250 Grosvenor 25/50 occasion in Studying for £19,656.

There’s positively an upward development in Pham’s dwell outcomes. Bear in mind the identify.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the UK, and has labored within the poker business since 2008, and labored for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he turned the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from dwell reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his position of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.