With the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Galway ready to roll this week, Full Tilt Poker has announced its four ambassadors that will represent the site on the Tour. The timing is not coincidental; UKIPT Galway is Full Tilt’s first sponsored poker festival since the online poker room rose from the dead last year.
“These Tour Ambassadors will help redefine what it means to represent a poker site,” said Dustin Iannotti, Full Tilt Poker’s Senior Manager of Pro, Celebrity & VIP Marketing in a press release. “These players are working with us to create exciting new live experiences that will leave UKIPT players with memories that extend well beyond the felt.”
Let’s start with Martins Adeniya (@AceKingMartins), a graduate of the University of Bath with a major in business. Like many young people, he picked up the game while in school and eventually made his way up in stakes to $10/$20 No-Limit Hold’em online. He made the big decision to take the leap to becoming a full-time poker pro when he finished third in the FTOPS Main Event, a $180,000 score. In live tournaments, Adeniya has 13 World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes, four European Poker Tour (EPT) cashes, and one World Poker Tour (WPT) cash.
Continuing alphabetically, Dermot Blain (@DermotBlain) has won over $1.3 million in live tournaments, including $541,100 from victory in the 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Main Event. Blain also finished fifth in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event, earning $367,362. That was one of six career WSOP cashes to go along with five EPT cashes and three WPT cashes.
Ben Jenkins (@FTPBenJenkins) has been playing poker professionally since 2009 and has made the final table of several major online tournaments, including the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up, in which he chopped the top prize money.
Finally, there’s Sinem “Sin” Melin (@SinTheMenis), the lone female member of the group. She has a fairly short live tournament resume, but she did make the final tables of both the 2011 UKIPT Brighton Main Event and the 2013 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour London Main Event.
UKIPT Galway begins this Saturday, July 27th with the first of 60 events. It is a very affordable poker festival, with most tournaments falling in the €35 + €5 to €100 + €10 buy-in range. The series wraps up on August 12th with the final table of the €1,000 + €100 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.
