Southampton Uni Student Wins BIG at UK Student Poker Championships

Simon Priddis, a maths student here at Southampton University, won a massive £2,825 at the recent High Roller UK Student Poker Championships.

Simon Priddis at the table

Southampton University’s very own Simon Priddis placed first out of 112 competitors to take home a grand prize of nearly £3,000. The key moment for Priddis came when he held Q10 of clubs against his opponent’s non-suited A6. The first three cards to come down on the table were A65, with the Ace being that of clubs. Priddis looked to be out at this stage, with his competitor having a two-pair, however the next card to be turned over was the Jack of Clubs, giving him a lifeline of a Royal Flush, or failing that a flush. Miraculously the river card turned out to be the eight of clubs giving Priddis a flush and a sizeable chip lead. Priddis then took this momentum on to see him victorious in the last hand as he held AK suited over his opponent’s A8.

Victory at this year’s event made Priddis the winner of the competition for the second year in a row. We at the Soton Tab asked Simon how he planned to spend some of his winnings to which he replied:

My winnings will be helpful to enable me to play more poker tournaments over the coming months, and play larger buy-in tournaments, hopefully I’ll be playing the GUKPT  [Grosvenor UK Poker Tour] events in Reading, Walsall and Cardiff, each of which has a £100,000+ prizepool.

Priddis is also President of Southampton University’s PokSoc, who hold events every Wednesday in Bar 2 in the SUSU building.

New members are always welcome, and pretty much no prior experience is required, we’re always happy to help new people learn and get involved. We also run other events and cash games for people who want more than just the once weekly event.

If you want to get involved with PokSoc, their Facebook page can be found here. If you would like more information on student poker events happening in the UK, click here.