The 2015 UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) season got off to a flying start with tournament novice Rapinder Cheema taking down the opening event in London for a cool £78,825.

Cheema, whose only previous live score was £320, topped a field of 742 runners at the Hippodrome from 20-25 January to secure his bumper payday.

The big story heading into Sunday's finale was Brett Angell. Last year's champion was looking for unprecedented back-to-back UKIPT wins but his bid for glory stalled in seventh at the hands of the eventual winner.

The inexperienced Briton overturned a big heads-up deficit to beat Spain's Fernando Marin, the fickle finger of fortune pointing in his direction with Marin just one hand away from the title but Cheema came from behind with AD-2D to beat the Spaniard's AS-7D and take control.

It was all over a hand later when Cheema's flopped set crushed the unfortunate Marin's flopped two pair.

UKIPT London
1 Rapinder Cheema £78,825
2 Fernando Marin £74,275
3 Martin Hanham £41,000
4 Lawrence Bayley £31,000
Christopher Yong £24,600
6 Paul Simmons £18,600
7 Brett Angell £13,300
8 Joakim Sorensen £9,138