There has been a fair bit of chart controversy in the UK of late. The death of Margaret Thatcher has certainly caused a great deal of controversy with opposing viewpoints taking polar stances but rather surprisingly, the battle between both sides has been played out in the charts! Those people who hated the policies of Thatcher and who believed she ruined lives and communities around the world were in no mood to hold back when her death was announced. Amongst the impromptu street parties, there was a celebration of “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”, a song from the Wizard of OZ film.
Very quickly, a campaign grew to have the song downloaded from iTunes and before you know it, it was rocketing up the charts. So much that so on Sunday it hit number two on the UK Top 40! The BBC refused to play the song in full, playing a snippet and then providing a news story about Thatcher’s death. This was deemed by many to be a cop-out and similarities were drawn to the way that The Sex Pistols were suspiciously kept off the number one spot in the charts during the Silver Jubilee in 1977. There has been a fair bit of controversy in the charts and this meant that a change at the top of the poker charts for UK players may have gone unnoticed.
All hail the new UK poker leader
There is a new leader in the UK section of the Global Poker Index with Toby Lewis now sitting in the number one spot. The player often known as “810ofclubs” when he plays online overtook Roberto Romanello to be the poker leader in the UK. Over in Ireland, there was no change at the top of the poker hit parade as Dermot Blain remains in the number one position.
Toby Lewis was able to grab the number one spot thanks to a number of big cash ins of late. Finishing in sixth position in the 2013 WPT LA Poker Classic was always going to make a splash. This win managed to help Lewis to earn $193,560 as Lewis stayed in the field longer than more than 500 players. There was a hope that he could add the title to the EPT title he picked up back in 2010 but sadly this was not to be. However, it was still a rather impressive showing by Lewis. This was followed up by 36th place in the Main Event of the EPT London event. This may not be the sort of finish that grabs the headlines but with a £12,500 prize winding its way home, it took the overall prize fund picked up by Lewis to be a staggering $1,787,313. This is an excellent amount of money to grab in live tournaments so kudos to Lewis for achieving this success and it is easy to see why he has jumped into number one position.
The nature of Lewis’ success can be measured in he managed to overtake Romanello even though Romanello achieved three cash finishes at the EPT event. It is tough at the top in the UK poker industry but this can only be a positive thing for poker players and poker fans. The pressure is now on Toby Lewis, who recently joined Team Ivey Poker, to remain at the top but Romanello will be pushing him hard!