TOURNAMENT REPORT


© Photos by Mickey May


Final table getting busy with eyes looking on...


Leon Bui lands a pair


Leon Bui became the 2010 GUKPT Grand Final champion after collecting the top prize of £144,905 at London's Grosvenor Victoria Casino in


GUKPT GR♠ND FIN♠L 


In an interesting bubble twist, David Johnson, the man sitting atop the


Rankings, came tantalisingly close to a 17th cash after a deep run in the biggest tournament of the tour, only to fall on the bubble to eventual ninth place fi nisher Chris Brammer. However, Johnson picked up £20,000 for topping the 2010 Rankings. The ten-handed fi nal started with


November. He beat a fi eld of 207 players in the £2,500 NLH event to capture the trophy. His win puts him at the top of the year's Prize Money Rankings, with £200,905 but only 4th in the GUKPT Ranking Points leader board.


a bang, as the shortest stack James Sudworth fell to the largest, Song Lee. Sudworth found an Ace, Lee the K-J, and a couple of Jacks on the board later, Sudworth was the fi rst to leave the live- streamed fi nal with £9,055 in his pocket. Chris Brammer had doubled through Martin Green earlier on and this had given the young player the stack he needed not only to join the fi nal ten but also to join vigorous battle with all those remaining, leading to his stack rising and falling like the tide until a dominated-Ace confrontation with Ash Miah left him fi rmly back at square one. This time his all-in K-T failed to improve against the A-T of Song Lee, and he exited in ninth place.


Closely following him to the rail was


Swede Andreas Afeldt, whose quiet early strategy had left him in shove-prefl op mode but with two players already down; when his T-J was picked off by Leon Bui with A-K prefl op he left in eighth place with £14,230. Paul Alterman couldn't secure the


home victory as the in-form Song Lee picked up A-Q at the same moment Alterman made his move with A-3, taking yet another scalp and adding to his now nearly two million chip stack.


26


of two's and the GUKPT Grand Final title to boot!


The fi rst application of the brakes to Lee's ascent came from Leon Bui (fresh from a mid-fi nal double up courtesy of A-J and Nicolas Irving) who found the Aces and doubled through Lee to over 1.6 million, suddenly snatching the chip lead six-handed. A very short period of lull followed,


but soon a huge hand turned the tide once again, dropping Bui back to a more modest stack and knocking out Martin Green whose timing couldn't have been much worse – he moved all-in prefl op


Until this very late stage, Hit Squad


member Chaz Chattha had been relatively quiet. Now a cooler gave him most of Ash Miah's stack as his A-A hit an Ace-high fl op that was much better than Miah's A-K. In just moments Chattha had doubled through while Miah, after a mini comeback (from just one and a half big blinds) fi nally ran a dominated hand into Nicolas Irving and made his exit in fourth place, winning £37,520.


The next player to run the short- stack all in gauntlet was Irving himself,


soon a huge hand turned the tide once again, dropping Bui back to a more modest stack and knocking out Martin Green whose timing couldn't have been much worse...


‘‘ A very short period of lull followed, but


with pocket sixes, and found not one, but two big pairs behind him. Leon Bui had Kings and Ash Miah had Queens; all three hands ended up on their backs and the board was dealt out in truly dramatic fashion. On the all-heart fl op, Miah spiked a Queen, prompting uproar among the spectators and some leaping from seats at the fi nal. The turn was a fourth heart, and suddenly the Kings were back in the lead, but only briefl y, as the river paired the board sending a crucial pot to Miah and eliminating Green in sixth place for £23,290. Leon Bui quickly bounced back,


busting the start-of-day chip leader Song Lee in the process. This time a Queen-high fl op brought in both players, Bui calling Lee's all-in move with A-Q dominating his Q-9.


Poker Europa | JANUARY 2011 | www.PokerEuropaOnline.com


who, in contrast to Miah, found three times to be the charm rather than the curse. From the brink of elimination, Irving squeaked a split with a dominated King then doubled up twice through Chaz Chattha. The second time sent the popular Hit Squad member down to the felt, and moments later he was eliminated in third place, for £63,395. Heads up, Leon Bui held nearly a two


’’


to one lead over Nicolas Irving, but there was no instant big clash. Instead, a cagey half hour saw Irving put up a good fi ght but ultimately succumb to Bui's whittling, fi nishing his tournament, and the Grand Final Main Event, with a race, J-9 against 2-2. The deuces held for Bui, and Irving took home an impressive £98,325 for his runner-up fi nish.


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