Tour Manager Jonathan Raab posts a daily diary during each GUKPT event

Leg 3 London, Final day

As usual, it has taken me a few days to recover from the efforts that are required of me during a GUKPT week. A lot of people just see me wandering around chatting to players during the event, but my duties are far more extensive than a bit of networking. As well as running the regular chip counts that we do during the events, I take video footage for the short clips we put on the site, collate the results and update the GUKPT rankings as well as writing reports and press releases about the event. As such, it is often just as busy for me in the days that follow a GUKPT event than during the event itself.

A month ago in Walsall I was having a drink with some of the players on the night before the final and it struck me that all of the people present, with the exception of Tony Phillips and Maria Demetriou had made a GUKPT final table. Both of these players have now joined that elite group, finishing in 2nd and 5th places respectively. As each event finishes I begin to think about who will be there at the business end at the next leg and somehow memories of Dave Colclough and Barry Neville’s three hour heads up marathon have crept into my head. Perhaps one or both of these two will be on the final table again, or perhaps neither of them will, but maybe it will be a long heads up match. Both Walsall and London have produced short heads up encounters and although that is welcomed by the tournament staff, it is sometimes nice to see a tactical battle before all the chips go in the middle.

Going into last Sunday’s final Ketul looked very determined and if I had had to pick a winner before it began, he would have been my choice. At no point did he look phased by the occasion and he played with relentless aggression to become a thoroughly deserved winner of the biggest prize so far on the tour this year. He is certainly one to watch for the future and although there was an air of tongue-in-cheek about his post match comment that he intends to win ‘a couple of WSOP bracelets this year; I for one, would not be too surprised to see him do just that.

Jonathan Raab
Thursday 13th March, 2008

Leg 3 London, Day 2

97 players returned for day two of the main event and it was 2007 Walsall winner who went into the day in pole position, sitting on a stack of 164,000 chips. But he suffered a few early setbacks and was soon languishing in mid division. Mark Friedman, another player who had returned with a healthy stack of over 100,000 chips was also pegged back before too long and by half way through the day it was defending champ Leo Kam who had moved to the front of the pack. Short stacks Neil Channing, Julian Thew and Victoria Coren did not make it to the dinner break but Maria Demetriou and young Londoner Tony Phillips soon emerged as the forces to be reckoned with.

Three weeks ago when we were in Walsall a few of the players were enjoying a drink in the bar of the Village hotel and I remarked that everyone present, with the exception of Tony and Maria had made at least one final table on the main event. Yesterday Tony told me that this had spurred him on and it now looks likely that they will both get there as they go into the final day as two of the biggest stacks of the remaining 14 players. There are in fact no players left who have previously graced a GUKPT final table. There are 4 online qualifiers still in though with David Rudling on 546,000 chips lying in second place behind Tony’s 668,000. Fran Egan, Lloyd Rees and Dan Samson are the other three.

Play resumes at 2pm on Sunday afternoon and with over 4m chips in play, it could be some time before the tournament reaches its conclusion.

Jonathan Raab

Leg 3 London, Day 1b

While day 1a was big with 206 players, day 1b was even bigger as 218 took their seats to bring the total number of participants up to 424. Last year there were 433 players at the London leg of the tour, but we had three starting days then, making these the two busiest days we have ever had in the short history of the GUKPT. As rumoured, Teddy Sheringham put in an appearance, as did Tony Cascarino, but neither managed to make it through the day. Teddy lasted until the last level of the day but by that stage he was one of the short stacks.

Mark Friedman, who finished third in last year's grand final built a big stack and although he finished on 125,000, he could easily have had twice this, as he played lots of big pots throughout the day. However it was Jerome Bradpiece who ended the day as the chip daddy with a colossal 164,000 chips. He was reduced to just 3,000 chips during the first half of the day, but clawed his way back into contention and then kicked on during the last couple of levels. Jerome has already tasted victory here this week, as he picked up £13,790 for winning the £200 PL Omaha Rebuy tournament on Wednesday.

Maria Demetrio is the highest placed of four remaining women on 95,000. She won a monster pot with KK versus two players with pocket aces and one with pocket queens. Jen Mason also has above average chips while Victoria Coren and Louise Fennel are also still in, but with low stacks.

There was one slight hiccup though – the wrong structure was inadvertently loaded up to the tournament software, so the last level of the day, which should have been 500-1000, ended up being 600-1200. However, to minimise the effect this has on the tournament, we will repeat this level again on Saturday.

In total 97 players will resume play on Saturday and with so many recognisable faces from the poker world left in, it should be a good one to watch from the rail.

Jonathan Raab

Leg 3 London, Day 1a

Full house! When Jeff Leigh pulled the trigger on the GUKPT Leg 3 starter gun at 2pm today, a packed house of 200 players fired into action in one of the biggest events we have had yet. With alternates this rose to 206 and before too long Day1b had sold out as well. There has not been this much of rush on GUKPT seats since leg 2 last year in Walsall and this is by far the most international field we have had yet. There are several Norwegians, French, Swedish and German players here. This is also the first time that Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliot has played on the tour and rumour has it that Teddy Sheringham will be in tomorrow’s field.

By the end of the day just 46 players remained and Talal Shakerchi on 134,100 is in the lead with James Keys, Joe Grech and Brian Johnson breathing down his neck. The fish made it through the day as well, finishing with 64,725 chips while last year’s winner Leo Kam scraped into day 2 with 20,800. Players who fell by the wayside today included Bambos Xanthos, Mike Ellis, Pol ‘Evil Elvis’ Astaniotis and Barry Neville, the first player of the day to hit the rail.

Julian Thew is also still hanging on in there with 23,000 chips. It may not rain very often in Julian’s world these days, but today it poured, as an air conditioning fault caused water to gush from the ceiling straight down his neck. The usually unflappable Mr Thew seemed a bit perturbed by the incident, at one point tongue-in-cheekily stating that this was the worst thing that ever happened to him. But truthfully, there was a genuinely good atmosphere in the casino today and all the players who were affected by this incident took it in good spirits. Poker is a serious game sometimes, but today it seemed more fun than usual.

There was one slight hiccup though – the wrong structure was inadvertently loaded up to the tournament software, so the last level of the day, which should have been 500-1000, ended up being 600-1200. However, to minimise the effect this has on the tournament, we will repeat this level again on Saturday.

In other news, Dave Penly has become the first player to win 2 GUKPT tournaments this year. He defeated a field of 152 players in the £500 NL Hold’em freezeout that took place over Tuesday and Wednesday earlier in the week. Having won the Omaha event during leg 2 as well, he now goes into the current chip lead in the Champion of Champions tournament, as he will now start it with a minimum of 12,000 chips. Neil Channing finished second, but as one of Penly’s backers for the event, he ended up taking home the largest slice of the prize pool. But Neil’s home is the Vic and he has generously extended an invitation to anyone who fancies taking a slice of it home for themselves to join him in the £500 NL Hold’em cash game.

Jonathan Raab
Thursday 6th March, 2008