This is an H1

Hot Quoss Run: Fabian Quoss Wins the 2011 GUKPT Grand Final at the Vic

The GUKPT Grand Final with its £138,750 top prize has been won by German pro player Fabian Quoss after a six-hour final table battle against tough opposition including triple crown winner Jake Cody and Irish Open champion James Mitchell.  This huge win represents the first cash by Fulham-based Quoss on the tour - however he has been playing professionally for three years and has amassed more than $1.24 million on the live tournament circuit.

The final leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour 2011 brought what might best be described as an ‘action field’ to the capital.  The biggest buy-in event of the tour created a prize pool of £487,500 and the two-week festival running from the 21^st November-4^th December saw the Victoria Casino’s 24-hour card-room host 15 events alongside cash games running day and night.

The combined weight of the trophies collected by the combatants at the Vic would be enough to crush any mantelpiece; players were eager to add the blue glass of the GUKPT Grand Final to their collections.  Among these hoarders of poker accolades were EPT champions Liv Boeree, Kevin MacPhee, Rupert Elder and David Vamplew, and prior GUKPT leg winners Andrew Teng, Priyan De Mel, Chaz Chattha and Praz Bansi.

In all, 195 players brought their £2,500 buy-in to the prize pool, a fair few qualifying live at the venue or online during the preceding weeks.  Many of those who might have been bookies’ favourites (Vamplew, MacPhee, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Max Silver, Neil Channing and Paul Alterman among them) fell during their first day’s play, leaving the gate open for Fabian Quoss, Nathan Watson and Dean Sanders to rise towards the top of the pack.

Day 2 began with a quartet of heavyweight players guarding the biggest stacks.  Jake Cody with over 220,000 led Fabian Quoss (179,900), Jonas Ovestad (158,600) and Praz Bansi (144,200).  There were 72 Day 1 survivors in all, eager to begin the build towards the money – starting at 20^th place - and eventually the final table.  Cries of, ‘lost one!’ echoed through the Vic’s poker room as the players began the round of Musical Chairs that an aggressive field always plays early on its second day.

Among those taking their leave of the tournament outside of the money positions were EPT Champion Liv Boeree, Matt Perrins, Ian Woodley and GUKPT Grand Final winner – and bracelet holder – Mike Ellis.  The man with the toughest walk to the rail was, as ever, the bubble-boy Marcin Wydrowski.  The bubble burst when Jake Cody, trying to isolate short-stack all-in Wydrowski, ended up winning a 70,000 pot with A-3 (hitting an Ace) when Talal Shakerchi came along for the ride. 

Guaranteed at least £4,900 for their efforts, the last 20 players threw themselves into the fray with renewed vigour, led by Cody who was not resting on his laurels (and his big stack).  He showed John Gale a cheeky river bluff with six-high but that didn’t faze the veteran WPT champion*** – he too was to make the final table.

Before Day 3 was set, players like Steph Boyd (17^th), Alan McLean (16^th), Dean Sanders (13^th) and David Docherty (11^th) made the long trek to the rail with a detour via the cash desk, while just missing out on a final table place was Jonathan Beck who received £8,550. 

The two near-joint chip millionaires Jake Cody and Fabian Quoss (just 500 chips separating them) held almost half the total chips in play and could take the aggressive lead against the more vulnerable short stacks.  Quoss eliminated Jonas Ovestad in 9^th place to edge in front, but then both chip leaders took a back seat as the action unfolded elsewhere.  Alex Elias with his pair of Queens outflopped Nathan Watson’s Kings to send him out of the final in 8^th (£13,400), while John Gale went from short-stacked to non-stacked calling James Mitchell’s top pair all-in with second pair and a draw.

In 6^th place fell Tamer Kamel, another short stack tackled by Quoss whose A-3 held against his K-T.  He took home £23,150 just before the penultimate break of the competition.  James Mitchell then proved a rare player to survive an all-in encounter with Quoss, his set spiking a full house on the river to overtake a flush.  Mitchell’s success was to be short-lived, however, as he was eliminated in 5^th by Jake Cody to take home £28,050.

A period of wariness followed with regard to the big blind of the huge-stacked Jake Cody – he received no fewer than five walks before the field shrunk yet again as Alex Elias hit the rail in 4^th.  Holding a tenth of the leader’s stack, he was in move-in-pre mode and had his fives taken out by Quoss with eights.

Three-handed it was Cody with the big lead and Quoss a million plus behind, while Lalit Khajuria was holding on with a short stack.  He started a comeback campaign with two double-ups in quick succession, but soon lost a huge pot to Cody who’d flopped trips on a Q-Q-T board.  A turned King gave what Khajuria said was his A-K a reason to call a big bet on the river five, and he was back to where he started.  His enthusiastic supporters at the Vic were excited as he doubled through yet again, but finally he fell in 3^rd place (£59,700) making a stand with Q-J which ran into the pocket jacks of Quoss. 

Although Cody started the heads up battle out in front, Quoss took bites out of his stack drawing level as the blinds went up to 20k/40k, before finally making his first four-bet of the one-on-one period with A-Q.  Cody put his stack to the test with K-J but failed to outdraw his opponent and proved that he could, in fact, be beaten in a no limit hold’em tournament (although he picked up £96,300 for second).  Quoss, understatedly happy with his £138,750 top prize, admitted that he’d run better in this event than ever before in his poker career, and summed up the exciting event which ended the year as “a pretty sick run!”