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Allan Peers Takes Down First GUKPT £500 Deepstack Main Event

Allan Peers has won GUKPT Stockton for £11,000, besting a field of 72 to take home his biggest ever score and his first live tournament title - an achievement particularly sweet as he gave up a ticket to Liverpool's victorious FA Cup Semi Final game to play the tournament. Runner up was 2008 Irish Open finalist Thomas Dunwoodie, who fought a valiant short-stacked battle throughout the final only to succumb at the very last hurdle and take home £8,000.

The tournament took place at the Grosvenor G Casino Stockton from April 13th-16th, with a full and varied array of side events taking place throughout the week. The main event was a £500+50 NL Hold'em Deepstack tournament; players were allowed to re-enter once if they busted during the first six levels.

The fantastically deep structure, with 50,000 starting chips, a one hour clock and blinds starting at 25/50, meant that action was slow on Day 1 - Level 3 was well underway when Ruslan Vlasov became the first player to hit the rail. He would soon be back, though, taking advantage of the re-entry format to take a second shot at the tournament. It was not to be for Vlasov, though - he busted for the second and final time just a couple levels later when his flush draw failed to come in against two pair. Vlasov was gone but both his buy-ins remained in the tournament, meaning that although there were only 72 runners, there were 73 entries in the prize pool.

Gonzalez Garcia jumped into an early chip leader with nearly double his starting stack after just four levels, but was soon supplanted by Mark James. It was all change within minutes, though, as Peter Wigglesworth doubled through James with pocket queens against James' pocket jacks to take his turn at the top of the chip counts late on Day 1. By the close of Day 1, though, it would be David Outterside who occupied the top spot, his 226,075 stack leading the 48 survivors into Day 2.

Returning the following afternoon to play right down to a final table and the money, David Outterside wasted no time in further extending his lead, quickly knocking out Kevin Stebbing with A-9 versus Stebbing's K-Q. He was still the chip leader at the first break, and further increased his lead in Level 13, eliminating Dan Callaghan in the process. But it would be a day of repeated change at the top. By the end of Level 14, it would be erstwhile Day 1 chip leader Mark James who would be back in pole position - and two levels later, Irish Open finalist Thomas Dunwoodie would be leading the pack.

Notable Day 2 exits included GUKPT Bolton champion Steve Holden, who also came second at the recent GUKPT Walsall. Holden was busted early on Day 2 by Terry Mitford, Holden's pocket fours no good against Mitford's pocket kings. Also notable was the exit of start-of-day chip leader David Outterside. The former chip monster went all in on a nine-high flop holding A-K but Thomas Dunwoodie's J-9 held up and sent Outterside to the rail. Dunwoodie meanwhile almost doubled his stack to a monstrous 600,000 chip lead.

Down to 15 runners, Lewis Brown found himself the Shoal Survivor - the last of the live qualifiers remaining in the tournament. He was awarded £550 worth of GUKPT buy-ins, and promptly got the last of his stack in with Q-J. He ran into Allan Peers' K-J and exited immediately after.

The exits of Terry Mitford in 12th and Ray Ryder in 11th should have meant that the remaining 10 players were on the bubble, but within moments of Ryder's exit, a deal was proposed to pay 10th place £520. All the players agreed to the deal, and within minutes Paul Riley became the recipient of the 10th place money. Day 2 was suddenly over, and the remaining nine would return the following day to play out the final table, Andy Lambert holding the chip lead.

Andy Lambert.......614,100
Allan Peers.............591,400
Tom Dunwoodie.....575,300
Mark James...........573,400
James Marriot........399,000
CT Law..................395,200
Mark O’Kane...........203,400
Darren Meynell......192,600
David Galo.............105,200

Action was not long in presenting itself, as on the very first hand of the day David Galo moved his last 10 big blinds in from early position and was met with a reshove from James Marriot in the cutoff. Galo tabled A-5 which was no good against Marriot's A-T, and he was soon gone in ninth place winning £1,100. Darren Meynell soon followed in eighth place (£1,280), and the final was seven-handed when they went on their first break of the day.

CT Law had been in possession of a very respectable stack until he doubled up Thomas Dunwoodie on an A-K-T-6-Q board, Dunwoodie's K-J making a Broadway straight to beat Law's A-4 for a pair of aces. Law soon got the rest of his stack in with K-J on a jack-high flop but smacked into James Marriot's pocket aces to depart in seventh place for £1,550, in the process propelling Marriot into the chip lead.

Andy Lambert was by now down to 10 big blinds at the 8,000/16,000/2,000 level, and he wasted no time in moving all in from the cutoff with pocket sixes. Allan Peers called from the button with pocket nines, and Lambert claimed £1,920 for sixth place money while the final five headed off for a well-earned dinner break.

Thomas Dunwoodie was the short stack when they returned to the table, but he'd been in this situation before, having previously doubled through CT Law. Dunwoodie found aces and this time doubled through Mark James who was holding an optimistic A-9. Crippled, James immediately moved in with T-8 but found himself in hot water against Allan Peers' A-K. James spiked a ten, but Peers spiked an ace and it was all over for James in fifth place (£2,560).

Fortune continued to smile on Thomas Dunwoodie, but at the expense of Mark O'Kane - Dunwoodie picked up A-8 against O'Kane's A-4, and it was a swift and clinical affair for O'Kane. At one point the chip leader at the final table, O'Kane was now out in fourth place for £3,190. The final three prepared to do battle, Allan Peers holding the chip lead.

It didn't take long for James Marriot to succumb in third place, calling all in with pocket aces on a ten-high board with two clubs on it. Allan Peers had set him in with a flush draw which came in on the river, sending Marriot home in third place for £5,380.

Now heads up with Thomas Dunwoodie for the title, Allan Peers was in possession of over 80% of the chips in play. It didn't take long for the chips to go in, Dunwoodie shoving on the turn of a 6-7-7-9 board to a bet from Peers. Peers made the call and turned over 9-5 for two pair; Dunwoodie could only manage 6-3 for a worse two pair, and following an inconsequential jack on the river, Dunwoodie had to make do with second place and £8,000. Allan Peers meanwhile claimed £11,000, the trophy and the title of GUKPT Stockton champion.

1st. Allan Peers (£11,000)
2nd. Thomas Dunwoodie (£8,000)
3rd. James Marriot (£5,380)
4th. Mark O'Kane (£3,190)
5th. Mark James (£2,560)
6th. Andy Lambert (£1,920)
7th. CT Law (£1,550)
8th. Darren Meynell (£1,280)
9th. David Galo (£1,100)
10th. Paul Riley (£520)

Next up, just one week down the line, is the turn of G Casino, Thanet to host its own £500 Main Event – this time in 6-max format.  The festival runs from the 22^nd-30^th April.