The third leg of the 2008 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour has been won by 23-year old Internet pro Ketul Nathwani. He defeated a field of 424 players to take down the £119,780 first prize plus a seat in the £3,000 Grand Final, which takes place later in the year. Ketul was one of 14 players who returned for the 4th day of the tournament, which took place at the Grosvenor Victoria casino in London. He claimed the victory after fending off 20-year old Tony Phillips in the shortest possible heads up encounter, given that it lasted for just one hand. Ketul had gone into the final as a big chip leader, with just under a quarter of the chips in play and held onto this lead throughout. He played a strong, aggressive and very fast game, which resulted in this being the quickest final table in GUKPT history. We have had heads up encounters that have gone on for longer than the three hours that it took to complete the entire final table.

After taking out Dan Samson in third place Nathwani held an enormous chip lead and after a good thirty second of deliberation he called Tony’s preflop all-in bet of just over 400,000 chips. Tony had A-2, but Nathwani was already in the lead with pocket fives and he stayed in front after a Q-Q-3-J-6 board was dealt out. Ketul has been a professional online player for the last two years and rarely ventures into the live environment, preferring cash games to tournaments, but this victory has fuelled his ambition and he intends to concentrate more on bricks and mortar poker in the future. In the post tournament interview he jovially commented that he has his sights set on picking up a couple of winner’s bracelets at the WSOP later this year.

The chip counts going into the final were:

Runner up Tony Phillips first tasted victory last summer when he won the £500 main event in London’s Gutshot club, where he once worked as a dealer. Tony turns 21 next month and he too has his sights set on the Las Vegas, where he hopes to play in several WSOP events. Both Dan Samson, who finished 3rd and David Rudling in 4th qualified online for the tournament, as did Irishman Fran Egan (7th) and Lloyd Rees (8th) from Bristol. Maria Demetriou, who took the 5th place spot, is only the 3rd woman to make a GUKPT final table, but her hopes were ended when Ketul’s 8-6 of hearts made a flush, defeating her A-T. Steve Jelinek, who made the final of last year’s EPT Grand Final, was knocked out in 6th place while Colin Kennedy in 9th place completed the final table line up.

The tour now takes a short break but the festivities will recommence in Manchester, where the 4th leg takes place between April 21st-27th.

The winner also receives a free entry to the £3,000 Grand Final plus a seat in the Champion of Champion’s tournament; both courtesy of tour sponsor Blue Square Poker. All the final table players received an iPod Nano.