Simon Moorman, the father of online tournament pro Chris Moorman has won the 4th leg of the 2009 GUKPT at the G Casino in Manchester. He defeated a field of 298 players to win the first prize of £88,630 and claim a seat in the £100,000 Champion of Champions tournament. Chris bought his father into the tournament as a late birthday present and it is a gift he will never forget. It was only the second live tournament he has ever played. His first was a £10 rebuy event in Southend, but he does play quite a lot online, having picked up some tips from his son. He defeated Harri Isomaki from Finland in a brief heads up battle. Simon went into the final stage of the tournament with a 5-1 chip lead after he knocked out third placed Eddie Lundon. The first two hands saw both players get a walk, then in the third hand of the encounter Harri doubled up with A-4 versus Simon’s A-5 after hitting a 4 on the flop. A few hands later it was all over. Simon raised to 160,000 and Harri went over the top for an all in bet of about 1m chips. Simon called, once again showing A-5. Harri had K-8 this time and the board came T-T-A-6-9, giving Simon two pairs, the trophy and the title of GUKPT Manchester champion for 2009.

Simon was certainly not lost for words during the post event press conference. He paid respect to his opponents and thanked his son for putting him into the event. The 52-year old is the second player this year from Essex to have won a GUKPT main event (Bernie Litman who won in Brighton was the first). His day job is that of a credit manager for a toy company and although he considers poker to be just a bit of fun, he fully expects to be back at another GUKPT before the end of the year. His son Chris also commented on his father’s win by saying

"The only way I can top this is to win the main event of the World Series of Poker."

Harri Isomaki from Finland was also playing in one of the first live tournaments of his life. He qualified for the tournament via an online freeroll and was delighted to have walked away with over £50,000 for his efforts. He is the first player from Finland to have made a GUKPT main event final table

The first player to be eliminated from the final was Surinder Sunar in 9th place. It was the third GUKPT main event final table in less than a year for the former WPT winner. Pro player Ed Roger from London went into the final as chip leader but lost a couple of crucial hands to crash out in 8th place. David Maudlin was also one of the chip leaders going into the final but he suffered a similar fate and exited in a disappointing 7th. Kevin Holdstock, another pro player from Manchester went out in 6th while Liverpudlian Andy Booth finished in 5th. Kenny Burke from Chorley completed the final table line up, finishing in 4th place.

The tour now moves on to Newcastle, where the 5th leg of this year's tour will take place from the 18th-24th May, with the 4-day main event taking place from the 21st-24th.

Venue: G Casino, Manchester
Date: 23/04/2009 - 26/04/2009
Event: £1000 NL Hold'em Freezeout
Length: 4 days
Runners: 298
Total Prize Pool: £298,000
Result:

The winner also gets a seat in the Champion of Champions tournament