GUKPT Returns to London
by Jonathan Raab
As regular readers will know, my day job involves managing the UK's largest poker tour on behalf of sponsor Blue Square. The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is a modestly priced tour, consisting of ten weeklong festivals of poker throughout the year featuring 1,000 ($2,000) main events that attract fields of 300-400 players.
At the end of the year the stakes are increased to £3,000 ($6,000) for the tour's grand final. The sponsors generously add lots of prize money to the tour, which brings together the best players in the UK and forms the backbone of the vibrant UK poker circuit. Now in its second season, the tour's latest leg took place in London at "The Vic" casino, considered by many to be the spiritual home of British poker.
Card games have taken place at the casino ever since it first opened its doors back in 1965. The ownership of the club has changed times several times in its 43-year history, including bearing the name Playboy for a short period of time. It is now part of the Grosvenor casino chain, owned by Rank Group, the former owners of the Hard Rock chain, before it was sold to the Seminoles. The festival was well attended, with all bar the Omaha events selling out. In addition to the homegrown tour regulars; there were noticeably more European players present. The capacity for the main event was set at 400, but alternates bumped this up to 424.
Alternates are a relatively new feature in British poker, but most of the big casino operators now allow them in all their tournaments. Previously forbidden by the Gaming Board, they were used for the first time last year when new UK gaming laws disbanded that ruling organization and replaced it with the Gaming Commission.
The new organization has greater reaching powers, but seems to be less concerned with the minutiae of how poker tournaments are run, as long as they are fair. Last year the same event had 433 runners, but that was over three starting days, compared to this year's two. By half way through the penultimate day of the tournament, defending champion Leo Kam (see Poker Player Newspaper issue 11-10) was the chip leader. The Canadian chef worked in Nobu, one of London's top restaurants before tasting success on last year's GUKPT. He followed up his win in London with another final table in Blackpool and went deep in the EPT in Prague later in the year. He has now given up his day job to concentrate more on poker, but his reign as champ was cut short when he was taken out in a very respectable twenty-third place. At the end of four long and hard fought days of poker, 23-year old Internet pro Ketul Nathwani won the tournament- results appeared in the previous issue of Poker Player Newspaper-and the £120,000 first prize, equivalent to $240,000. He claimed the victory after fending off 20-year old Tony Phillips in the shortest possible heads up encounter, which lasted just one hand.
The Indian born Londoner entered the final as a big chip leader, with nearly a quarter of the chips in play and held onto this lead throughout. He played a strong, aggressive and very fast game, resulting in the quickest final table in GUKPT history.
Ketul's previous best live result was his 269 place finish in the WSOP main event last year, but he usually prefers cash games to tournaments. However, this victory has fuelled his ambition and he now has his sights set on a WSOP bracelet... or two.
As regular readers will know, my day job involves managing the UK's largest poker tour on behalf of sponsor Blue Square. The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is a modestly priced tour, consisting of ten weeklong festivals of poker throughout the year featuring 1,000 ($2,000) main events that attract fields of 300-400 players.At the end of the year the stakes are increased to £3,000 ($6,000) for the tour's grand final. The sponsors generously add lots of prize money to the tour, which brings together the best players in the UK and forms the backbone of the vibrant UK poker circuit. Now in its second season, the tour's latest leg took place in London at "The Vic" casino, considered by many to be the spiritual home of British poker.
Card games have taken place at the casino ever since it first opened its doors back in 1965. The ownership of the club has changed times several times in its 43-year history, including bearing the name Playboy for a short period of time. It is now part of the Grosvenor casino chain, owned by Rank Group, the former owners of the Hard Rock chain, before it was sold to the Seminoles. The festival was well attended, with all bar the Omaha events selling out. In addition to the homegrown tour regulars; there were noticeably more European players present. The capacity for the main event was set at 400, but alternates bumped this up to 424.
Alternates are a relatively new feature in British poker, but most of the big casino operators now allow them in all their tournaments. Previously forbidden by the Gaming Board, they were used for the first time last year when new UK gaming laws disbanded that ruling organization and replaced it with the Gaming Commission.
The new organization has greater reaching powers, but seems to be less concerned with the minutiae of how poker tournaments are run, as long as they are fair. Last year the same event had 433 runners, but that was over three starting days, compared to this year's two. By half way through the penultimate day of the tournament, defending champion Leo Kam (see Poker Player Newspaper issue 11-10) was the chip leader. The Canadian chef worked in Nobu, one of London's top restaurants before tasting success on last year's GUKPT. He followed up his win in London with another final table in Blackpool and went deep in the EPT in Prague later in the year. He has now given up his day job to concentrate more on poker, but his reign as champ was cut short when he was taken out in a very respectable twenty-third place. At the end of four long and hard fought days of poker, 23-year old Internet pro Ketul Nathwani won the tournament- results appeared in the previous issue of Poker Player Newspaper-and the £120,000 first prize, equivalent to $240,000. He claimed the victory after fending off 20-year old Tony Phillips in the shortest possible heads up encounter, which lasted just one hand.
The Indian born Londoner entered the final as a big chip leader, with nearly a quarter of the chips in play and held onto this lead throughout. He played a strong, aggressive and very fast game, resulting in the quickest final table in GUKPT history.
Ketul's previous best live result was his 269 place finish in the WSOP main event last year, but he usually prefers cash games to tournaments. However, this victory has fuelled his ambition and he now has his sights set on a WSOP bracelet... or two.
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