£1,500 Added for the Circus Casino £100 freeze-out

 The Circus Casino, Stoke-On-Trent have announced that they are to a add a huge £1,500 to the prize pool for the £100 freeze-out this Sunday 5th April, with a further £200 to the winners online account.

Always a popular event, the cardroom usually attracts 130-140 runners for the £100 game, which is held every month.

Schedule:-

Doors open at 12:00.

Half price 3 course lunch is available with your entry ticket, at a cost of just £3.50, served until 18:00hrs

The tournament starts at 18:00, with the last registration taken at 18:55 for late arrivals.

A starting stack of 10,000 chips with blind levels starting at 25-50, increasing every 30 minutes. 

Ample parking.

This is a dealer dealt competition.

Anyone wishing to register for this game, can do so at their regular circus casino to be assured of a seat, or on the day at the Circus Casino, Stoke-On-Trent.

Tel 01782-213499 For any further information.

A huge thank you to the Circus Casino, for allowing us to a live feed from the tournament so that you can enjoy all the action as it happens here at PokerNewsHeadlines.

Silk-e-smooth Perfomance as Martin takes the GUKPT Title in London

Irishman Martin Silke took the top honours at London’s Victoria Casino this morning, winning the third leg of the GUKPT. An awesome final table of  9 players saw the trophy slide away as Silke polished a fine performance, and took the trophy, a cheque for £172,850 and a seat in the champion of champions event. Second place went to the unlucky Luke Trotman, who at one stage thought he had won the tournament, only to check again to see that he’d made a mistake and hadn’t.

At 01.05 am the heads-up cards were dealt. Trotman raised the blinds and Silke called. A flop of 5d-8h-7h was bet by Trotman, Silke called. The turn was the 8d, Trotman announces all in! A massive amount of chips now sat in the middle of the table. Silke thought and thought, then the reply came “call.” Trotman turns over Qd-6d, to show an open ended straight draw and flush draw. Silke looks pensive as he turns over K-7 off suit. The river was going to be vital as Trotman had Silke out chipped! River- 7d, Trotman ran around the table thinking he had won it with the flush! It wasn’t until Silke pointed out that he had the full house that Trotman realised. Amazed, he checked the board for a while, looking at every card. It finally dawned on him that he had lost the hand. Silke’s camp cheered as the dealer announced 980,000 – that’s what Silke had left. They counted the chips from Trotman’s stack and passed them to Silke. Trotman never really recovered from the hit and 20 minutes later came the hand that would decide 3 days of hard work. A flop of As-7h-9d had them both thinking. Trotman bet and Silke called. The turn fell to the felt Jc “I’m all in” said Trotman. “Call” comes the reply from Silke. Trotman turns over Ah-4d, Silke shows Ac-Kd, the crowd was going crazy as the river card, 10c, hit the table. Silke had done it, he had just beaten a field of 398 players to become GUKPT London champion 2009. An absolutely phenomenal heads up battle between two really great players. It was a deserved win for Silke but there where was no losers in this epic struggle just a second place that went to Luke Trotman who, incidently, was the last alternate to register for the tournament with only 5 minutes left. 

The final standings and prizes were as follows :-

1st Martin silke          £172,850
2nd Luke Trotman    £103,000
3rd Sam Oatley           £68,950
4th Jamie Brown       £45,350
5th Coung Tran         £33,450
6th Chaz Chattha      £27,450
7th Andreas Hagen  £21,500
8th Simon Eastwood £15,500
9th Dave Colclough  £11,950

Final 14 at the GUKPT, London

Just 14 players remain as leg 3 of the GUKPT at the Victoria casino London draws to its conclusion. Less than 11k in chips separate the top 2 with Jamie Brown on 797,500 and Martin Silke hot on his heels with 786,000.  There is a staggering £172,850 waiting at the cash desk for the victor and £103,000 for the runner up, who will triumph in this the biggest field ever assembled for any GUKPT event. 

Play resumes at 14.00 GMT today and will be played to a finish. It looks like being one of, if not the, best finals ever for such an event.

Day 1A from the GUKPT at The Victoria Casino, London.

With 161 players, and £496,500 in the pot, this was going to be a very busy day as Day 1A got underway at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London.

Steadily the field was being whittled down and at 19.30 Paul (Action) Jackson was all in with A-K. Peter Charalambos called and showed A-Q. The board did not favour Jackson as two Queens came down and the Midlands pro’ was out.

John Kabbaj sat with a healthy stack of 61k for a long time and managed to increase that further to just over 70k, mid-way through the evening, with a tournament average of just 21k.

Just after midnight 51 players remained as TD Ian Bryan told the dealers to stop dealing. The 2007 winner of this event Leo Kam was to pick a card from the deck to determine how many hands were left. Kam picked out a 6, giving players just 6 hands left to play!

With 5 hands left, Dave Colclough pushed all in. One player calls and turns over A-8, Colclough turns over 6-5. The poker Gods smiled on Colclough as he hits a 5 on the turn and doubles through to 16k with just 4 hands remaining.

With 2 hands remaining, Dave Lloyd pushes all-in for his tournament life. Dave Colclough called and showed A-A. Lloyd shook his head and turned over 3-3. The board didn’t help Lloyd as Colclough worked his chip stack up to 33k.

Colclough explained in an interview afterwards that he found it to be a very hard day and a real grind from the start. John Kabbaj commented that he’d had a rush early doors that had settled down and that he had lost one big hand and his stack was now down to 41k where as Tim Flanders said that he had been card dead all day. “I never found good cards, just good situations” said Flanders.

Day 1B starts at 14.00GMT today and poker legend Freddy Deeb will be gracing the tables along with Walsall winner Sunny Chattha who won his seat to the event in a satellite on Wednesday evening.

Nottingham`s Sam Tricket wins LPC main event

A small field of just 18 runners paid the £1000 entry fee to the LPC`s 1st event in London, with Nottingham’s Sam Tricket taking the honours, and the £8500 1st prize.

A tricky field saw the likes of Nik Persaud, Joe grech & other famous names in the line up.

The £300 side event saw actor and former GUKPT winner Michael Greco landing the spoils.

Next stop on the tour is the Westbury Hotel Mayfair on the 14th- 15th of April , followed by the LPC Festival at the Kingsway Hall Hotel, Covent Garden, from 4th-10th May 2009

Pass Checks In for Grosvenor Glory

The £50 freeze-out, with £1k added prize money, at Stoke-on-Trent’s Grosvenor casino last Saturday was won by Maurice ( mozza ) Pass. Derek Hargreaves was 2nd, just inching out Rob Ho who finished 3rd, in a nail biting final 10 minutes.

63 entrants battled away with a starting stack of 15k chips. With a 30 minute blind structure this was going to be a long night and a grind to the finish. Pass, who was quiet early on, was slowly but surely finding his feet and evaluating every move that was made. Derek Litherland saw his aces cracked by Adam Ball’s pocket 6s on a 6 high flop. With nothing on the turn or river Derek was hugging the rail for the remainder of the tournament. Sean Perry must have been the unluckiest player of the night. Perry, holding pocket 4s with no raise pre-flop, saw a flop of; 4h-6c-Qd. Sean pushed all in and Dale Leighton automatically called with As-Qs. The turn card was the Ah and river Ac giving Leighton the top full house and sent Sean to the growing queue on the side lines.

At 2.10am the final table was announced and 9 players took their seats to slug out the final placings. Roger Chadwick was first to depart pushing all in with A-J only to find Rob Ho sitting with K-K. No A on the board sent roger out in 9th spot. Simon (the monk) Ball was next firing all in with 9-9 only to see the eventual winner, Pass, call with J-J. No cards came that could enhance either hand and Pass took “the monk’s” scalp – who has a habit of falling just short in these bigger events.

Eventually we were down to the final 3 and just 15 minutes from a chip count with the blinds at 8k-16k. Pass had the game at his mercy holding almost 70% of the chips in play, a cool 600k ,with Hargreaves on 250k and Ho on 85k. With 8 minutes left Ho declared “all in!” Pass thought for a minute or so then folded. Hargreaves, however, didn’t hesitate and called. Ho turned over Ah-QS, Hargreaves showed Ac-10c, the tension was immense as the dealer showed a flop of 8c-9c-7h, Hargreaves had just picked up an open ended straight draw plus the nut flush draw. A silence fell over the card room as the turn was produced 5s, Ho was noticeably nervous before the final river card fell, it was the 2d. A roar echoed around the casino as Ho had just doubled up with less than 1 minute on the clock! Hargreaves was now on oxygen with 165k left and, to make matters worse, he was the BB in the last hand of the tournament. Could he hold on? The cards were dealt, Ho under the gun passes. Pass, on the small blind, calls. Hargreaves checks. The flop of 10h-8h-2s seemed to dis-interest either player as they both checked. The turn was 6d. Pass checks Hargreaves checks. The river turned out to be the money card and would decide the 2nd and 3rd placings in the tournament. As the dealer turns over the 5s, Pass puts Hargreaves all in. Hargreaves instantly calls! Pass turned over 2c-2h for a set of 2s! Hargreaves turned over 3d-4h for the 6 high straight! The drama was almost over.

It took the TD, Matt Murray, a few minutes to declare Pass the winner taking home the £1300 first prize, Hargreaves 2nd £810 with Ho taking 3rd place and a tidy £760.