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