Haitao Wu from Dundee has won the £100,000 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Champion of Champions tournament at the G Casino in Luton. Haitao, better known as Colin outlasted a field of 125 players to claim the £25,000 first prize in the invitation only event which rounded off the third year of the GUKPT. All 125 players in the free-to-enter event had won GUKPT tournaments (or associated events) to claim their seats into the two-day competition. Unlike most other tournaments, the players began the event with varying starting stacks. The larger the buy in of the event won to qualify, the greater the starting stack awarded. The 30-year old won his way into the tournament by claiming victory in a £500 side event at leg three of the tour in London. He also made a main event final table in Newcastle in May, where he finished in seventh place.

Wu’s heads up opponent was Darren Annis, who scooped first prize in the leg eight main event in Thanet. The Beijing-born professional player held a 2-1 chip lead after knocking out third place finisher Stephen Spring and dominated his opponent during the course of the 30-minute heads up session. By the time the final hand took place he had increased his lead further, leaving Annis with just over 100,000 of the 900,000 chips in play. In the final hand, Annis moved all in with A-4 and Wu called with Q-T. A 10 on the flop secured the title and £25,000 first prize. The prize money for this tournament was entirely provided by Grosvenor Casinos and online partner Blue Square Poker.

Wu moved to the UK seven years ago to do an MBA in international business transactions at Dundee University. He completed his degree two years ago and then started playing poker professionally. In July he became a father when his girlfriend Kerry gave birth to twin daughters. Elated from his win he commented afterwards:

“Kerry has been very supportive, looking after our beautiful daughters when I have been playing. We will have a great Christmas now and will be visiting China early next year, when my parents will meet them (his daughters) for the first time.”

He went on to say:

“When we come back from China I will continue to play GUKPT events in 2010. The structure is perfect for us to play good poker and the prize money is great as well”

Preston man Reyaaz Mulla was the fist player to be eliminated from the nine-person final table. Shana Casaletto from Brighton was next to go in eighth place. Shana was one of the few women competing in the tournament. She won her seat into the event at the first leg in January in her hometown, where she won back-to-back side events. The final table also included Ganesh Rao, another former GUKPT main event winner (Newcastle 2008), who exited in seventh. Property developer Rahim Tadjsaadat who lives in London, but is originally from Iran, was the sixth place finisher while Blackpool main event finalist Gemal Husnu from London claimed fifth. Christopher Brammer from Worthing completed the final table line up, departing in fourth. The 21-year old had gone into the final as the chip leader and held a strong chip position before losing his entire stack in the space of three short hands.

The race to top the tour’s rankings leaderboard is also now over, with Richard Gryko outscoring Irishman Martin Silke by just half a point to take the £20,000 first prize and claim the title of GUKPT Player of the Year. The GUKPT rankings carried a total of £50,000 in prizes, supplied by Grosvenor Casino and Blue Square Poker. Prizes were paid to the top 18 players on the leaderboard.

The 2009 GUKPT has now concluded, but the UK’s largest poker tour will be returning in 2010 with a full schedule of events. Blue Square Poker is now bowing out as the sponsor after three years, but will be replaced by gcasino.com, another Rank Group Plc owned company. The 2010 added prize money has been increased to £200,000, with the prize pool for next year’s Champion of Champions’ tournament being increased to £150,000 while the rankings prize money remains at £50,000.

The Poker Million, now in it’s 8th year, is still an major event in the poker calendar and winning it looks good on any poker CV. It especially means a lot to UK pros who have grown up with it but it also attracts top class overseas players. Strange then it seemed slightly muted without the parallel friends, family & supporters event. Even the Poker Million title now falls short of it’s billing, only getting there on technicalities. Some of this could be attributable to Full Tilt being its new sponsor, they having taken over from Ladbrokes. However, it is their first year so perhaps they are feeling their way and certainly it provided a talent showcase for some of their top sponsored pros.

Despite this though the live nature of it provides an extra edginess, as did the addition of Luke Schwartz. You could sense the anxiousness of the producers with a live broadcast especially partly before the watershed. Commentary was provided by the ever present Jesse ‘the voice of poker’ May in tandem with Roy ‘the boy’ Brindley & Neil ‘bad beat’ Channing. Channing especially provided some acutely observed descriptions of table dynamics. Predictably, though, May early on had to his extend his apologies on behalf of the broadcasters for some of Schwartz’s more colourful language [for which to his credit Luke himself later apologised].

The chips counts going into the final had Luke Schwartz the slight chip leader with 397k over James Akenhead’s 338k. The early action would normally be expected to be created by the shorter stacks. However, one of the short stacks Craig Wakenham looked nervous and twitchy, which is perhaps understandable given this was a major televised event and his route to the final was direct via Full Tilt’s online satellite qualification. Juha Helppi provided another shorter stack and was certain to maintain his early solid game, as did Peter Vasiliou. The other players making the final seven were Dag Martin Mikkelsen & Taylor Caby, who are well known for their online tuition videos, but proved to be less predictable quantities.

The focal point of the table was undoubtedly Schwartz, not least because of his demeanour, and he clearly set out to take advantage of the tighter players to his left. Balancing this was Akenhead’s large stack to his right with Wakenham in the middle. Wakenham – at least in the opening exchanges – was suffering from poor starting hands and his body language was obvious in reflecting this. Being sandwiched between the two big stacks also severley limited his options. One by one they fell, with Caby exiting with pocket 7s after Mikkelsen called with K4 a play which was viewed as suspect by many.

Much of Schwartz’s stack was taken when Akenhead raised with KQ, Schwartz re-raised with K7 and Vasiliou made a good read of the situation and went all-in with pocket 8s, Akenhead folded and Schwartz after a short while realised he was pretty much committed to call off the further 60k. Later Schwartz bounced back when his pocket 9s held in an all-in preflop hand against Akenheads AJ but ultimately he succumbed to finish 4th, paying for his increasingly erratic play. Akenhead showed his composure to recover from losing the AJ coin flip to make the final two along with Helppi who prevailed having nursed his short stack, and rapidly began to accumulate chips with a series of more aggressive plays and a little luck. At one point he got caught with T8 by Mikkelsen’s A7 but was helped by a flop of T8x and Mikkelsen later finished 3rd.

Heads up against Helppi Akenhead started significantly behind but he managed to get the lead after early aggression from Helppi, who moved all-in with a pocket 3s making Akenhead lay down pocket 4s. In the final hand Akenhead’s pocket tens prevailed against Helppi’s sixes though not without the sweat of a suck out due to the open ended straight draw heavy flop of 345.

You could tell from the James Akenhead post-game interview that it meant a lot, especially against the backdrop of his achievements of reaching dual WSOP main event final table & WSOPE, which were ultimately tinged with the disappointment of not making the top spots. With the Poker Million falling at the end of the year it provided a fitting companion to the close of the 2009 poker season, reflecting some of its themes and rising star players.

The full result of the Full Tilt Poker Million was:

Starting with a massive 50,000 chips and a great slow structure this tournament is a true test of poker skill. With a new buy in of only €500 this year the field is expected to be near the 400 player mark.

The first European Deepstack event in 2008 was the launchpad for winner Dara O’Kearney’s career as a poker professional. In 2009 fellow Irishman Francis McCormack was crowned champion after beating Jason Tompkins in a long heads up battle.

There have been a couple of alterations to the structure this year. After listening to player feedback we have removed a couple of early levels enabling the final day levels to be extended to 90 minutes resulting in a more balanced structure throughout.

The venue this year is the Ballsbridge Inn Hotel which is located in central Dublin. It is a great venue allowing a large capacity of up to 400 players in comfort. We have organised a great rate of just €49 per room per night for a limited period. Simply phone hotel reservations on +44 (0) 1 668 4468 to book now.

Event Schedule:

Thurs 4th Feb 8pm €50+€10 Super Satellite – 15 Seats Guaranteed

Fri 5th Feb 2pm €500+€50 Deepstack Main Event – 50k chips – 3 day event

Fri 5th Feb 8pm €130+€20 Nightly 2nd chance – 5k chips – 1 day event

Sat 6th Feb 4pm €270+€30 Deepstack Side Event – 20k chips – 2 day event

Sat 6th Feb 8pm €130+€20 Nightly 2nd chance – 5k chips – 1 day event

Sun 7th Feb 4pm €180+€20 Deepstack Side Event – 10k chips – 1 day event

Sun 7th Feb 8pm €130+€20 Nightly 2nd chance – 5k chips – 1 day event

Main Event Structure:

Level Small Blind Big Blind Ante
1 50 100 0
2 75 150 0
3 100 200 0
4 150 300 0
5 150 300 25
6 200 400 50
7 300 600 50
8 400 800 75
9 500 1000 100
10 700 1400 100
11 1000 2000 100
12 1200 2400 200
13 1500 3000 300
14 2000 4000 400
15 2500 5000 500
16 3000 6000 600
17 4000 8000 800
18 5000 10000 1000
19 7000 14000 1000
20 10000 20000 1000
21 12000 24000 2000
22 15000 30000 3000
23 20000 40000 4000
24 25000 50000 5000
25 30000 60000 6000
26 40000 80000 8000
27 50000 100000 10000
28 60000 120000 15000
29 80000 160000 20000
30 100000 200000 20000

Days 1 & 2 will be 10-12 levels long player numbers dependant.

Levels 1 hour long Days 1 & 2.

Levels 90 mins long Day 3.

Side event structures will be announced soon.

The €300 event will have 20,000 starting chips and 40 minute levels.
The €200 event will have 10,000 starting chips and a 30 minute clock.

The nightly second chance events will have 5000 chips and a 25 minute clock.

Cash games will run daily from 12pm (6pm Thursday 4th). Any limits from €1/€2 upwards will be catered for in NL Holdem, PL Omaha or other games by request
Online Satellites:

Online satellites for seat only packages are on Green Joker Poker now. There are daily freeroll qualifiers and the grand final is only €25+€2.50 to enter. Check out the tournament lobby for more details!

Online satellites for full event & hotel packages start on December 7th across the Ipoker Network which includes sites such as Green Joker Poker, Bluesquare, Paddy Power, William Hill, VC Poker, Poker770 & many more.

His heads up opponent was Frenchman Antoine Arnault, a keen amateur from Paris who is the Head of Communications for avant-garde fashion house Louis Vuitton. Both players went into the final with the lowest chip counts of the final nine, but remarkably ended up as the last men standing. After Arnault eliminated Philip Patrick in 3rd place the two players went head-to-head for the title with Cascarino enjoying a chip lead of 2.1m to 1.4m. It was an intriguing conclusion to the tournament, which saw the Frenchman fight back and reverse the chip count. However the former Chelsea and Celtic striker drew level and then recaptured the lead with a commanding 3m to 0.6m chip lead. He was then one card away from victory when holding A-2 versus Q-T, but just when they thought it was all over, his opponent spiked a fourth spade on the river to make a flush. Arnault continued to fight back and was almost level once again when the final hand took place. Again Cascarino held A-2 (both hearts) in a pot that saw almost a third of the chips find their way into the middle preflop. Arnault moved all in on a T-J-8 (one heart) flop and Cascarino called. Arnault held T-9 of hearts for one pair and a straight draw. The turn card was the jack of hearts and the five of hearts on the river gave Cascarino the nut flush and with that he took down the title.

During post-match analysis Cascarino commented on his win.

“I’ve been moaning all year, ‘cos nothing good has really happened to me. I’ve won something (in poker) every year for the last four years, but until now 2009 has been frustrating.”

Making reference to the break down of his marriage he went on to say

“I got divorced earlier in the year and I’m delighted that she won’t be getting her hands on any of this. She’s already had enough out of me.”

On a more upbeat note he then philosophised on his poker playing abilities

“Getting respect from your peers and being acknowledged for being good at whatever you do with your life means a lot to me…I think I have proved myself now.”

His opponent Antoine Arnault was gracious in defeat and will be heading back to France with £107,100 for his second place finish. Small change it may seem, as his father Bernard Arnault is the 14th richest person in the world with an estimated net worth of $16.5 billion.

The final table also included World Heads Up Champion Bambos Xanthos from Cyprus, who is one of London’s most successful high stakes cash game players. He finished in 6th place while another high stakes cash game player Albert Iversen from Denmark exited in 5th. 21-year old online tournament pro Daniel Millar was 4th. Italian Romano Pizzo, went into the final table as the runaway chip leader but played wildly, getting involved in almost every pot during the first hour of play. He dusted off most of his stack, then regained much of it before being eliminated in 7th place when running A-K into Cascarino’s pocket aces. Manchester bookie Mike Hill was the eighth place finisher while Stuart Rutter, who finished 5th in last year’s Grand Final completed the final table line, departing in 9th place.

The Result

1st – Tony Cascarino – £168,800
2nd – Antoine Arnault – £107,100
3rd – Philip Patrick – £71,400

4th – Daniel Millar – £43,900
5th – Albert Iversen – £32,900

6th – Charalambos (Bambos) Xanthos – £27,400

7th – Romano Pizzo – £22,000

8th – Mike Hill – £16,500

9th – Stuart Rutter – £11,000

Tour Draws to a Close

The 2009 GUKPT is now drawing to a close with just the Champion of Champions festival still to take place. It starts straight away on Monday 30th November at the G Casino in Luton, with a week of warm up events before the £100,000 Champion of Champions tournament takes place. This prestigious event is an invite only tournament and the only way to get an invite is to win a GUKPT tournament. The five warm up events that take place in Luton this week represent the last chance to qualify for it.

The race to win the £20,000 first prize for topping the GUKPT rankings also looks set to go to the wire as Richard Gryko holds a slender half a point lead over Martin Silke. They are over 100 points clear of their nearest rivals in the race to be crowned the GUKPT Player of the Year. Ranking points are earned by making the final tables in all GUKPT tournaments. Both players are expected to participate in all of the warm up events this week.

GUKPT Continues in 2010

The schedule for the 2010 GUKPT has now been released and it has been confirmed that £200,000 in added prizes will be provided by Grosvenor/G Casinos and online partner gcasino.com.

The exact details of the deal haven’t been released but administrators Cavendish Corporate Finance were very pleased with the arrangements. Paul Herman from Cavendish said: “Accessing buyers and investors in the gaming market is notoriously difficult and we are delighted to have had the opportunity to meet and negotiate with many of the leading domestic and international players”.

It looks like PokerStars will be available on your mobile phone in the very near future!

Barney Frank’s two proposed Internet gambling bills – HR2266 and HR2267 – claimed 53 and 65 co-sponsors. The first would put back the proposals one year to December 1, 2010 but that looks unlikely given these new developments.

However, HR2267 is a proposal for a fully licensed and regulated online gambling network in the US. With over 60 co-sponsors, it is likely to make people sit up and listen.

Poker Players Alliance chairman Alfonse D’Amato said he believes the delay is also the first step towards legal and regulated online poker in America.

“This is a great victory for poker, but an even greater victory for advocates of good and fair public policy” said D’Amato. “These additional months are critical to provide legislators time to clarify UIGEA and pass legislation to licence and regulate poker early next year.”

For those who do not follow high stakes cash games online I will tell you that during the last couple of weeks there has been some amazing action going on. From nowhere a young Swedish player known as Isildur1 has been taking on the best high stakes players at Full Tilt Poker.

He first started destroying players at $25/$50 before moving up to play nosebleed stakes against the giants of the online world such as Phil Ivey, Tom “Durrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius. To say he was running “hot” was a vast understatement because at first he was simply destroying all who played against him.

During his first 10 days at Full Tilt Poker he won an amazing $5 million! He has played Durrr at NLHE & PLO and is reportedly up over $6 million. It seems though the winnings from Durrr were simply being transferred to Ivey & co as these players seem to be getting the better of Isildur1 so far.

After the 10 day heater it seemed Isildur1 was falling back to earth with a bang. Reports suggested his 6 million profit had slumped to as little as $300k as he took what can only be described as a battering by Ivey, Antonius and especially Ilari “Zigmund” Sahamies. Many thought this was the end of Isildur1 as his winnings were being quickly eroded. This though seems not to be the case!

Isildur1 seems to be adjusting his game and during the last few days there are no doubt that he is getting the better of Antonius. Reports also suggest that he has taken Durrr for another 2 to 3 million. Isildur1 though is still losing heavily to Zigmund.

So who is Isildur1? The general consensus is that Isildur1 is Viktor Blom (also known under “Blom90″ on i-Poker) although this has not been confirmed. We hope to have further news in the next few days so please check back soon!

I always found him to be a really nice guy and though he looks tough he always struck me as gentle giant.

I interviewed him for PTR at DTD in April this year.

Marcus Bebb-Jones 1st Break Interview | Poker Radio

Murder!!! Amazing!!!

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