Wu Wins GUKPT Champion of Champions Tournament
Wu Wins GUKPT Champion of Champions Tournament
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.
