The 2009 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour’s third leg is already in full swing at London’s Grosvenor Victoria casino. It began on Mar.19 and will run until this Sunday, Mar. 29.
Just two players now remain in the London Heads Up Championship — pre-tournament favourite Richard Gryko, and online high stakes cash game specialist Tom Bentham. They take their seats at 3 p.m. tomorrow, Mar. 25, to battle it out for the first prize of £20,000 plus a ticket for the £100,000 GUKPT Champion of Champions tournament.
The event which kick-started the festival was the £300 no-limit hold’em freezeout, and American-born Karen Franks beat a field of 170 to take it down. The second lucky winner of the third leg was Jon Shoreman, after he beat 53 runners in the £500 pot-limit Omaha high-low event.
The £500 no-limit hold’em freezeout was next on the list, and 161 players turned up to take part — one of these was GUKPT second leg main event champion Sunny Chattha. He went on to finish runner up to Thomas MacDonald, proving that his recent big win was no flip of the coin.
Mar. 26 will see the event everyones been waiting for — the £1,500 + £75 no-limit hold’em main event. As the buy-in had been increased for this leg, it was decided that the starting stack should also be increased, therefore players will now receive 12,000 chips instead of 10,000 at start of play.
The main event will have two starting days, kicking off at 2 p.m. on Thursday and Friday with a max of 200 on each day. Last year’s champion Ketul Nathwani will be among runners as he attempts to be the first successful player to defend a GUKPT title.
Anyone wanting to give him a run for his money has still got time to qualify for the event. There are £80 rebuy super satellites running today and tomorrow at 2 p.m., and there will also be a £250 freezout super satellite tomorrow evening at 8 p.m.. This freezout has been capped at 80, so time is of the essence for buying in.
