With an increased buy-in of £2,500, the unfamiliar venue and the seemingly careless clash with the Amsterdam Master Classics, the Great British Poker Tour Grand Final at the Stanley Mint Casino in Bristol was always going to struggle with numbers.However, although Amsterdam is renowned for its magnificent value, they were firmly matched by what the Gala were offering their finalists: a WPT seat for 1st, Aussie Millions seat for 2nd, EPT seat for 3rd and GBPT seats for 4th and 5th being highly generous to say the least.
Gala were also keen on luring in the big names to little known Bristol, and they undoubtedly succeeded as Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Tilly, Jamie Gold and Robert Williamson III all travelled across the pond to take on the likes of Roland DeWolfe, Ash Hussain, Marc Goodwin, Surinder Sunar, three quarters of the Hendon Mob and WSOPE runner upper John Tabatabai. Even Olympic athlete Darren Campbell made an appearance, although he would fail to ever get out of the starting blocks.
With the lure of the television cameras reeling in a 100 plus field, days one and two were split into two heats with day 4 being the televised final. However, many of the aforementioned stars would fail to venture past day one with Robert Williamson III a notable early exit when his Pocket Aces were outgunned by Paul Gourlay’s Q-J, all the chips flying in on the Turn with two Jacks on the Flop.The wooden spoon would fortunately evade our American friend, however, that unwanted accolade going to Colin Pearson, whose flopped straight with Q-9 on a J-T-8 Flop was cruelly outdrawn by Mark Stewart’s set of Jacks when a second Ten hit the River.
With the likes of Jamie Gold biting dust at the hands of Joe Beevers when his 9-7 pre-flop bluff was caught by the Hendon Mobber’s A-Q, we began to sort the men from the boys (there was only one female participant!), and after 3 days of hard fought poker, were left with a fearsome, star-studded final table line up:
Seat 1: Charalambos ‘Bambos’ Xanthos -- 205.5k
Seat 2: Manuel Palanca -- 203.9k
Seat 3: Rob Akery -- 146.6k
Seat 4: Roland De Wolfe -- 315.4k
Seat 5: Barny Boatman -- 114.1k
Seat 6: Matt Tyler -- 162.7k
Seat 7: Neil Channing -- 166.2k
Seat 8: Joe Beevers -- 185.8k
An excellent structure with the blinds being rolled back at one point couldn’t stop the inevitable crapshoot as a marathon start failed to eliminate even one player. However, after losing Neil Channing and Matt Tyler in 8th and 7th respectively, the blinds finally caught up with the players and they were forced to push at every opportunity.
In the end, we were left with just the three survivors, but after Barny’s dreams of a Hendon Mob one two were shattered by a K-5 vs. K-Q on a K-Q-x Flop, it was left to unknown Rob Akery (left) to take on Late Night Poker veteran, Joe ‘The Elegance’ Beevers.With a two to one chip lead, Akery was in with a great shout, but the experience of Beevers told as he turned it around, eventually snapping up victory with Th-5h versus 8d-2d on a Ts-5d-9d-6s board, the Ten of diamonds River giving Akery a flush, but Beevers the superior full house.
Amid a plush, polished and well furnished Gala Casino, Beevers posed for the cameras and accepted his cheque for £87,500 with all the joy of a child on Christmas Day.
A lot of debate surrounded this tournament and the GBPT certainly had its knockers, but after an immensely popular tour, I think it’s safe to say that with all the added value, the famous faces and the sparkling surroundings, the Grand Final was a success… but only just.
The final results are as follows:
1st Joe Beevers -- £87,500
2nd Rob Akery-- £53,250
3rd Barny Boatman -- £36,500
4th Charalambos Xanthos -- £22,250
5th Roland de Wolfe -- £16,000
6th Manuel Palanca -- £11,000
7th Matt Tyler -- £9,250
8th Neil Channing -- £8,000