Marc Goodwin last week joined the ranks of players with relevant sounding names to win poker tournaments – in his case the Manchester leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour. Over 300 players turned up for the fourth leg of this years GUKPT series, which has become a regular fixture for at least three of this tournament’s finalists, as well as a whole list of UK pros, qualifiers, and amateurs with a grand to spare. But it was the leg won last year by Dave Colclough, a good friend of Goodwin's, which eventually gave its shiny blue trophy to Mr. Cool.The final table line-up was as follows:
Marc Goodwin -- 517,000
Zachary Ford -- 614,000
Charles Ihle -- 241,000
Paul Gourlay -- 225,000
Nik Persaud -- 559,000
Aarun Bernard -- 294,500
Paul Lammas -- 223,000
Laurance Houghton -- 243,500
Pete Linton -- 205,500
Pete Linton, having kept up his trademark aggression through a remarkable proportion of this tournament, wasn’t in the best shape on the final, and finished in 9th place after calling Charles Ihle’s check-raise all in with a flush draw holding top pair. It failed to hold, and a sort of peace and quiet descended for the subsequent hands – until Paul Lammas busted in 8th place racing his A-Q against Zach Ford’s 9-9.
It seems like after the Neil Channing Phenomenon, Poker Verdict shirts are popping up here and there, and bestowing on their occupiers a certain amount of luck, it seems. Nik Persaud, who’s come close several times to a GUKPT title, and even finalled, but failed to take the metaphorical cigar, now found himself in pretty good shape, especially after he took a shot with K-9 in the big blind and knocked out Paul Gourlay’s A-6 which had shoved from the small. Next to fall to Persaud was Laurance Houghton, who found himself in an unlucky spot with A-Q vs. Nik’s Kings.
A sneaky limp/snap-call-all-in from Aarun Bernard saw his demise as his pocket Queens caught A-2 in Marc Goodwin’s hand, but were caught in turn by the Ace and Deuce on the flop. His form held as he busted Charles Ihle in 4th place, too, those Nines being less lucky for him against Marc’s Q-T which hit a couple of Queens to bump his chipstack up. The shortstack was now Zach Ford, and when he eventually got it all in against Marc, Mr. Cool had flopped top pair which turned into trips and a guarantee of second place at worst.
There followed a fairly cagey match between two players who are both capable of some lairy play at times, but the upper hand was slowly gained by Marc, until a 60/40 saw Nik Persaud trying to double or bust – it was unfortunately the latter and he had to make do with the runner up spot, handing the trophy to Mr. Cool.
1st Marc Goodwin -- £90,420
2nd Nik Persaud -- £52,530
3rd Zach Ford -- £37,850
4th Charles Ihle -- £25,490
5th Aaron Bernard -- £19,310
6th Laurence Houghton -- £15,450
7th Paul Gourlay -- £12,360
8th Paul Lammas -- £9,270
9th Pete Linton -- £6,950