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Gryko Grabs Gold at Luton GUKPT

Richard Gryko from Brentwood in Essex has won the 6^th leg of the 2009 GUKPT at the G Casino in Luton, scooping a first prize of £88,850. He defeated a field of 304 players on his way to victory in the four-day event. After knocking out Clive Padden from Shrewsbury in third place, Gryko went into the heads up stage of the tournament with a 2-1 chip advantage over Blackpool’s Alan McLean. McLean, who is one of the most experienced tournament players in the UK, reduced Gryko’s lead slightly but after just 40-minutes of heads up play, all the chips found their way into the middle of the table. McLean held pocket fours to Gryko’s A-9, but an ace on the turn sealed the encounter in favour of Gryko. It was the second occasion this year that McLean has been the runner up in a GUKPT event, as he claimed the same finishing position during the Summer Series main event in Bolton.

Gryko went into the final table as the chip leader with over half a million chips, but after losing a series of hands he was reduced to just 70,000 and his chances of victory were looking bleak. However he turned things around during the middle stages of the final to resume the chip lead and push on for the win. Although drained from three long hard-fought days of poker, Gryko commented afterwards that he was delighted to have won and is very much looking forward to the £5,000 GUKPT heads up tournament, which takes place at the Grosvenor Victoria casino in London this November. Earlier this year he finished as runner up in the GUKPT’s £2,500 heads up event, but this win has more than made up for that disappointment. He has also now rocketed himself straight into the top ten of the GUKPT rankings and he now lies in third place, just behind leader Martin Silke and second placed Sunny Chattha.

The final table also included Chuck Thompson from Santa Cruz in California. Chuck has a remarkable tournament record, which includes five WSOP final tables and a 6^th place finish in the 1995 main event. This was his first GUKPT tournament and he finished in a creditable fifth place. Preston’s Nick McLellan finished in fourth place while Stacey Clarke (6^th), James Williams (7^th), Alan McBride (8^th) and James Morris (9^th) completed the final table line up.

The tour now moves on to Coventry, where the fourth and final Summer Series event of the year will take place at the G Casino at the Ricoh Arena (formerly the Isle of Capri casino) from the 27^th-30^th August.  Leg 7 of the tour will then take place at the Grosvenor casino in Cardiff from August 31^st – September 6^th.

The Result