Tres Bien for Thomas Besnier at GUKPT Coventry
The GUKPT Summer Series main event at the G Casino in Coventry has been won by 33-year old Frenchman Thomas Besnier. He defeated a field of 84 players in the £300 no limit Texas hold'em poker tournament to take down the first prize of £8,200 and claim a seat in the tour's £100,000 Champion of Champions tournament. Besnier, a sports agent from Tours, near Paris is the Frencman to win a GUKPT event, but has visited the UK on several occasions to play on the tour. His compatriot and travelling companion Julien Bardet also made the final, finishing in 8th place. Besnier commented that he likes to come to play in these events because the structure is so much better than they are used to getting in France. His heads up opponent was Mark Deacon from Leicester, who was playing in his first ever GUKPT event. The heads up stage of the tournament went on for over two hours, but after a monster pot with A-8 versus K-T, Besnier left his opponent with not enough to make up the small blind. Two hands later he emerged victorious with an unlikely holding of 3-2 versus Q-T. A board of 4-6-J-J-5 gave Besnier a straight and brought the tournament to a conclusion.
Andrew O'Flaherty from Leeds, who has previously graced an EPT main event final table, finished in third place, while Rotherham's Paul Rayner was fourth. John Exley from Barnsley who finished 5th, was the only player on the nine-man final table to have previously made a final table on the GUKPT. Chris Gavriel, Barry MacDonald, Julien Bardet and Dilbir Sahota completed the final table line up, finishing in 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th places respectively.
The Summer Series is now complete for 2009, but the main tour continues this week at the Grosvenor casino in Cardiff, which plays hosty to the 7th leg of this year's tour. the last time the tour visited cardiff was in 2007 where former Eastenders actor Michael Greco claimed victory. The festival starts on Monday 31st August with a £200 nl hold'em freezeout, while the £1,000 main event gets underway on Thursday 3rd September.
The Result
| Place | Player | Prize |
| 1st | Thomas Besnier | £8,200 |
| 2nd | Mark Deacon | £5,480 |
| 3rd | Andrew O'Flaherty | £3,740 |
| 4th | Paul Rayner | £2,240 |
| 5th | John Exley | £1,680 |
| 6th | Chris Gavriel | £1,310 |
| 7th | Barry MacDonald | £1,000 |
| 8th | Julien Bardet | £750 |
| 9th | Dilbir Sahota | £500 |