GUKPT Blackpool & Thanet Summer Series Roundup
The first two festivals of this year's GUKPT Summer Series took place over the bank holiday weekend at the G Casinos in Blackpool and Thanet. Each festival consisted of several days of side events before the £500 (Blackpool) and £300 (Thanet) main events took place.
The Blackpool festival started with a £150 NL Hold'em freezeout, which was won by Waseem Shahid, who outlasted a field of 112 players to claim victory. The festival also saw side event wins for Reyaaz Mulla (£100 NL Hold'em rebuy), Andrew Christopher (£250 NL Hold'em freezeout), Stanley James (£100 PL Omaha rebuy) and Chaun Kim Ooi (£100 NL Hold'em bounty freezeout). The £500 main event was contested by 49 players and was won by Mick Fletcher, who scooped the first prize of £8,570. Fletcher, who dominated the final table won two main events at Grosvenor festivals prior to the creation of the GUKPT, but this is his first victory on the tour. He eliminated most of the players on the final before dispatching William McMurray heads up to take the title.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the country in the most eastern part of Kent, the G Casino in Thanet held three side events, which were won by Martin Holmes (£200 NL Hold'em freezeout), David Buckle (£150 NL Hold'em freezeout) and Paul Humphrey (£100 NL Hold'em bounty freezeout). The £300 NL Hold'em main event was contested by 44 players, including previous GUKPT main event winners Bernard Litman and Darren Annis. However it was 25 year old scaffolding estimater Ricky Mackintosh from Dover who took the title, beating Stephen O'Keeffe into second place. Mackintosh scooped the first prize of £4,620.
The winners of all events on the Summer Series earn seats into the £150,000 GUKPT Champion of Champions tournament, which takes place at the G Casino Coventry in early December. The next two Summer Series festivals take place in less than two weeks time at the G Casinos in Luton and Aberdeen. The Luton festival runs from 9th - 13th June and features a £500 main event, while the Aberdeen festival starts a day later, running from the 10th - 13th June and includes a £300 main event. Full schedules for each festival can be found on the official Grosvenor UK Poker Tour website www.gukpt.com. Online super satellites and direct buy-in to GUKPT summer series events are available on the tour's online poker site at www.gcasino.com.