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Fields of Gold

Luke Fields has emerged triumphant from a field of 153 previous GUKPT event winners to take home the Champion of Champions Trophy and the £44,250 first prize.  He outlasted a field of winners including last month’s Grand Final champion Leon Bui, and many of those in the upper echelons of this year’s GUKPT Rankings, such as Alli Mallu, Neil Channing, Jeff Kimber and runner-up Steve Holden.

The cherry on the 2010 GUKPT cake, the Champion of Champions’ Event held at the G Casino, Coventry, awarded £150,000 in total, representing huge added value distributed by a final challenge at the poker table as the year draws to a close.  Invitations to the tournament were sent only to those who had won GUKPT or Summer Series Main or side events, online 10% Series tournaments, Club Championships or who had topped the National Poker League, with the number of starting chips varying depending on which event (or events) were won.

Starting with the minimum 7,500 was no setback to many, however, James Miller’s third place finish for £19,500 proving the point nicely.  Fifteen places in all were paid, with the minimum cash being £2,250, and the late stages of the tournament saw plenty of reversals of fortune, as every one of the last handful of players took turns rising into the lead.

It was not the first time Alli Mallu had been given a nick-name similar to “All-in Alli,” and it probably won’t be the last.  Mallu, second in the GUKPT 2010 Player of the Year race to David Johnson, stayed true to his reputation for putting a brick on the poker accelerator, generating a very large stack by repeatedly getting it in and going all out to build a stack.  He eliminated (among others) Paul Parker and Cuong Tran on his long rollercoaster to the final table, and at one stage held a large and dangerous chip lead.  However his bravura performance was not enough to secure him the title this year.

The bubble boy was Greg Garrett, running A-K into the Kings of Michael Fisher to end his two-day run at the Champion of Champions’ event in harsh form, but it was perhaps Jeff Kimber for whom the cards fell the hardest.  He just missed out on a final table spot after storming towards it just one level earlier, eliminating Guy Johnson and Greg Hunt (all in the money now) to keep him in the favourable position he’d maintained all day.

The final table lost first the two shortest stacks Ramazanali Abassi and Andy Booth and then Stephen Thompson, before the dinner break on Sunday saw the final seven clearly divided – those with around 350,000, and those with below 200,000.  The top three, Luke Fields, James Miller and Alli Mallu, were as close as could be, leading to an unpredictable final stretch.  A timely pair of Aces for Mallu saw off Michael Fisher in 7th place for £5,625 – and just in time too, as Mallu had doubled up Steve Holden moments earlier.

Luke Fields had a stroke of luck eliminating Patryk Slusarek in 6th after his fingers were caught in the cookie jar with T-7 vs. Slusarek’s pocket Queens.  His double spike gave him the momentum which would eventually carry him to victory.  The following hand Debbie Masson was out-raced by Alli Mallu and suddenly short-handed play was upon the remaining Champions.

From four players to one, the action was unrelenting, the chip lead being won and lost in a matter of hands.  Alli Mallu’s run came to an end as he ran a dominated Ace into Steve Holden, who went on to eliminate James Miller in 3rd.

It took two levels for the heads up players to break the see-sawing deadlock. The final hand saw a classic race hand the trophy to Fields, as his pocket Queens held against Steve Holden’s A-K.  Holden can be proud of his 2010 on the GUKPT, however, winning £31,125 for his second place in Coventry and lying in 6th place overall on the year’s Leaderboard.