With two tables returning on the final day, the pace at the start was frenetic, to say the least; they reached the bubble (10 players) in the first level they played. Narrowly missing out on the TV table final stage of the £1,000 GUKPT Brighton leg were Marty Wilson, Mohammed Shafiq, Craig Owen, Steve Jelinek, and Terrence Burke – among them one previous GUKPT finalist (Shaf) and one player
soon to be appearing on TV on the final table of the EPT in Monte Carlo (Jelinek). The final table line-up was a true mixture, from Brighton regular James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey and Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman, to amateurs Albert ‘The Honeyman’ Sapiano and Neil Carr, who was apparently playing his first live tournament after being bought in by his brother as a birthday present.
Two others in the final Nine had been on that TV table before – Dave Smith and Roberto Romanello had both finalled in Cardiff, and were looking to best their finishes there – fifth and third respectively. This was going to make the points leaderboard for the Tour a bit tougher at the top, too.
The final table line-up in full:
Albert Sapiano -- 739k
Neil Carr -- 726k
James Dempsey -- 227k
John Exley -- 150k
Barney Boatman -- 138k
Dave Smith -- 262k
Roberto Romanello -- 323k
Raj Modha -- 367k
Maz Nawab -- 135k
And the prizes they were playing for:
1st -- £95,100
2nd -- £50,300
3rd -- £33,600
4th -- £24,000
5th -- £18,300
6th -- £15,200
7th -- £12,200
8th -- £9,200
9th -- £6,100
Just as in the Manchester leg, two players started the final in control of about half the chips in play, but it wasn’t a plain sail to the top spots for both of them. It started out that way, however, with Albert Sapiano quickly calling down Barny Boatman with A-K (preflop, on the Jack-high flop and on the turn) and knocking the most seasoned player out in 9th. He then took out John Exley in 8th place (A-K again, vs. J-J all in preflop, making it a hat-trick by soon thereafter eliminating James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey in 7th, who’d lost a few to Dave Smith before finding Tens on the button and moving in over the top of Sapiano’s preflop raise. He’d run into Queens, however, and now Sapiano looked like he may be unassailable, with around a third of the chips in play.
Roberto Romanello, who’d provided us with some phenomenal speech play prior to the TV table, now looked to be opening up too, small raising on the button with 6-8 and hitting two pair which enticed Maz Nawab all-in with his top pair of Jacks, so he finished in 6th.
Albert’s predilection for calling proved to be his downfall, as we saw him first double up already decent-stacked Neil Carr calling him all in on the turn with AK (Ace-high) when Neil had K-T, top pair of Tens. Previously calling with AK, at this point in a hand had eliminated Barny Boatman, but this time it knocked the first noticeable chunk from his stack. But Roberto gave it back to Albert, making a preflop move (re-raising Albert all-in with 8-3off) which the player most likely to call, called - with pocket Sixes. Short stacked, he was eventually taken out by Neil Carr, who had quietly built his chips over two days, and was now splitting most of the remaining ones with Dave Smith.
Rajesh Modha took third place, having performed a spectacular short-stack grind for what seemed like the full 20 levels. This left Neil Carr and Dave Smith heads up for the top spots, and it wasn’t a quick, aggressive match – there was no word of any deal as this is written, and their even stacks stayed that way for a good while. Finally Dave Smith got the momentum and the chip lead to secure the victory, although it was still two big stacks in the middle as Neil’s flopped flush (his hand only 6-high, though) was outdrawn on the turn by Daves 9d-Th (the Td was one of the flop cards) as a fourth diamond brought the tournament to an end at the relatively early time of half-past midnight. By this time the reporters had their eye on some interesting looking bars, Flushy had disappeared long ago to play, according to rumour, the £50 rebuy down the road, and Dave Smith had been logged at the top of the Tour leaderboard, where he’ll be resting until August at least, when the next one kicks off.