The Grosvenor Group's 2006 schedule of festivals began as in previous years with the Grand Challenge at Luton. Through the week we witnessed five sold out events and this included the £1000 two day main event, which was capped at 140 players and saw a reserve list turned away.
The field was a cosmopolitan one. Regular festival circuit attendees such as Dave Colclough, Joe Grech, Carlo Citrone and Bambos Xanthos were joined by a sizeable Scandinavian contingent, several of whom had diverted from the concurrent EPT event in Copenhagen, as did US star Chris Bjorin. In addition, the field contained over thirty local players who had qualified for as little as £30 via live satellites. One of these was to provide quite a story as the event progressed.
Luton is rightly well known for its player friendly structures and the Grand Challenge Main Event was no exception, with a one hour clock and 10,000 starting chips ensuring that a stern test lay ahead for all.
Notwithstanding the ample opportunities afforded for play, the first level proved dramatic. No less than twelve early exits were seen including one of the form festival horses of late 2005, Barry Neville, who turned top trips only to see his opponent call his ‘all in' to hit the nut straight on the river. Another successful player from 2005, Woody Deck, also suffered a harsh fate with his set losing to his opponents'.
Through the first day it appeared that two players were manoeuvring themselves into a commanding position. Both JP Kelly and Alan McLean were chip leaders as the evening turned into the early hours and the table they had shared from the start quickly became known around the room as ‘the table of death' as opponents were dispatched by these two fearless and aggressive players. It was thus quite remarkable as Day 1 ended to see not only JP Kelly depart but also Alan McLean exit on the last hand of the night.
As we began Day 2 at 3pm it was clear that another long day was ahead of all the players. 52 players were returning led by chip leaders Mohammed Kazi with 70,000 chips, David Rudling with 64,000 and Chris Bjorin with 55,000. Beneath these three players though the majority of the field was clustered around the 28,000 average. With blinds resuming at 800-1600, almost all of the field could genuinely feel they had claims on a final table berth.
For several levels the trickle of departing players was slow. This began to accelerate towards early evening as those players amongst the gaggle of stacks at or around the chip average and who had been unable to make progress, began to come under pressure both from increasing blind levels and the emergence of several large stacks who began to exert considerable pressure.
As the field narrowed to 18, two players made considerable progress. Indeed these two players together single-handedly accounted for the exits of eight of the nine players who finished in positions 10 th through 18 th . Firstly experienced professional Paul Parker saw a sustained rush of cards that found him in the enviable position of facing ‘all in' bets and looking down at AK and big pairs. Secondly local satellite winner Erik Hansen won four successive ‘races', three times with the pair against AK and lastly with J9 against a short stack's AQ to propel his chip stack into orbit.
Paul Parker had quite a ride. Amongst the chipleaders with 11 players left he had increased his stack from 25,000 to 220,000 and looked extremely comfortable. However he lost a 190,000 chip pot at that point with his pocket Aces cracked by the KJ of diamonds of Spaniard Sergio Capel. It was a credit to Parker's temperament and fortitude that he recovered from a low point of 50,000 to reach the final, 5 th in chips with over 100,000.
At 9pm we reached the final table, comprising of chipleader Erik Hansen (383,000), Mohammed Kazi from Lancashire (229,000), Norwegian Robert Nystad, Sergio Capel, Robert Cooper from London , Paul Zimbler the ‘Marbella Kid', Ronnie DeBeaulox from Brighton, Paul Parker and finally short stack David Rudling from Colchester (42,000).
Erik Hansen's story had turned into a fairytale. A teacher from Stevenage and a regular in small Luton competitions, he had qualified for £30 via a satellite and was prevented from selling his entry ticket beforehand by a restriction on doing so upon satellite tickets. As the final started, he was bouncing around the card room with unconfined energy, and that resale restriction looked one of the better casino regulations ever to be enforced!
The final table soon saw the exit of Rudling and Zimbler before a prolonged period of ‘raise and fold' poker ensued as the big money approached. Most notable in this was Norwegian Robert Nystad who had impressed everyone who both played with him and watched him all week as he showed enviable poker ability. He was looking the class act at the final table, constantly raising and being the aggressor. This was causing problems for Hansen to make the most of his chip advantage, sat on Nystad's immediate right and thus out of position with the Norwegian.
After a long battle DeBeaulox and Cooper exited in 7 th and 6 th place respectively.
A long discussion then ensued with the five remaining combatants discussing a deal, which was concluded shortly thereafter. Factors behind this deal undoubtedly included the fact that the chipleader Erik Hansen was an amateur player anxious to secure his biggest ever poker pay day and the persuasive qualities of the by now shortstack Paul Parker.
On concluding the deal, the players fought it out for rights to the trophy, Mohammed Kazi emerging victorious.
