Travelling down to Luton for what was to be the last Grand Challenge at the casino in its current residence was I thought going to be an easy journey, straight across the M6 and down the M1, what could be simpler? I’d been once before to play a couple of comps at Luton but this time I was coming in from the other side of town, “Surely,” said I, in my head, “this won’t matter and I’ll quickly find my way through this fingernail of the sprawling hand that is London.” Of course, I managed to bokk my own thoughts. Unable to find the hotel I was staying at, I found myself driving around the centre of town repeatedly, staring hopefully at back-alleys and side-streets, in the vain chance that the builders had decided to build a huge multi-storey hotel and made it look like a series of terraced houses. Eventually, on my third trip round, which differed from the first two since it included swearing also, I managed to find the hotel, obscured from view thanks to shopping centres and car parks.No time to do much more than unpack though, as I was straight back out of the door to the casino itself, where I met up with Richard Prew (a.k.a Tighty, Tight End or ‘that bloke who passed Q-Q in that comp pre-flop and never stops getting ribbed about it’). With Jen and snoops in Copenhagen, updating almost concurrently, Richard was the ideal choice, being able to recognise just about everyone in the competition and I could back him up with my ability of bringing a camera with me, fully charged. Oh yes.
With 102 runners entering, (though it seemed like half had got in through £100 sit-and-go’s as we set up the lappies), some might have considered it slightly disappointed though some absences could’ve been explained by the EPT’s proximity whilst others still had more pressing family concerns. But still, this was more than respectable with many of the big names turning out in force, and with a fairly solid structure too boot. (Including the 150/300 level, which seems to be the seat belt to the car that is a tournament, in that it makes you feel secure.)Of course, with over a hundred runners, the dreaded computer programme came into play, working its evil magic meaning that 10th to 18th would end up getting their money back (minus the £50 juice) and that nearly 20% of the field would be getting paid. Nevertheless, I suspect most weren’t aiming for that, but the £32.5k first prize that stood on offer.
Greek Jack was one of the early ones to go, having lost around half his stack, he limped UTG and saw a raise in late position followed by a re-raise from the blinds. He stuck in a third raise with half his remaining chips with 3-3 forcing Irish Dennis to pass Queens, but Tony Nicholls had the bullets and no 3 came. That wouldn’t be the last good fold Dennis would make, as, over the course of the day, he would fold Aces and Kings post flop, and then Jacks and Queens (again) pre-flop, all correctly. But the Gods were fickle and he would go out in the last couple of hands losing with A-Q to Q-Q and then with A-x to the same guy’s Q-Q next hand.
Others not to survive the first day included Micky Wernick who ran A-A into a set of nines, Paul King who ran a King-high flush draw into the made flush of Steve Jelinek and tikay, whose Queens were in bad shape against K-K but both ended up in worse shape against the short stack’s A-T once the board flopped two tens. Mark Lowe, who had impressed many of the pros with his play, ended the first day as chip leader with around 60k, though Tony Nicholls and Ariel Adda weren’t too far behind.
Driton Haxiheja (left), otherwise known as 'Scrabbleman', took an early bath on day two when he managed to get all-in with T-8 against Sunny Chattha’s pocket nines for a huge pot, whilst former 7-card stud champion of 2003, Ray Brown, would knock out Mick Fletcher an all spade board. Brown held the made flush that Fletcher’s lone Ace of spades was unable to beat and would afterwards go on to eliminate the dangerously aggressive Stewart Clutterbuck with A-K against J-J with an ace on the river, another big pot putting the Stud champion in contention for the chip lead. Rob Garfield would also depart in nasty circumstances when his A-K was outdrawn by Mehmet Cinar’s K-9 on a King high board. The pace of the exits increased once we were down to two tables, Damon D'Cruz being the unlucky bubbleboy with 7-7 against 9-9, though a saver had already been done. He was quickly followed by, amongst others, Jeff Rogers, Steve Jelinek, Sunny Chattha and Ben ‘RookieITB’ Turnstill. The latter having yo-yoed constantly, still managing to mix it up with the best of them despite taking some hideous beats on the way. This would leave though, a final table of mostly unknowns with Mehmet Cinar, who seemed to be the card rack to end all card racks, a monster chip leader with around 1/3 of all chips in play.
Seat 1: Steve Templeman -- 24,000
Seat 2: Ray Brown -- 66,000
Seat 3: Glenn Ashworth -- 139,000
Seat 4: Mehmet Cinar -- 367,000
Seat 5: Mark Lowe -- 88,000
Seat 6: Ariel Adda -- 179,000
Seat 7: Robert Iley -- 82,000
Seat 8: Tina Jordan -- 124,000
Seat 9: Andrew Giorgiou -- 51,000
Local Templeman (right) would go first, running A-8 into Adda’s A-Q. After which, Cinar would begin to bleed chips left right and centre, first doubling up Giorgiou with Q-J against the Vic regular’s Kings and then being check/raised out of a pot by Mark Lowe. Next Cinar, a Turk living in Sweden, would double up Ray Brown with Nines no good against Brown’s Tens. Cinar would then run into Tens again with Giorgiou holding them this time, Cinar was behind with A-J, and even more behind when Giorgiou flopped quads. At this point, he had managed to lose around 230k of his final table starting stack, but then, began to recover when he knocked out Glenn Ashworth with Q-Q against 3-3. Meanwhile, Mark Lowe doubled through Ariel Adda with Kings against Nines to wrest away the chip lead and began to aggressively attack the blinds. One of these raises led to a move all-in from Ray Brown with Kings, but Mark was forced to call with A-4 and managed to spike two more Aces for good measure, knocking out Brown in 7th spot. Cinar continued his recovery, knocking out Ray Iley with A-7 vs K-T in 6th before doubling up Giorgiou a third time, Giorgiou held Kings again, which stayed ahead of Cinar's Eights. The aggressive Ariel Adda would end up 5th when he pushed his shortstack in with pocket 4’s only to run into Tina Jordan’s pocket Queens.Four-handed, Cinar (left) then raised from the button and then faced an all-in from small blind Tina Jordan who had him covered and had been playing fairly tight, for whatever reason he decided to call all-in with A-8. He then tapped the table when Jordan showed him her pocket Kings, but an Ace came on the flop to leave the table momentarily stunned and Jordan would soon go out in 4th place.
He followed this up by regaining the chip lead from Mark Lowe when both hit trip jacks but Cinar’s 8 kicker played ahead of Mark’s 6 in a monster pot. Mark Lowe would make his last stand with A-T, a strong hand 3-handed, but Cinar had pocket Aces which surived an up and down draw to leave him heads-up in commanding position. Giorgiou was finally dispatched when his T-8 failed to outdraw Cinar’s A-7 leaving the Turkish Swede, who was only in the UK to visit friends and family, the champion.Although, many will argue that Cinar didn’t deserve to win, this tournament is merely proof that, on any given day, with a little luck and a few cards anyone can win a tournament.
Even me. Well I’m hoping...