The well-written official GUKPT Press Release......
Hard Grafton the GUKPT: Sam Grafton Takes first UK Title and Six Figure Prize at the Grand Final in LondonSam Grafton has become the 2012 GUKPT Grand Final Main Event champion, securing the £102,700 top prize and his biggest live win to date at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London.
The £2,500 GUKPT Grand Final Main Event is known for its tough opposition, some of the biggest prizes on the UK circuit having accompanied this particular trophy in the past, and an international field of 137 once again vied for the most prestigious title on the Tour. These included bracelet-holders, online whiz-kids, previous GUKPT champions and European legends of the game – sprinkled with a contingent of qualifiers, who’d earned their £2,500 seat for a fraction of the price either online or at live satellites at the Vic itself.
Had everyone boasting poker jewellery or prize glass or silverware brought their trophies to the Vic’s card-room, there might not have been room left to play poker. Michael Tureniec, Toby Lewis, Sam Razavi, James Akenhead, Stuart Rutter, Neil Channing and Simon Deadman were just a few of the players with whom eventual winner Sam Grafton had to contend.
Defending champion Fabian Quoss, who chopped the top two spots’ prizes – worth over £230,000 - with Jake Cody in 2011, was another rare sighting at the tournament felt; he made Day 2 but fell to this year’s GUKPT London champion Robin Keston before the money. Cody, meanwhile finished close to (but not inside) the money after building another good stack early on Day 1.
Out in front as Day two brought back 68 players eager to make the money (thus securing at least £5,150 for their efforts) was Matt Moss. He’d busted WSOPE bracelet-winner Scott Shelley near the close of play on Day 1 to finish on a huge 177,400 chips – more than seven times his starting stack. Also boasting six-figure stacks were Peter Charalambous, Jan Sjavik, Chris Brammer, Ken Wong, Jon Spinks and Igor Kurganov. Half of the players in the top ten as Day 2 began at 2pm on the Saturday would go on to make the final table.
The full GUKPT Grand Final final table line-up:
Matt Moss - 857,000
Jon Spinks - 568,200
Sam Grafton - 520,100
Victor Ilyukhin - 434,500
George Hassabis - 262,800
Chris Brammer - 242,500
Sandeep Khosa - 192,500
Peter Charalambous - 182,800
Dave Maudlin - 165,800
Before the final nine could tackle Day 3, the prize positions had to be reached and the field shrunk from six tables to just one. It was “unlucky 14” at the Vic as just a baker’s dozen were paid from the total £342,500 prize pool.
The bubble burst when Jamie Roberts ran a dominated king into Chris Brammer’s big slick soon after the same player busted Keston; this late surge was not to continue, however. The online phenomenon’s stack going into the final lagged behind that of Moss, John Spinks and Sam Grafton and he busted in 9th (£7,000).
The early form lay with Grafton and Charalambous, the former winning an A-A vs. K-K cooler against Jon Spinks and the latter doubling through and promptly busting Sandeep Khosa in 8th (£10,300). Khosa called Charalambous’s shove (with K-Q) holding J-J but could not hold over all five board cards and left the table seven-handed after just half a level’s play.
The swift pace of elimination continued as David Maudlin fell to a recently resurgent Spinks. Both of these players were equipped with short stacks during the early stages of the final, and Spinks made a habit of moving all-in from the small blind on Maudlin’s big blind. The first time Maudlin called, his A-Q was miles ahead of Spinks’s Q-2 but a deuce on the flop turned the tables and left Maudlin with just 70,000. One orbit later and he was forced to call again, this time with just 9-7, dominated by Spinks with Q-7. There was to be no three-outer to save him and he exited in 7th, winning £13,700.
George Hassabis was the next to exit, taking on Charalambous on an A-9-3 two-heart flop with a flush draw against his larger-stacked opponent’s A-T. The top pair held giving the Vic regular a narrow lead over the final five.
Jon Spinks made a valiant effort to get back in the game following his earlier kings fail, but it seemed that Grafton was to be his nemesis. He tried once again to bust Grafton, calling his half million chip threebet-shove with A-9, only to find his opponent with A-Q that held up, leaving him short once more. He exited in 5th soon after, taking home a hard-earned £22,250.
Moss, having enjoyed the chip lead for over a day and a half, finally fell foul of the poker gods when his aces were cracked by the queens of Grafton. He’d dropped to just 220,000 and looking primed for a double up, instead he had to settle for £28,250 and 4th place. Following this bustout, it looked like it might be one-way traffic for Grafton on his way to the winner’s podium. However, Charalambous, along with the deck, had other ideas.
Charalambous finally made a stand against the permanently-raising Grafton, shoving preflop for 550,000 with K-5. Grafton made the call with K-J only to find a five on the flop give his opponent a new lease of life and a 1.1 million chip stack that was to prove bothersome. In fact, soon thereafter Charalambous doubled yet again through Grafton leaving the bespectacled aggressor with some work to do to climb back from the short stacked position.
Meanwhile it seemed that Charalambous was fireproof – Victor Ilyukhin, having successfully negotiated the tricky waters of the final thus far, fell to the new chip leader on an A-Q-8 flop. Ilyukhin picked a bad moment to check-raise all in with Q-9 as his opponent had flopped top and bottom pair and sent him to the rail with a chunky £45,400 payday for 3rd place.
It was an uphill jog for Grafton to retake the chip lead but he started the process by evening the stacks with a dominating-ace related double through. Half an hour later he’d chipped up into the lead and was back to putting preflop pressure on his opponent.
The final hand saw Charalambous raising with pocket tens and making the call when Grafton shoved holding A-4 of spades. The flop brought two of Grafton’s suit, the turn an extra three nut straight outs, and the river the tournament-ending
for the flush.
Peter Charalambous took home £72,800 for the runner-up spot in the GUKPT Grand Final while one of the UK’s most coveted titles is now in the possession of Sam Grafton, along with £102,700.
“I’ve got a real sense of achievement,” said Grafton post-match. “The quality of the field made it tough competition – it’s something you can be proud of. Starting out playing, the list of the great British pros that I looked up to when I was starting out, they’re all the old GUKPT champions – like Paul Foltyn, Sam Trickett, Karl Mahrenholz. To add your name to that list, it’s great.”
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