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Press release

£100,000 GUKPT Champion of Champions Tournament - Player List & Information
 
On Saturday 5th December at 2pm, the GUKPT Champion of Champions Tournament will take place at the G Casino in Luton. The prize pool of £100,000 has been entirely provided by Grosvenor/G Casinos and their online partner Blue Square Poker. It is a two day tournament and will conclude on Sunday 6th December.
 
This is the second year that this unique event has been held and the only way to earn a seat into it is to win your way in. Both main events and side events on the GUKPT count as qualifying tournaments. There were also a small number of additional seats which were won via non-GUKPT events such as APAT (the Amateur Poker Association & Tour), the GUKPT National League and the Champions Poker League.
 
The number of starting chips that each player will receive varies, depending on the size of the buy in of the qualifying event won. Most players will start with 5,000 or 6,000 chips, but there are some players who have won more than one tournament, who will start with significantly more. The maximum starting stack is capped at 25,000, but there are only two players (Karl Mahrenholz and Richard Gryko) who will start with this much.
 
There is still a chance to qualify for the event as all the side events (up until and including Friday) at the Champion of Champions festival in Luton this week count as the last possible chance to earn a seat into the event.
 
The prize money for the event is £100,000, however the prize stucture will be determined on Saturday by all players who are there in time for the start of the tournament. Players will be presented with three structures for how the prize money will be distributed and asked to vote on which option they would prefer. Only players who attend the event will be eligible to claim a prize.
 
Players who have qualified but have not visited the G Casino in Luton before are advised to bring some photo ID with them, as this will be required in order to become a member. All players are also advised that the G Casino in Luton has a very strict dress code - trainers, ripped or torn jeans, hoodies and sportswear are not permitted.
 
The Player List
 

Player Starting Chips No of Events Won
Karl Mahrenholz 25,000 4
Richard Gryko 25,000 3
Martin Silke 23,000 3
Tony Phillips 17,000 2
Tony Cascarino 15,000 1
Jeff Kimber 13,000 2
Paul Tucker 12,000 2
Shana Casaletto 12,000 2
Bernard Litman 10,000 1
Darren Annis 10,000 1
John Angus 10,000 1
Kevin Parkes 10,000 1
Priyan de Mel 10,000 1
Simon Moorman 10,000 1
Sunny Chattha 10,000 1
Thomas Besnier 10,000 1
Vinny Price 10,000 1
Chris Brammer 8,000 1
Daniel Furnival 8,000 1
Garry Mills 8,000 1
Jerzy Slaby 8,000 1
Jon Shoreman 8,000 1
Rahim Tadjsaadat 8,000 1
Thomas MacDonald 8,000 1
Tom Bentham 8,000 1
Alli Mallu 7,000 1
Ash Ahmed 7,000 1
CT Law 7,000 1
Dominic Rossookh 7,000 1
Ganesh Rao 7,000 1
Gary Holden 7,000 1
Gemal Husnu 7,000 1
Harprit Gurnham 7,000 1
Iqbal Patel 7,000 1
JJ Hazan 7,000 1
John Miller 7,000 1
JP Kelly 7,000 1
Karen Frank 7,000 1
Mohamed Muse 7,000 1
Nick Heather 7,000 1
Reyaaz Mulla 7,000 1
Richard Swerling 7,000 1
Sean Garswood 7,000 1
Stavros Stourou 7,000 1
Stephen Lee 7,000 1
Tom McCready 7,000 1
Tomi Etelapera 7,000 1
Wayne Thomas 7,000 1
Haitao Wu 7,000 1
Mickey Wernick 7,000 1
Andrew Probyn 6,000 1
Barry Grime 6,000 1
Cai Huang 6,000 1
Dhanesh Patel 6,000 1
Glenn Ashworth 6,000 1
Gordon Wright 6,000 1
Iain Potter 6,000 1
Leigh Gould 6,000 1
Matt Perrins 6,000 1
Michael Nicholas 6,000 1
Phillip Anderson 6,000 1
Robert Neil 6,000 1
Shamil Patel 6,000 1
Simon John 6,000 1
Steve Bayliff 6,000 1
Weland Holyroyd 6,000 1
Christopher Brider 6,000 1
Richard Kellett 6,000 1
Aaron Barry 5,000 1
Alan Bridges 5,000 1
Alan Mower 5,000 1
Alan Stearn 5,000 1
Alexander Zeligman 5,000 1
Andrew Purser 5,000 1
Andrew Wood 5,000 1
Ann Trandinh 5,000 1
Antonis Poulengaris 5,000 1
Ben Clark 5,000 1
Brian Yates 5,000 1
Christopher Wood 5,000 1
Clive Padden 5,000 1
Daniel Teymourian 5,000 1
Darren McCormack 5,000 1
David Johnson 5,000 1
David Johnson 5,000 1
Dewi James 5,000 1
Essy Jahanpour 5,000 1
Evan Humphries 5,000 1
Gary Brewer 5,000 1
Ghalib Hussain 5,000 1
Glenn Wisbey 5,000 1
Gregory Hunt 5,000 1
James Patterson 5,000 1
John Kay 5,000 1
Justin Lewis 5,000 1
Kei Leung 5,000 1
Lawrence Windish 5,000 1
Lynne Beaumont 5,000 1
Mark Steer 5,000 1
Mike Ellis 5,000 1
Mohammed Adris 5,000 1
Mohammed Qureshi 5,000 1
Nik Persaud 5,000 1
Paul Pitchford 5,000 1
Robert Price 5,000 1
Robert Topp 5,000 1
Sam James 5,000 1
Simon Auckland 5,000 1
Simon Eggleton 5,000 1
Simon Wing 5,000 1
Stephen Spring 5,000 1
Steve Bunce 5,000 1
Steve Redfern 5,000 1
Steven Vigor 5,000 1
Thomas Goodbold 5,000 1
Toni Dicesare 5,000 1
Tony Lee 5,000 1
David Colclough 5,000 1
Martin Bader 5,000 1
Luton - £300 NL Hold'em Freezeout Winner 7,000 ?
Luton - £250 PL Omaha 1 Rebuy or 1 Add on Winner 7,000 ?
Luton - £500 NL Hold'em Double Chance Freezeout Winner 8,000 ?
Luton - £200 NL Hold'em Freezeout Winner 6,000 ?


 

Good luck to the many blondes in this

Let us know how you get on!

Good luck all the blondes, especially Phil anderson.

is blonde updating this?

Kev is at DTD for the deepstack

I am considering asking Mr Raab if I can update it for blonde as its local to me. I shouldn't though, lol!

which blondes are playing in this?

mbn to start with 25k in chips with most of the field at 5/6k

glgl Dewifish

+1!!!

Richard, you are more than welcome to update, should you wish to.

Thanks Jon. Knowing me I will weaken, see you there!

Wow     .......      lucky for some.

Daniel Teymourian 5,000 1
Darren McCormack 5,000 1
David Johnson 5,000 1
David Johnson 5,000 1  
Dewi James 5,000 1
Essy Jahanpour 5,000 1
Evan Humphries 5,000 1
Gary Brewer 5,000 1

Obviously a Double Chance event for D J        .....        is it cos he's one of our local lads, Mr Prew?

Alex Martin was second in the plo last night, nice one posh boy, celebratory pheasant shooting must be iminent. Shame there's not many runners here, it's a nice festival, guess there's lots of competition from other fessies despite luton's obvious drawing power....sigh

There are two Mr Johnson's I believe. Ours (Chucky/jonnyplum) and another. 

Oh fabulous    .....    will there (in true Luton tradition) be a good old fashioned 'toe to toe' over their seats to kick off the Champion of Champions event in time honoured style?

Alex 'Poshboy' Martin has a nice ring to it, nice result poshboy :)up

No, no, no Mr Cake - nothing as simple as that.

Just look at the G website;     

http://www.gcasino.co.uk/luton/pokerschedule.php
   
As you can see, this Festival doesn't even exist - as we are really still in November!


Time Lord required for the Grosvenor Casino Group please    .......

defo line of the day

I was going to get there tonight for the £500. However, if it's not advertised well, not sure if there's much point in going? Doubt there will be a lot of value, since you're likely to be competing with champions!

Any ideas of numbers in previous events/ predictions for tonights turn out?

There is only one David Johnson playing in the event. There were a few mistakes on the original list:

David Johnson actually has 12,000 chips. The seven other players who won their way in via the National League will get 7,000 rather than 5,000 chips. Their names are:

Steve Bunce, Steve Vigor, Robert Topp, James Patterson, Gary Brewer, Mohammed Qureshi & Glenn Wisbey

Also, Paul Tucker should have 7,000 chips, not 12,000 as stated on the list.

Paul Thomas was not on the list, but he is playing and has 5,000 chips

Andrew Booth is playing (not Andrew Wood as stated on the list)

Mon £150        .....      76 runners.
Tue £300        .....      37 runners.
Wed £250       .....      27 runners.

Shockingly bad promotion/advertising for the Fezzie      .....      hence no runners!

When will they ever learn?

laughably organised. let bluesquare run the whole mofo operation in its entirity (sp?, maybe an e in that bad boy) and watch uk poker blossom again.

This festival has been advertised all year long in the GUKPT brochure. I'm not saying that is all that should have been done - I don't know what promotion the host casino has done themselves, but as far as GUKPT HQ is concerned, we published details of the event a long time ago.

Cheers for the reply! Think I might give it a miss... GL to all blondes playing though!

In Champ of Champ week, probably should have mixed variety of tournys and call them all Championship Events. Have a £2k PLO, £2k 6max, £1k shootout etc, £500 rebuy. Least it will add some prestige and its not like the number of runners can be worse

Certainly not having a pop at you/Deena etc - but do have a look at the G website Mr Raab     ....      apparently we're still in November!

Not the slightest hint of any 'upcoming' Festival     ......        the locals knew the numbers would be sparse - and voted with their feet.

  

Tbh, I wasn't even aware that the Champions of Champions was a week affair, until only a few days ago. I originally thought it was just the actual champions event, and that's it. I may be the only one thinking this, but judging by the numbers, I'm probably not alone. Just perhaps more promotion on the side events needed, that's all. :)

No criticism is implied of the GUKPT organisers, everyone knows when the Champ of Champs event itself is and because it is a "qualification only" event with no other GUKPT events alongside (I think?) then there isn't a great need for GUKPT people to promote it big style, I think.

The host casino, which I desperately want to support, compliment and applaud has done ZERO marketing for this. As others have said the G Luton website doesn't mention the week of events. No texts to players, no flyers through the mail, nothing that I have seen in magazines. Staff not allowed or choose not to post on poker forums, no satellites before the week to guarantee extra runners....just simple stuff that would get the profile of the events up

 Thus the numbers for the side events are low, the buzz is non-existent and the PR is dreadful. A shame.

meh, the Vic is overrated.

dunno whether it's standards are the same as before or since ive been to dtd it just seems much worse.

What has this got to do with the Vic? This thread is about Luton.

Can anyone tell me what time the £200 starts tonight and the structure?  I can't find it anywhere which makes me think they will struggle for runners.

Yeah meant to post on the whinge thread and clicked this by mistake. nvm i'll live.

Fri 4 Dec at 8.00 pm  £ 200 + 20 No Limit Hold'em     6000 Starting chips. 

Luton regulars are expecting 70-80, based on 120+ being there tomorrow and the normal Fri night traffic

It is being run using the gukpt 1 day side event structure.

So regardless of whether it was on this thread or the whinge thread, it was basically just an unprovoked slagging off of the Vic?

Mmmmm - 6k for £200!!!         ......       and is it any wonder why the 'smart money' will be heading for DTD this weekend?

Provoked by poor experiences I've had at the Vic.

Anyway, if a mod could move to the whinge thread that would be appreciated. Rly wasn't meant for here.

It's the same as at all gukpt events. It's not all about starting stacks, its the structure as a whole. Usually people are quite complimentary about the structures on the gukpt and they have not changed, so why all the negativity?

Then perhaps it would bemore constructive to elaborate, rather than just make sweeoing statements.

and, Luther, the thing has to end on one night (most likely starting late too). I personally don't have a problem with 6000 with a GUKPT side structure.

Remember also, before people say it, that many want a quick-ish strucutre and/or not too many starting chips rather than old rocks like me sitting there til 400-800 unless I find Aces before that

Guy friend of mine went in with his girlfriend, goes up to desk in cardroom and could not have been replied to more rudely by whoever was behind the desk. His mrs was a bit upset - they ended up both not playing poker and leaving pretty quickly. Made me look a bit of a twat when I was the one who advised them to go there.

I know it wouldn't have been yourself who responded to them like this but from my experiences in the Vic it doesn't sound out of character for two of the people I've seen in the cardroom. Face like a bulldog chewing a wasp who seemingly are preparing for a theatreland role as 'the guy who hates life'. Sure you have an idea of who I mean.

I too prefer to have plenty of chips (enough to make a 'recovery', rather than one beat/mistake, and out you go!) - I just think that 6k for two hundred sovs isn't at all 'attractive'     ....        especially to the smaller/non pro players in the run up to Xmas, in the midst of an economic crisis.

As for 'getting it done and dusted' nice and early - this is easily achievable even with a larger starting stack size through earlier/bigger antes, without changing a comp into a crapshoot.

The turnouts have demonstrated that (apart from the non-existent marketing) the entry prices of the Festival's side events have been pitched too high to attract the 'ordinary' punters      .....      and they've hardly been brimming over with the pros either!   

I take it you wont be there tonight then Paul?

Not on your Nelly, Alan - I play with my own money (not Barclaycard's) and tbh I tend to enter comps that suit me, not the provider   ....     and 6k for £200 doesn't appeal much.

u got 3k for a 1k event at the wsope and it was one of the best structures iv played in a very long time (25/25 level start).

gukpt structures always have loads of play and better players just adjust to the structure. Stick someone like rookie in a 10k deepstack with a 1hour clock and he'll be just as happy/effective as in a 200 rebuy with 20 min levels (probably happier).

dubai,i reckon there is almost no real dead wood in these things as it is (15% of field has no hope i guess, 10% have a significant edge and the rest make up the numbers/have a shot on their day id guess)  and no added money/ value. unless ur flush/have no regard for broll mgmt/sat in who's gonna stump up this money?  the majority of players wont outlay that much money in these kind of comps when there is much better value elsewhere. a 500 rebuy would get cancelled with this level of promotion/exposure/value imo.

Totally agree, Alex.

Pitched too high    ...    no dead money    ....    no value.

What a life this mantis leads

a £2k plo Championship would get more than a £250 plo freezeout. I would be willing to bet on this

PLO comps that are between £200-£500 always get small fields because the buyin is both TOO SMALL and TOO BIG. Its too small in the fact that its not worth a lot of peoples time travelling to play, and yet its too big in that it scares of a lot of locals/holdem players who would play a £50 plo comp for fun. If you made it £2k, you would get 50 odd players and at least some prestige, particularly in a week called Champion of Champions. Its like having a Seller race run on Newmarket Champions day lol, so why clutter the week with small meaningless comps.

You can even run sats online upto 3 months before if its called a Championship Event.

Decent points i agree with mostly althought still not totally convinced about reasonable numbers for big buyin comps it's not like it's got the draw of a WSOPE.

lol i wouldn't play a £200f if it had more than 6k, thankfully i live in a part of the country that gets its highest turnout during festivals on the night of the 200f with 6k chips.

106 runners for the £200 last night in the end

this is pretty gd right?

Yes

from one of the APAT players


Interesting concept with the prize pool - there was a vote with three choices - payout to top 12, 30, or 63. Top63 won the vote..... and with only 120 runners that meant half the field gets paid. Add to that the fact that around 20 didn't turn up and could not claim any prize, despite their chips being in play and blinded away...... 63 out of 100 runners get paid!


lol!

Great concept that the players get to vote though

12 voted for option 1 (top 12), 30 for option 2 (top 30), and 39 voted for option 3 (top 63).

updates at  http://blog.grosvenorukpokertour.com/

current leaders

Table  - Seat  - Player  - Chips
11  - 2  - Tony Cascarino  - 37725
10  - 8  - Karl Mahrenholz  - 29450
6  - 2  - Martin Silke  - 27850
5  - 5  - Daniel Furnival  - 25525
12  - 1  - Richard Gryko  - 23500
9  - 8  - Simon Moorman  - 21575
11  - 1  - Karl Limbert  - 20475
12  - 4  - Daniel Teymourian  - 18225
9  - 1  - Robert Topp  - 17725
4  - 4  - Haitao Wu  - 17450

How extraordinary!

Good grief.

Anyone know the actual payouts. They should have had option 4- chop the lot.

In all seriousness I think in this case voting is a ridic idea

deals not permitted


options were

Position    Opt 1      Position    Opt 2    Position    Opt 3
1    £30000         1    £25000         1    £25000
2    £20000         2    £15000         2    £15000
3    £15000         3    £10000         3    £10000
4    £10000         4    £8000         4    £75000
5    £7500         5    £6000         5    £5000
6    £5000         6    £5000         6    £4000
7    £4000         7    £4000         7    £3000
8    £3000         8    £3000         8    £2000
9    £2000         9    £2000         9    £1500
10    £1500         10-13  £1500         10-18 £1000
11    £1000         14-18 £1000         19-27 £750
12    £1000         19-26 £750         28-36 £500
                       27-36  £500         37-63 £250

Would have like to have seen Karl M's face when only 12 voted for a)

Exactly. If they all start on the same stack then have a vote.

But those who start with 5k are bound to vote for C) It'd be pretty stupid for them not to and they will obv out number the bigger stacks

I have to say i like the idea of voting but if you are to have 3 options then you have to have a playoff with 2 as i am pretty sure option B would win 42-39, diluted vote ftw!

It is interesting, last year they voted pay top 13.

Maybe its tougher times, people want to be guaranteed a bit of cash

or there's more amateurs in this years field?

Just gone with 10s v Martin Silke's KK, ffs he's very good

Anyone know Karl Limbert? Played agaibst him on Thursday and was a bit of a nuisance in poker terms.

The vote looks a terrible idea to me, and they got the comedy payout they deserved.  The 5000s should vote C, and that just makes it a farce.  Make it the same as any normal GUKPT with that number of runners and announce it in advance so people know what they are signing up for when they make the trip.

FWIW I had no idea there were other events this week either.  Though I couldn't play anyway.

All very democratic     .......

But last year there were only two options final 9 or 13.

Thanks for all the criticism. Discussion is always welcome, as we do listen to what people want and react accordingly.

Just one thing to all the people who have said offering the choice to vote is ridiculous...we put up the entire £100,000 prize pool for this event. Was that a ridiculous idea?

Hi John- that would be me.

I'm obv not knocking that fact you've put up the money. Just think the vote is a farce. Why would the guys with 5k stacks vote for top 9?? And seeing as they outnumber the bigger stack you may as well say that you're going to pay the top 63

Maybe one idea might be that you get a vote in proportion to your chipstack - so the guy with 25k gets 5 votes compared to the guy with 5k who gets 1.

Not just you Rupinder, but it seems that people are far more inclined to knock you for things that maybe aren't quite 100% right than they are to commend for things that are very right. The prize options may not have been as good as they could have been, but at the end of the day, it was all something for nothing. Nobody had to pay to buy in to the event and given that all the players had won an event to get into it, they should all have had enough to cover the expense of travelling to and staying in Luton for a day or two.

I have spent the last five years persuading the powers that be at Blue Square/Grosvenor that adding value to live poker is a good thing. The amount that Blue Square/Grosvenor have added to live poker over the last five years is over £600,000 or to put it another way, almost as much as Thomas Kremser makes in a good year. I don't see many other companies adding this kind of money.

There was not actually a huge amount of difference in all three options. The flattest option had a £30,000 first prize, the other two had £25,000. Still good money for whoever wins it. It would probably be too long winded to arrange the vote along the lines of being proportional to chip stacks. The idea was indeed just to be a bit different and give the players a bit of a choice. It's useful to see who voted for what and it was by no means as clear cut as big stack = vote for steep structure, low stack = vote for flat one. It's obviously not going to appeal to all, but I think it is harsh to say it is ridiculous, a farce, or use other choice words that have negative connotations. However, as always, thanks for all the constructive comments.

Bearing in mind it's a freeroll with a £100k prizepool and the economic pinch is evident throughout the poker world with less runners at many events etc etc how come so many people didn't turn up? I'm staggered by that.

Is there anyone here that wouldn't turn up?

The only thing you could change imo is have the vote pre tourney then everyone knows the payout structure and since it's a freeroll nobody could complain

There were 16 no shows out of 125 players. Its actually still quite a good turnout for a freeroll. Last year we had 6 no shows out of a field of 92.  A lot of the no shows were people who are out of the country or live overseas or in remote parts of the UK.

Most online freerolls have a higher no show rate and you don't even have to get out of the house and go somewhere to play in them.

Out of interest how many extra players do you feel are attracted to playing an event with the champions freeroll added or is that not the only reason you do it,wp btw  ;applause;

I think putting it to a vote of the players was an excellent idea.

Maybe you should have an option where you had a payout structire like 1, but everyone received £100.

Also, weighting of votes is an excellent idea.

Hat's off to Grosvenor and Blue Squirrel for the added money.

I actually like what you and blue square done Jon. Well done.

When I first heard about the 63 players getting paid option I thought it was madness, however when you look at the difference in the top prizes for the different options I think it's not so daft after all.

I think the very fact that it is a freeroll means nobody should be complaining at all about which prize structure is chosen.

Fair comment 

Added value here!

any of the winners from aberdeen make it down mr rabb?

I don't really follow the argument, whereby I say the vote looks a terrible idea and therefore somehow I am slagging off grosvneor blue square for adding 600k to the pool or slagging off the tour/organisers etc.  It simply doesn't follow at all.

Just in case there is any doubt, Grosvenor poker tour good, £1000 buy in about right, new tournament layout for next year I like, tournament fees reasonable, structures good, Added money is very good.  Fella organising it seems friendly enough and always happy to chat!  In fact the whole thing seems far better than the stars equivalent in pretty much everyway.  I just didn't like the vote and the 63 players paid, and that is about my only complaint with the whole thing.

And FWIW I must have added about 10K to the prize pools of these over the years so I should get a say too ;)  And I am sure I'll be back donating next year.

Good post.

I don't play in GUKPTs but can see it's a well organised tour and I comment Blue Square for running this event and adding the money.

However I don't think the way the voting system works is very good.

Who is Thomas Kremser?

BTW I love you Jon, good show, keep it going x

What's happening to the prizemoney won by the stacks of people that did not turn up?

Nothing, the prizepool remains the same    ....     the entrants that turned up just had a few less competitors for it.

Their stacks were left in play to be blinded out,and a fair few of them have blinded into the money positions,in fact I believe Richard Gryko is still in!!  :D

Thanks for your donations doobs. I'm sure it was much appreciated by those who cashed in the events you played in. I wasn't making an argument as such that nobody should criticise what they don't like. In fact I'm in favour of criticism when it is constructive. However as an organiser it is sometimes a bit dismaying when people latch on to one or two things they don't like and focus on things that may not be quite right yet make no or little reference to the positives. There were not many positive comments on this thread before I made my earlier post.

Simples Jon ... people just take it for granted.

Sad but true.

Nobody has blinded their way into the money. Those who do not turn up earn no prize, will not be classified as in the money and their prizes wil go to the next placed players who are in attendance.

did anyone from aberdeen turn up ?

Righto.

John Angus came down and has recently been eliminated. However Weland Holyroyd and Sean Garswood did not.

Surely if Gryko chooses to go to a concert over playing this then he should still be allowed to blind away into the money? Seems v unfair. Might as well just hand out money to anyone who actually enjoys poker next year :)

Which won't be added much longer if it gets overshadowed by a bit of detail........

Poker players love to knock, but rarely seem able to praise initiatives like this. A few years back a £100,000 Freeroll would have been a headline, now it's taken for granted.

The Directors of Grosvenor will take note.

Yeah poker players love to moan but that is normal enough. There's a specific whinge thread just below this one currently running at 85 pages which is proof enough of the popularity of moaning. But then again the whole general public love to moan and that is just a fact of life that's very unlikely to change. My God, anyone who deals with the public in any business knows how it is. In fact only a few moans is the barometer of great success imo. Grosvenor should realise they are in the business of putting on tournaments for moaning bastard poker players and not take things too personally. By the way, god awful weather we're having at the moment.

Couldnt agree more Tikay

Whats to knock?

Nice try Dubai, but I ain't biting.  ;nana;

sick that they cant blind into the money imo

.

What's happened to Richard does seem harsh given his efforts over the whole tour, but then some no shows were simply because players couldn't be bothered and I can see some arguements against the empty seats. Maybe it should of been highlighted months ago that qualifiers had to turn up to claim prizes idk

   I can see why players opted for option 3. I just hope that chris.b. can come 4th . 75k ! lol

Good luck to these guys who come back today

http://blog.grosvenorukpokertour.com/ for these chip counts and updates today from 2pm

End of Day Chip Counts

Player  - Chips
Chris Brammer  - 103,700
Ganesh Rao  - 90,500
Dhanesh Patel  - 89,100
Iqbal Patel  - 86,400
Reyaaz Mulla  - 69,000
Rahim Tadjsaadat  - 61,100
Lee Madden  - 52,700
Shana Casaletto  - 51,100
Haitao Wu  - 47,500
Darren Annis  - 41,300
Daniel Furnival  - 38,900
Simon Moorman  - 33,100
Toni Dicesare  - 27,300
Vinny Price  - 27,000
Gary Brewer  - 24,500
Gem Husnu  - 19,500
Stephen Spring  - 17,200
Ben Clark  - 9,100

Not overly packed with Superstars (maybe the 'lesser' players only voted for Option 3 cos they're sick of bunging Karl M et al their trainfare home).

Best of luck to Steve Spring - one of the Luton regs.

It would be awesome if Moormans dad won it, plays two tournaments in 2009, both of them are freerolls for him, wins both, ROI = 1 billion%

+1

+2

Thanks alot!! :)

Steve, please wear a baseball cap today (nothing to do with superstition    ....        just your ginger hair).

Oh, and shades too (you've got ginger eyelashes, as well).

tbf i think id rather play asif hu in luton for my net worth than attend the jinglebellball

Don't know you well but good luck today too. Think we were at the same table Friday night if I've got the right man.

And Pauls, right, baseball cap on top of the fly shades would work well :0

iv'e got to say that Rank Gaming are putting the money up as a freeroll, so they can do whatever they want with it and pay who they like. If you are not there why should they then have to go to the trouble of forwarding you the money at a expense of time and money?

i think they just should not of bothered putting the chips in play if players where not present at the start.

But well done to Grosvenor for putting up the 100k in the first place who else in the uk market have done anything close to this in the last 10 years for the masses rather than the select few who they deem tv worthy?

Yes, you've got the right man. You thought the glasses on his head made him look like The Fly!

Good player - kept nicking my blinds.

Good luck Stephen.

Thanks to Blue Sq/Grosvenor for the freeroll - nice £1750 bonus (obv brag)

Definetley think the players that get blinded into the money should have been paid - Maybe next year remove players stack if they don't turn up end of level 2

Good luck to Dan ''Fit Squad'' Furnival today

That's the thing,there is no expense of time and/or money to them to do it as all winnings are being paid into players' BlueSquare accounts anyway.

Grosvenor have done a lot of good things this year.  The structure of the headsup tournaments is so good I almost want to weep with joy, the increased starting stacks for main events is obviously a great development, and the added money for leaderboard/champ of champs wouldve been virtually unthinkable not too long ago.

However, this past week has seen the tour end on something of a sour note.  Its a terrible anti climax to run a small stakes festival in a dump of a town after the Grand Final, which wouldve been a far better conclusion.  Run the Champ of Champs by all means, but the side events were an experience I hope to forget.  Martin and I were seperated by half a point on the leaderboard, and so we each spent the entire festival playing solely to outlast the other.  Its moderately interesting to figure out how optimal strategy is affected by this situation, but then hours of torture while implementing it. 

In addition, Martin and I played it out in a very good spirit, but it doesnt take a genius to work out the game integrity issues that couldve arisen with two different people fighting for a leaderboard prize far greater than that which was up for grabs in the tournaments that decided the leaderboards outcome.

As far as yesterday goes, I'd be lying if I said I agreed with the call to restrict eligibility for prizes to those who showed up.  In my opinion, everyone already earned the equity their chips provided them with by participating in previous, non-freeroll, events.  Although I'm obviously an interested party, there seems to have been enough consensus on this point amongst people who arent, that I'm surprised Grosvenor felt it an advisable change to make at such short notice. 

All of that said, everything in the first paragraph I wrote makes me disinclined to kick up too much of a fuss.  Frankly, I'm far more annoyed about having to spend a week in Luton than I am about missing out on my hard earned Champ of Champs prize money.  Also, Jingle Bell Ball was awesome, so I'm still glad I didnt show up...:p

What is the jinglebellball?

http://www.capitalfm.com/jingle-bell-ball/jingle-bell-ball-02-arena-december-05-06/

DIE

Richard, first of all congratulations for topping the leaderboard and becoming the Player of the Year. I appreciate that the GUKPT schedule is very busy at this time of the year, what with Blackpool, the Grand Final and then the Champion of Champions festival pretty much running into each other. Next year there will still be a festival of supporting events surrounding the champion of Champions tournament, but it will be reduced to 5 days rather than a whole week and the support events will all be much smaller buy ins. It will be in Coventry next year, which is probably our nicest casino, thanks to the millions that Isle of Capri spent doing it up before deciding to quit the UK market.

Of course, there were imperfections in the way that the rankings and the Champion of Champions events have been conducted and I will make sure that next year everything is much clearer to all. We may not get things right all of the time, but we are committed to improving things and making them better for the future.

[ ]  The mayor of luton has added richard to his xmas card list

I have to congratulate you on your tact & corporate skills - I may have gone for a simple 'whatever'

[ X ] people of Luton were glad Mr Gryko was forced to sample the delights of their town for a whole week so he could secure some more free money

[ ] People of luton were pleased he achieved this.

[ X ] Mr Gryko was former diplomatic advisor to Afghanistan

I like the idea of a vote before deciding prizepool. Cool stuff imo.

Is there anywhere I can follow this tourney online? I've tried the GUKPT site, but didn't see it.

http://blog.grosvenorukpokertour.com/


and AWOP's Nutztv

Live stream;

http://www.thenutz.tv/live.php

It was actually more a case of the rules not being detailed fully in the first place, rather than changed. It was something we had not specified one way or another. As i said before, we have made a mistake with this and apologise for it. It is a situation which we could have avoided and will avoid in the future by making the Ts & Cs much clearer from the start. We are however not out to fuck people, we are not peddling broken goods.

ty, obviously didn't look hard enough :)

Did anyone else find it amusing that the response to Luton being a dump that next years would be in Coventry, not known for being a dump in the slightest.

Being sent there is punishment enough...

I would most certainly appreciate an answer to my OP.  This is obviously escalating and nobody involved is happy.  I can't send PM's on here for some reason, I don't wish to say more than I already have on a public forum.


Cheers,

Woody

You need 10 posts to be able to send PMs Woody.

Woody,

I have answered the majority of the points raised already with my previous answers so I will not address everything in your original two posts. I will now address the remainder of your unanswered questions and the comments you made which were not specifically questions. I will post one response per post as for some reason my browser does not let me post too much in one post without creating scrolling problems in the text entry window.

Firstly, you misinterpreted something I had said earlier in the thread and alleged that

"I am rather shocked at what happened today, and further shocked that you think that because most of the no shows are foreigners, that it is acceptable to redistribute their equity without cause or representation."

In no way did I make this inference. I simply stated how many no shows there were and clarified that many of them would have been players who were overseas or lived outside the UK. I did not in any way say of infer that 'because they are forgeigners it was OK to do this.'

I consider this allegation of yours to be totaly without substance and quite offensive.

Comapring this situation to the WPT cancelling their series of $500,000 freerolls is way off the mark. We have not dodged paying out the money we promised to, as the WPT did.

With regard to the rest of the questions Woody raised, I feel these have been answered already in previous replies I have made on this thread.

lol

.

Fail

This tournament and the others we run are run in accordance with Grosvenor Casinos rules and additional rules set out for the GUKPT.

The rules on payouts for this competition were not set out specifically, so nothing was actually changed as such, it was clarified (wrongly or rightly) on the day before play started. I have already said that with hindsight we would have made this clearer and will indeed do so for the future. If someone is considering taking legal action, then it would not be prudent for me to answer any further questions on the matter. That will be dealt with by our lawyers if and when such a legal action takes place.

I understand, cheers.  No need to debate further on public forum, I know you are a good guy.  It is not my intention to embarrass, or ride you in any way, it is simply a matter of justice for me. I hope you understand.  I know you don't come up to me or post on blonde when I play poorly (which has been the case recently) to let me know I have made a mistake so I am cognizant of this fact.

Given the tone of posts, appears I succeeded for what I can here.   At least I don't have to feed the "epic fail" troll.  :-)

Tell you something, I've never met you but I know you're very talented and you come across well, arguing your point without histrionics and any rudeness, respect sir

Thanks.  I am a huge supporter of the GUKPT and think Jonathon Raab has done a great job with it, there are many negative directions the casinos are taking these days, he is someone who is on our side.  I know how backwards UK casino managers can be, and while he is at the top of the poker world here, to his minders, poker is just a small but steadily profitable side of their business.
 
I don't wish to extend further negativity on the subject in a public forum lest it get picked up by press anyway without our PR pressure.  I live here, I play Grosvenor, and anything negative happening to Jon is -EV for me, so in deference and respect to him I have removed any posts containing logic.  Thankfully nobody quoted me.  I am sure there will be a meeting to discuss this further and a resolution, but blonde is not the place.

 
Think you are missing the point of the forum. Its about people expressing there opinions and views. I'm sure JR ( Que Dallas music ) knows he will have to deal with peoples questions, concerns and opinions on the forum. Shame you feel the need to subtract them.

Oh sod the bickering    ....     Luton reg Steve Spring's in the last three - get in there Stevie!

Went out 3rd with 10's vs QJ all in pre. He hit both of em to send me home!

Wuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

Well done/played Steve        .....        it just goes to show that not all Gingas are bloody useless!

Gotta say,what a joke that anyone would have the nerve to be complaining at how a 100k freeroll is run ffs its a fkn freeroll that's added at the end of the year that they don't need to do,i made my point that they could change the way the voting is done but wtf,anyone who's seriously having a go needs a fkn shake

+100,000

Feel I should probably post in this thread given that I've probably followed the tour more than most on here this year.

Looking ahead to next year, firstly congrats to Jon for the tweaks he has made to the structures for next year (starting stacks and antes), for altering the locations away from the more provincial legs in response to the declining attendances and most importantly for securing even more added money to the tour for next year (quite unbelievable really).

My suggestions for next years tour would be

(1) Ditch any none GUKPT events from contributing towards the GUKPT rankings
(2) Bring back the seats in the grand final for leg winners (it's a tour culminating in a grand final, and you should want all the leg winners to be there). The award of the grand final seats this year to winners of "national leagues" etc rather than leg winners was a mistake imo (and I would be saying this regardless of results this year, it just makes more sense to me)
(3) Change the rule on alternates in time for next year's tour. At present, even if an open seat is available and no one is waiting, you are not able to buy anyone else in as an alternate (ie your mate rings you and asks you to buy him in after the event has started as he is running late). This is potentially costing Grosvenor added rake and given the general decline in attendances, we should be doing all we can to accommodate people
(4) Incorporate the online satellite the Sunday before the start of the festival week, into the festival schedule and in the literature. If this Sunday becomes widely known as the day to win your seat online for the next weeks festival it could, in time, become a successful addition to the week and increase the numbers of online sat winners we're currently getting
(5) A £5k headsup tournament does not fit at all with the GUKPT. Tournaments of this buyin level should be left for other tours imo

With regards to the Champion of Champions event, I'm sure a decision will be made before next year to either remove all dead stacks by say level 4, or let them blind to the money. Either is probably fine, but I will say that the dead stacks do alter the play a great deal, especially when you have 2/3 on the table like a lot of tables did this week.

Having a vote for the prize structure was quite an innovative idea, but I don't think in reality this works. Most people are going to have the minimum in chips, and even without this disparity, the likely makeup of the field will always mean that the most shallow payout structure always gets picked. I notice the statement "no deals permitted" is used after the vote has taken place, and whilst the logic for this is good, it is pretty much unenforceable. My suggestion would be to pick the prize structure yourself and just have it fixed. Nobody is going to complain and it means that you are able to set the payouts that are most appropriate. If you want to do a "grand prix" style pay out where everyone who turns up gets a little something for their expenses etc, so be it.  

With regards the side event schedule at this festival, whilst having them is great for those people travelling down, the Champion of Champions event really should be the absolute finale, and to have events which contribute towards the rankings after this finale has started shouldn't really happen, especially when 2 people (as were this week) could be fighting down to the wire for the rankings - do they knock themselves out of the freeroll finale to play the £150 tourney in an event to win a £20k side bet?

Jon, you have done a great job with the tour and the fact that we have someone like you to give our suggestions and feedback to is a credit to the tour. Looking forward to next year being the best season yet. (ps any news on any potential tv involvement in the future?)

Some real good feedback here, but enough of that - many, many congrats to Richard Gryko, a thoroughly deserving GUKPT Player of the Year. Delighted for him. And Mum.

:)

Press Release - Monday 7th December 2009

 

Wu’s The Daddy at GUKPT Champion of Champions Tournament

 


Haitao Wu from Dundee has won the £100,000 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Champion of Champions tournament at the G Casino in Luton. Haitao, better known as Colin outlasted a field of 125 players to claim the £25,000 first prize in the invitation only event which rounded off the third year of the GUKPT. All 125 players in the free-to-enter event had won GUKPT tournaments (or associated events) to claim their seats into the two-day competition. Unlike most other tournaments, the players began the event with varying starting stacks. The larger the buy in of the event won to qualify, the greater the starting stack awarded. The 30-year old won his way into the tournament by claiming victory in a £500 side event at leg three of the tour in London. He also made a main event final table in Newcastle in May, where he finished in seventh place.

 

Wu’s heads up opponent was Darren Annis, who scooped first prize in the leg eight main event in Thanet. The Beijing-born professional player held a 2-1 chip lead after knocking out third place finisher Stephen Spring and dominated his opponent during the course of the 30-minute heads up session. By the time the final hand took place he had increased his lead further, leaving Annis with just over 100,000 of the 900,000 chips in play. In the final hand, Annis moved all in with A-4 and Wu called with Q-T. A 10 on the flop secured the title and £25,000 first prize. The prize money for this tournament was entirely provided by Grosvenor Casinos and online partner Blue Square Poker.

 

Wu moved to the UK seven years ago to do an MBA in international business transactions at Dundee University. He completed his degree two years ago and then started playing poker professionally. In July he became a father when his girlfriend Kerry gave birth to twin daughters. Elated from his win he commented afterwards:

 

“Kerry has been very supportive, looking after our beautiful daughters when I have been playing. We will have a great Christmas now and will be visiting China early next year, when my parents will meet them (his daughters) for the first time.”

 

He went on to say:

 

“When we come back from China I will continue to play GUKPT events in 2010. The structure is perfect for us to play good poker and the prize money is great as well”

 

Preston man Reyaaz Mulla was the fist player to be eliminated from the nine-person final table. Shana Casaletto from Brighton was next to go in eighth place. Shana was one of the few women competing in the tournament. She won her seat into the event at the first leg in January in her hometown, where she won back-to-back side events. The final table also included Ganesh Rao, another former GUKPT main event winner (Newcastle 2008), who exited in seventh. Property developer Rahim Tadjsaadat who lives in London, but is originally from Iran, was the sixth place finisher while Blackpool main event finalist Gemal Husnu from London claimed fifth. Christopher Brammer from Worthing completed the final table line up, departing in fourth. The 21-year old had gone into the final as the chip leader and held a strong chip position before losing his entire stack in the space of three short hands.

 

The race to top the tour’s rankings leaderboard is also now over, with Richard Gryko outscoring Irishman Martin Silke by just half a point to take the £20,000 first prize and claim the title of GUKPT Player of the Year. The GUKPT rankings carried a total of £50,000 in prizes, supplied by Grosvenor Casino and Blue Square Poker. Prizes were paid to the top 18 players on the leaderboard.

 

The 2009 GUKPT has now concluded, but the UK’s largest poker tour will be returning in 2010 with a full schedule of events. Blue Square Poker is now bowing out as the sponsor after three years, but will be replaced by gcasino.com, another Rank Group Plc owned company. The 2010 added prize money has been increased to £200,000, with the prize pool for next year’s Champion of Champions’ tournament being increased to £150,000 while the rankings prize money remains at £50,000.

 

wtf i don't even know where that is, is that where those nice grandad sweets come from?

Apologies Chris, should have been Winchester.

as in rifle?

hundreds of well written words, one wrong, straight away pullled out and criticised. seems to be the way here...

lol np. ty for all your efforts btw jonathon, i know you took some stick this week and i'm obv biased (haha) but seriously the good work you and your team put in is very much appreciated :D

also congrats to colin wu for winning last night, and to richard gryko for winning the rankings!

oops, tbh my post was in jest and the reason why i flagged the one wrong part was because it was the only part mentioning myself lol

Your from Winchester and you have never heard of Worthing???