Press release
Darren Annis Scoops GUKPT Thanet Main Event
38-year-old Darren Annis from Welling has won the 8th leg of the 2009 GUKPT at the G Casino in Thanet, defeating former tour winner Jeff Kimber after an eventful heads up encounter. The former IT consultant scooped £41,900 for his victory in the shortest ever GUKPT event in the tour’s history and also claims a seat in the end of year £100,000 Champion of Champions tournament. After taking out futures trader Lawrie Innman in 3rd place Kimber assumed the chip lead going into the heads up stage of the tournament and the early exchanges of the final match up saw him press his advantage further. The former world heads up champion looked strong, winning pot after pot from his less experienced opponent, taking a 3-1 chip lead. However Annis then got frustrated and pushed all-in with A-4, only to come up against Kimber’s A-J. Having flopped a straight draw and turning a flush draw, Annis then found a 4 on the river to double up and put the match level again. 10 minutes later Annis emerged victorious when holding A-J on a K-Q-Q-T-5 board for a straight. There had been betting on every street and Kimber called Annis’s all in river bet but mucked his cards when the new champion revealed his winning hand. It was the first GUKPT event that Annis had played in, however he has been playing regularly for 14 years and has previously taken part in the WSOP and other major events.
The final table also included two other players who had previously made GUKPT main event final tables. Peter Charalambous, who finished second to Jeff Kimber in last year’s Walsall main event finished in 4th place while James Morris, who finaled in Luton earlier this year took the 6th. Prison guard Andreas Achillea from London absconded in 5th place while Robert Topp, Adam Vinson and Nigel Berg completed the final table line up in 7th, 8th and 9th places respectively. 8th place finished Adam became the third member of his family to make a GUKPT main event final table, following in the footsteps of younger brother Ben and father Alan, who have two final tables each to their names.
Winner Darren Annis commented afterwards
“I played my A-game for three days and it has paid off. When I play my A-game, I’m as good as anyone in Europe.”
He also admitted getting lucky in a few big hands along the way but will not be stepping up to play too many big buy in events in the future. He qualified for the event through a satellite at the host casino and will be trying to qualify for further legs of the tour in the same manner. Shortly after the main event concluded, he jumped straight into the £100 NL Hold’em bounty tournament, which rounded off the festival week. Runner up Jeff Kimber also won a tournament at the festival, taking down the 111 runner £200 NL Hold’em freezeout earlier in the week. Double WSOP bracelet winner JP Kelly also tasted victory in the £250 NL Hold’em freezeout.
The tour continues in November, when the G Casino in Blackpool plays host to the 9th and final regular leg of 2010. The festival starts on November 7th and the main event takesd place over four days from the 12th-15th. Online super satellites take place three times a week on Blue Square Poker –
www.bluesqpoker.com.
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