GSNP Manchester
Stacey, the card room manager, was at hand to give everyone a warm welcome at Manchester as players from across the Midlands, North West, Scotland, Europe and as far a field as New York descended on the casino.
Seventy three players sat down for the £100 freezeout on the Wednesday night as the warm up to the main event got underway. Sami Saarelainen was the chip leader going onto the final table with 80,000 in chips, closely followed by Sanntu Leinonen from Finland. However, it was not destined to be the Finnish player’s day as his stack was slowly depleted and he finished in seventh.
By this point is was 03:30 in the morning and the players had been at the table for eight and a half hours. Aggarwal had gone on a great run and was now a big chip leader. His chip lead was enough to carry him through to the heads up stage as three players went out in quick succession to leave Aggarwal and Saarelainen heads up. Both players were fairly even in chips and quickly decided to split the remaining prize pool evenly between them.
The centre piece of each festival was the £500 Main Event. 187 players took part at Manchester with the players split over Thursday and Friday for their first day’s play. With a £83,500 prize pool everyone was taking this one seriously. The Friday day 1b some the arrival of some big names from the world of poker including Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach and Marc Goodwin who between them have won over $4 ½ million from tournament play alone.
Day 1 showed that this tournament was going the way of the up and coming players rather than the established professionals as Colclough, Rokach and Goodwin all bowed out at the first hurdle. It was a Mansion Poker online qualifier Jack Powell who was leading the field at the start of day two with 77,150 and the average chip count was 24,925. As day two progressed some large stacks emerged from the field as we neared the prize money that began at fifteenth. The Betfred Ladies Tour Champion and sponsored player Lynne Beaumont was the unlucky bubble finisher who took the consolation prize of a chip set signed by the “Poker Brat” himself, Phil Hellmuth Jr, who holds the record for World Series of Poker bracelets with 11.
We were playing hand for hand as the final table neared and we reached our last ten players just as the clocks rolled forward one hour to British Summer Time. Summer was certainly in the air the next day as the players emerged from their hotels to a warm spring day. Liverpool Circus Casino player Omar Khan was our chip leader, but he was no where to be seen as tournament start time approached. A major incident on the motorway had scuppered his transport plans and he ended up ditching his car and running for the train station, eventually taking his seat just 15 minutes behind schedule.
There was a frantic start to the final table as we lost five players within two hours. Fifth place went to Graham Clarkson who finished on the bubble just a week earlier at the Irish Open. He could be happy with his work at the GSNP Championships as he walked away with £5,840 along with his cash game winnings and a pat on the back from Mansion Poker VIP Manager Gary Ingham. IT consultant Richard Wong could be happy with his week’s work as he claimed fourth place and £7,520.
This left three players including two friends Sanntu Leiononen and Hannu Korva who had travelled over from Finland, along with Omar Khan. Korva was the short stack but a double up and some further strong play meant that as the players left the table for a final table sit down meal, the stacks were fairly even. With £52,850 left in the prize pool the players agreed to take £15,000 each and play for the remaining £7,850 and the trophy. Khan eventually took third when his A-10 ran into the Queens of Leinonen leaving the two Scandinavians heads up. Predicatively they split the remaining prize money so they were left to play for the trophy, bragging rights and a potential seat in a future event. First hand they both decided to go all in blind and originally wanted one hand of blind Omaha which was refused by the tournament director. Korva was the beneficiary as his A-7 off suit held up against 5-9 off suit to take the title with a high card.
It was a thrilling end to a great festival and the players all agreed that the casino really put on a good show. Stacey the card room manager and her team of staff were absolutely brilliant throughout and the players are already asking when the next festival will take place.
Two German children, aged five and six, were stopped by pol...
Read more
An East Sussex council is set to ban 'rude' street names su...
Read more
A prize-winning dog who went missing 4 years ago has been r...
Read more
A student was stunned when his online banking statement sho...
Read more
A woman dialled 999 furious she could not get through to vo...
Read more
A great grandmother has discovered she's been celebrating h...
Read more
A naked couple had to be pulled from a freezing river after...
Read more
Footballer David Pratt has written his name in the record b...
Read more
Police in Germany banned a woman driver's car from the road...
Read more
A Turkish shoe firm says it's had to take on 100 extra staf...
Read more
A turkey has been spared ending up on the dinner plate this...
Read more
Ginger the goldfish has amazed experts by surviving out of ...
Read more
A Chinese shop is giving discounts to customers who hit an ...
Read more
Roger Holley’s garden in Yeovil, Somerset, has a giant Chri...
Read more
Germany is facing a Santa Claus shortage in the run-up to C...
Read more
A pizza delivery man used his initiative when attacked duri...
Read more
The smell of a football changing room has been made into a ...
Read more
A Chinese zoo is using viagra to encourage a male tiger to ...
Read more
Two postal workers sparked a worldwide data theft alert aft...
Read more
A 24-year-old Dachshund with a 10-a-day cigarette habit has...
Read more
A picture of a shepherd controlling his flock with a poster...
Read more
A West Yorkshire man gave up smoking thanks to hypnosis - b...
Read more
A woman who bought a plant and vase for £1 at a car boot sa...
Read more
A new world record has been set in Romania after nearly 4,0...
Read more
A horse whose abstract paintings sell for more than £2,000 ...
Read more
The world's first refrigerated beach is being created in Du...
Read more
A mother who lost a gold ring 35 years ago when it slipped ...
Read more
Archeologists in China are baffled after finding a tiny Swi...
Read more
Two teddy bears have been launched into space on a budget o...
Read more
A school handyman has carved a complete Nativity scene from...
Read more
A West Yorkshire grandmother has sold the best seat in fron...
Read more
A mystery businessman dressed up as Batman is bringing seas...
Read more
A binman who found shredded £10 and £20 notes has been told...
Read more
National Final
Poker in the Pub would like to congratulate and thank everyone who attended the November national f...
Scotland
Scotland's regional final was a very well run affair, with Darren, the Poker Room manager taking ch...
South East
63 qualifiers made the journey from across the South East, London and East Anglia to the spectacula...