Celebrating Katie Swift, and an Epic GUKPT Luton Heads Up Battle
Katie Swift came agonisingly close this weekend to becoming the first ever female GUKPT champion. Despite starting the GUKPT Luton heads-up with a massive chip deficit, she managed to close the gap significantly early on and several times it seemed she might clinch the title. However, failing to hold in a couple of critical hands eventually gave victory to her opponent Seb Crane (pictured below) who won £66,000, by far his largest recorded live cash.
Katie’s superb run will certainly serve as further inspiration to female poker players right across the country. Katie knows hundreds personally and is deeply committed to supporting women in poker through her Facebook group, her WhatsApp group and the women-only tournaments she hosts every Wednesday on Grosvenor Poker.
She said: “Initially I was disappointed to not close it out, get the win and take the title, but I played my absolute heart out & battled hard! I’m delighted and very proud of my performance. To be honest, I cannot stop smiling! I’ve been overwhelmed by all the kind messages and compliments I’ve received over the last few days – I’m on Cloud 9.”
Katie first hit the limelight back in 2015 when she was runner-up at Goliath (pictured below). Soon afterward, she was offered sponsorship with Grosvenor Poker and is now one of the longest-serving members of Team Grosvenor. Since 2015, she has enjoyed numerous great results including winning various GUKPT side events, winning the MPNPT Madrid Cup and winning the WPT UK Ladies Event. However, Sunday’s runner-up finish at GUKPT Luton – for £49,300 – was her best ever result in a GUKPT Main Event.
Katie is now launching an initiative very close to her heart – with the start of a three-week run of qualifiers for the Ladies Event at the forthcoming Malta Poker Festival. Each week, there will be four Day 1s – the first is at 8.30pm tonight – with a Day 2 on Sunday at 9pm. See below for full details. Every week, two women are guaranteed an MPF package – worth over £1,300 – which includes four nights at the Hilton 5* hotel in St Julian’s Malta, a superb buffet-style breakfast, the €200 Ladies Event buy-in, free drinks throughout the event and access to exclusive VIP #TeamGrosvenor meet-ups. The Malta Poker Festival is running October 26 to November 4, with the Ladies Event taking place on Saturday, November 2.
Don’t forget you can book your travel for the Malta Poker Festival – including flights and accommodation – with MainEventTravel.com. Take advantage of our great hotel and buy-in packages and/or save yourself hassle later and buy-in direct for any of the tournaments.
Katie added: “Over the last few years, the female presence in poker has grown in numbers and strength. And now #TeamGrosvenor will be making history by taking a team of women to Malta to play for the first time ever! This has been a long time in the making and shows again the power of persistence and never giving up!”
Katie (pictured below), who has now accrued well over $500k in live tournament winnings and is also an acclaimed poker coach, was full of praise for her Luton rival Seb Crane. She said: “Seb was a very well-deserved champion and huge congratulations to him. His poker skills shone from start to finish. Proper class act.
“Becoming the first female poker player to win a GUKPT Main Event title was painfully close for me and I hope to have another opportunity at winning. But I also hope other females are given more credit when playing this game, as a direct result of how I played. I would always encourage anyone and everyone to learn to play poker. Poker teaches so many skill sets that can be transferred and applied to every aspect of life too. It’s invaluable, not to mention so much fun!
“By far the biggest lesson I learnt this weekend was that there isn’t only one winner. I may not have lifted the trophy or clinched that title, but I won too! I added a massive three hours of heads-up experience to my resumé. I improved my confidence and ability. I won the respect and support of so many people. Not forgetting the £49,300 I profited too! I may not be the champion, but I definitely won!”
In all, the GUKPT Luton Main Event attracted 284 entries to create a £299,910 prize pool. Among those who made the final were Dean Wilson, Luke Porter and Callum Gordon (FT pictured above) who finished fifth and is now topping the 2024 National Poker League.
There are two more GUKPT Main Events on Grosvenor’s calendar for 2024 - GUKPT Blackpool - Leg 9 starting on October 30 and the GUKPT Grand Final which is being held in Luton (while the Vic is enjoying a refurb) starting November 21.
Accommodation for both these events will be snapped up so don’t delay sorting out your travel for these top two festivals.
Grosvenor’s qualifiers for the €200 MPF Ladies Event, each guaranteeing two packages, are as follows:
Week 1 – starting tonight, Wednesday, September 25:
TWO Ladies MPF Packages Gtd
Day 1s:
Wednesday 25th September 8:30pm
Friday 27th September 8:30pm
Saturday 28th September 8:30pm
Sunday 29th September 7pm
Day 2:
Sunday 29th September 9pm
Week 2: starting Wednesday, October 2
TWO Ladies MPF Packages Gtd
Day 1s:
Wednesday 2nd October 8:30pm
Friday 4th October 8:30pm
Saturday 5th October 8:30pm
Sunday 6th October 7pm
Day 2:
Sunday 6th October 9pm
Week 3: starting Wednesday, October 9
TWO Ladies MPF Packages Gtd
Day 1s:
Wednesday 9th October 8:30pm
Friday 11th October 8:30pm
Saturday 12th October 8:30pm
Sunday 13th October 7pm
Day 2:
Sunday 13th October 9pm
£ GBP
$ USD
€ EUR
