Jonathan McCann has scored his biggest ever live cash by taking down the £1,250 buy-in GUKPT London Main Event for £89,122. The Cumbria-based player was part of an ICM three-way deal with Cal Morreale and Devan-Kumar Patel which left the title, trophy, and £10,000 to play for.
The huge win brings McCann (pictured) ever closer to reaching the million dollars milestone in live tournament wins. The Main Event attracted 459 entries, generating a £504,900 prize pool. A total of 44 players were paid with a min cash worth £2,650.
Winners aside, the stand-out performance of GUKPT Leg 1 was undoubtedly Cal Morreale (pictured above on GUKPT Main Event Final Table). Not only did the Dunstable-based Italian finish second in the Main Event - for £65,950 - but he also came second in the Mystery Bounty for a further £14,650 and made the last two tables in the Mini Main. Busy boy!! Morreale is a GUKPT regular and played dozens of events last year, ultimately finishing third in the Grosvenor National Poker. That achievement won him a £20,000 Diamond Package and he’s already leading the 2023 leaderboard on 94 points. Short-stacked, he bust to champion Jon McCann when he shoved with K9 for ten big blinds. Jon’s Ace high was good enough to take the title, trophy and first prize.
Devan Patel, who was chip leader at the end of Day 1b, finished third for £98,787. Like all the Day 1 chip leaders, Devan wins a seat into next month’s £1,500 UK Poker Open Main Event. Others who cashed in London include Trevor Reardon, Steve Watts, 2022 WSOP Main Event Final Tablist John Eames, Tamer Kamel, and Chris Da-silva.
Another great performance in London came from Seb Jung who went back-to-back with GUKPT Cup wins. He won the last GUKPT Cup at the Grand Final in December and now he has now won it again. He beat a 294-entry field to win £32,800!!
GUKPT London was the first stop of the 2023 tour and marks the start of the GUKPT’s 16th season. It took place from January 12 to 22 the Poker Room at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino with a total of 15 different live tournaments including the £100,000 guaranteed Main Event.
The schedule also included a £25,000 guaranteed Mini Main, £250 + £250 + £50 buy-in Mystery Bounty, a £1k PLO High Roller and a £2k NLH High Roller, the new £500 GUKPT Cup, a £150 Seniors tournament and a £150 + £150 + £30 PLO 4/5/6 Bounty.
For Matt Davenport, GUKPT London marked his first outing as a member of Team Grosvenor. The 47-year-old from Macclesfield, who kept up an unassailable lead for months to become the 2022 Grosvenor Player of the Year, plans to play all the GUKPTs this year along as well as next month’s UK Poker Open and Goliath in July.
The Leg 1 festival also hosted the 2022 National Poker League Play off to determine which players from the 2022 Leaderboard receive £5k prize packages for the 2023 season. GUKPT London is the first qualifying event in this year’s National Poker League. Over the course of the year, players can garner points in 100 different events all over the country to win a £40k Player of the Year sponsorship package and a host of other prizes. Players can rack up points at GUKPT events, the new UK Poker Open event and Goliath in July as well as the 25/25 series, 25/50 series and Deepstack series
Grosvenor 2023 schedule
Following London, the tour heads up to GUKPT Manchester from February 2-12, then the UK Poker Open starting on February 24 Blackpool in March, Edinburgh in May, then Luton, London #2, a second trip to Luton, Leg 8 in Leeds, Blackpool #2 and then back to London for the Grand Final. Also on the Grosvenor schedule for 2023 is the new UK Poker Open event starting February 19 in Coventry plus Goliath in July and at least 16 different 25/25 Series events. That’s a lot going on – but luckily you can start your planning now with MainEventTravel.com!
Photo credits: Grosvenor Poker
£ GBP
$ USD
€ EUR
