French player Vince Meli (pictured below) has won the GUKPT Manchester Main Event at the second leg of this year’s GUKPT. He scored £83,895 after beating Tom Laghzaoui heads-up. The victory comes just one month after Meli finished third at GUKPT London for £58,690. Meli, He now has more than $680k in live tournament winnings.
Scottish pro Dean Hutchison, (on FT pictured above) who won GUKPT Coventry last year and was sixth in last summer’s WSOP Main Event, was seventh for £12,000. Grosvenor Sponsored Pro Katie Swift finished 11th for £5,600. Stuart Rutter, who won GUKPT Luton last September and had another deep run at GUKPT Blackpool in November, was 13th for £4,100.
Youness Barakat was 17th for £3,300. He was the Day 1a chip leader and, along with Day 1b chip leader Paul Trotter and Nathan Lee Jones for Day 1c, wins a ticket for the UK Poker Open which starts February 23.
There were Main Event 426 entries in all, creating a £454,400 prize pool.
2023 Player of the Year Cal Morreale (pictured below) is already leading this year’s National Poker League, just ahead of Callum Gordon. He finished 22nd in the Main Event for £3,000. AND he took down the
Side event results
There were 11 different tournaments at GUKPT Manchester which took place February 1 to February 11.
Grosvenor Sponsored Pro Euan McNicholas (pictured below) took down the £1,500 High Roller for £37,540 after besting a 110-entry field. McNicholas burst onto the poker scene in 2021 winning some huge events including his first GUKPT Main Event and one of the special online GUKPT Main Events. These results were just some of the many cashes that landed him the National Poker League top prize in 2021.
The £250 GUKPT Manchester Mini Main Event attracted a staggering 851 entries with Mo Abdelkader winning £30,410! A total of 112 players got a share of the £173,170 prize pool.
Michael Humphreys won the GUKPT Manchester Cup, beating a 199-entry field to win £21,470.
Alex Montgomery won the £150 + £150 + £30 Mystery Bounty for £11,610. He also picked up £1,500 in bounties. The winner of the £10k bounty remains … well … a mystery as he elected to stay anonymous. The Grosvenor 2023 Player of the Year Cal Morreale, now a member of Team Grosvenor after winning a £40k sponsorship package, won £2,500 in bounties and finished 17th for another £470. Thomas Cazaletz took down the £200 NLH turbo, beating an 85-entry field to win £3,660. Paul Rigg won the £250 buy-in PLO, beating a 114-entry field to win £5,840.
Up next – UK Poker Open + GUKPT Blackpool
There is barely time to unpack after Manchester before the UK Poker Open kicks off on February 23 at the Grosvenor Casino Coventry at the CBS Arena (below), home to the annual Goliath festival. The UK Open features ten events in total, including the £1,500 buy-in Main Event which starts on Wednesday, February 28. The schedule gives players plenty of opportunities to win their way into tournaments with a bunch of super satellites also running at the venue. Trung Moc won last year’s inaugural UK Poker Open, beating a 1,086-strong field to win £325,190. The prize pool was £1,407,000. Click here to view the full UKPO Schedule.
Check out our guide to Coventry and book your accommodation soon
to make sure you get to stay exactly where you want!
GUKPT Blackpool also gets underway soon with a top-notch festival from March 10-17. Click the GUKPT Blackpool event page for more details – and how to secure a great place to stay in this fun, seaside resort.
As always, MainEventTravel.com, the GUKPT’s Official Travel Partner, can help players with all their travel needs for the UK Poker Open. Convenient hotels near the Coventry Building Society Arena venue include the DoubleTree and the Novotel.
GUKPT stops in 2024
Following Manchester, the GUKPT tour will be heading to Blackpool in March, Leeds from April 4 to 14 and Luton starting April 25. Then it’s back to London in May, Edinburgh in June, a second trip to Luton in September, Blackpool #2 in October and then the final leg of 2024 back in London for the Grand Final.
National Poker League
Don’t forget Grosvenor’s exciting National Poker League Player of the Year contest. 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 including GUKPT events, the new UK Poker Open event and Goliath in July.
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