Karl Guiness defeated a huge 1,148 field to be the last man standing to win the GGPoker £560 United Kingdom Poker Championship Main Event for £84,875 in Nottingham at Dusk Till Dawn poker club.
Guiness started the day as an above-average stack and managed to maneuver his way through the 169 players who returned for Day 2 to find himself as chip leader heading into the final table. Guiness defeated Elliot Crowder heads-up in a grueling battle to win his first major title and earn his largest cash to date. Before this win Guiness had $75,000 in live tournament earnings.
His opponent Crowder was freerolling the tournament, having won a ticket via a Dusk Till Dawn email competition. Crowder had only been playing poker for three months, and only had a singular live cash to date on his Hendon Mob profile. But the construction industry worker took his chance to earn himself a £70,125 payday.
| Rank | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karl Guiness | United Kingdom | £84,875 |
| 2 | Elliot Crowder | United Kingdom | £70,125 |
| 3 | Chris Wood | United Kingdom | £41,780 |
| 4 | Sandeep Shah | United Kingdom | £30,000 |
| 5 | Ashley Timms | United Kingdom | £22,000 |
| 6 | Thomas High | United Kingdom | £15,000 |
| 7 | Algernon Buchanan | United Kingdom | £10,000 |
| 8 | John Adderley | United Kingdom | £7,000 |
| 9 | Vincenzo Lupoli | Italy | £5,000 |
Early Action
The start-of-day action was all about the conclusion of the last longer contest between Team Robin and Team Firaldo. Only two members managed to make it to Day 2, with Lukas Robinson for his own team and Gurvinder Shergill for Team Firaldo. Ultimately it was Team Firaldo who was victorious as Robinson was eliminated early in the day.
Other notables were eliminated early in the day including Chris Da Silva, Adam Maxwell and Waheed Ashraf.
Andrew Wilson was primed for another deep run in a big field tournament as he maintained a big stack for the opening levels of the day but he couldn't make another final table, following his final table appearance in the UKPC High Roller, as he was eliminated in 19th (£3,000) by eventual champion Guiness and his pocket kings.
The last woman standing was Kathleen Padovani. As the final table bubble approached Padovani was short and kept pushing all in. She was eventually called by Vincenzo Lupoli and lost a flip before being finished off by Guiness.
Final Table Action
Eventual champion Guiness went into the final table with a big chip lead which he would maintain throughout the final table. Italian Lupoli was first to be eliminated as he shoved ace-queen for a short stack only to run into Ashley Timms's pocket queens to be eliminated in ninth.
Next to go was John Adderley who was unlucky to lose ace-king to Guiness's ace jack when all the chips went in preflop. He was shortly followed by the elimination of Algernon Buchanan whose ace-king also couldn't defeat Guiness.
Timms was next to fall victim to Guiness as his king-seven couldn't beat Guiness's ace-ten when the chips went all in pre flop. Sandeep Shah had a comfortable stack at the final table but not in confrontation with Guiness. Guiness had shoved all in on the river and Shah went into the tank before calling but Shah's set was no match for Guiness's straight.
Three-handed action lasted a while before Chris Wood eventually fell at the hands of Guiness.
The heads-up battle between Crowder and Guiness was long and tiresome but Guiness was constantly winning small pots from Crowder. However, the chips eventually went in where Guiness shoved queen-jack only to be called by Crowder's six-nine. Guiness managed to win on the river in order to be crowned the GGPoker United Kingdom Poker Championship Main Event Champion for a payday of £84,875.
