Do bear in mind that my regular blog is at http://razorsharppro.wordpress.com

Greetings poker fans, and let me welcome you to another exciting instalment of the happenings of the UK poker scene.

It’s been a busy last couple of weeks for me both on and off the
tables and continuing where I left off on Sunday let’s get right back
into the think of the action:

Congratulations are in order for Birmingham’s Vincent Price on taking down the  GUKPT Walsall leg of the Summer Series.

After seeing off a tough field featuring the odd poker professional
that included Mickey Wernick and Liam ‘the gentleman’ Flood, Vincent
also saw off challenges from seasoned UK tournament circuit players
like Maria Demetriou and GUKPT Champion of Champion’s winner Ash
Hussain.

Several Cardiff players were in attendance including 6-card PLO
sickos Marco Clarke and Rana Gurnham and Neil Channing and Nik
Persaud’s stable of  Blackbeltpoker.comqualifiers in the form of Henry Griffiths (another South Wales boy)
John Lundy and Toby Lewis were also on hand to give Mr Price a run for
his money.

The price it seemed, was right for 21-year-old Birmingham native and
Broadway casino regular Vincent, who was playing in his first big
buy-in live tournament (note, not his first live tournament just his
first tourney with a buy-in over £100).

After eliminating four of the nine players on the final table,
crushing each in quick succession Vince found himself heads-up with
19-year-old Blackbeltpoker.com bluebelt Toby Lewis after Toby
dispatched third place finisher Simon Wickenden with the mighty Ace
King; which beat Simon’s Pocket Sixes in an all-in pre-flop race.

An epic hour-and-a-half heads-up battle ensued where the chip lead
changed hands several times, but it was victory for Vincent when his
turned full house on a 6-4-9-4-8 board proved too strong for Toby’s
King Nine when all the money went in on the river.

“I’m over the moon, shocked still really, it still hasn’t sunk in
yet and I can’t believe it. This is the first big tournament that I’ve
ever played in and the first big tournament that I’ve ever bought into
before for £500. This is the first real big cash that I’ve ever won,’
confirmed an ecstatic Mr Price, who has been a regular on the
Birmingham live circuit for the last three years.

GUKPT Walsall leg winner Vincent Price. Image courtesy of the GUKPT/BlueSquare

“My heads-up opponent Toby [Blackbeltpoker.com blue belt Toby Lewis]
was solid and was the one player going on to the final table that I
didn’t want to get involved in many pots with. He was a very solid
player and heads-up went on for an hour and a half – it was a brilliant
match against him and all credit to him he was very persistent and he
raised my blinds like 90% of the time. He’s played in almost all of the
GUKPT’s and I’m sure he’ll win one later on down the line; he’s
definitely got the talent for it.”

Both Vincent and Toby agreed to a deal where both took around
£16,000 for there troubles and played out for the prestige of the
trophy and a seat in the £100,000 Champion of Champion’s tournament
held at the end of the year in the Vic.

“I’m really looking forward to December, the Champion of Champion’s
event. Funnily enough, when I actually bought into the tournament I
didn’t even know that there was a seat for that tournament. It will be
a very tough event with all the winners of the other events so it won’t
be a walk in the park at all,’ confirmed Vince.

MBN…

Needless to say, while I played in the £200 side event (where I
managed to run my Pocket Kings into Pocket Aces in a blind v blind
battle on level three… doh!) my cash return for the weekend was
somewhat less than £16,000.

I did however manage to make £300 playing in the casino’s local £50
triple-chance deep-stack on Sunday after we all agreed to a 12-way chop.

What? A twelve way chop… Now while deals are part and parcel of
tournament poker, I usually like to play them out to a conclusion, but…
well being as the tourney didn’t start until 21:30 (after I had
finished all my work, obviously…) by the time 03:30 came around with 12
very evenly stacked players left, and still facing a two hour drive
back to Cardiff, when someone mentioned some quick, easy money the
mercenary in me jumped at the opportunity.

Working nine till five

Well, more like twelve till six by the time I crawled out of bed
after arriving home at 05:30am, but I have been cranking out the
features this week.

I’ve just sent off my tourney report to Poker News UK so you can read in more detail about the GUKPT’s fine Summer Series.

On a juicy gossip note, after chatting to Jonathan Rabb, the GUKPT
tour manager it seems that we might not have seen the last of the
Summer Series:

“We have recently bought the Isle of Capri casino, which is in the
Rico Stadium in Coventry, that’s now going to be turned into a G-casino
and we will be hoping to have a GUKPT event there soon… it’s quite
possible that there may well be a Summer Series event 4 in there in
September, but we have yet to finalise those details,” teased Jonathan.

He also hinted that the GUKPT maybe Europe bound next year, with a
possibility of a leg or two in Belgium as the Rank Group own two
casinos out there that have recently started spreading poker games.

Remember folks, you read it here first

SCOOOOOOOOOP!!

VisitPoker News UK for the full low-down.

Right well, I’ve got me some feature to write for Poker Pro Europe
as well (I’ll let you know more details closer to the time) and still
have to put some work into my Micro-stakes Mission as well as conquer
the world of online poker.

Super-stardom here we come…