Polish maths teacher becomes first ever female Genting Poker Series winner
It’s a woman’s world! After outlasting a 400-strong field, Polish player Ellie Biessek, who currently works as a maths teacher in Southampton, walked away as champion from this season’s Newcastle leg of the Genting Poker Series and became the first ever female winner of a GPS event.
The second leg of the 2013 tour took place at the Genting Casino Newcastle and the £440 buy-in Main Event lasted for two days. Thanks to this year’s big turnout, the total prizepool exceeded the £100k guarantee by an impressive £60k, meaning that this year’s winner stood to walk away with almost £40k.
Like a lot of these event’s there was no shortage of star talent in attendance with the likes of Karl Mahrenholz, Jonathan Gill and George Clyde-Smith the most recognisable faces.
But it was 30-year-old Biessek who has been a regular now on the circuit for the past two years who would prove the star of the show. And Biessek is no newcomer when comes to playing a staring role either with more than her share of impressive finishes. The most notable being £4k for a victory in a GPS side-event last year, £9.2k for a final table appearance at the GPS London, plus the Polish sensation also racked up €13.2k for her third place finish in the Belgian leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour.
But none of her previous results comes close to the result in Newcastle and speaking after the win Biessek said: “I am absolutely thrilled, very happy indeed. I didn’t get Aces or Queens once during the whole tournament, but I ground it out and I always thought that the trophy had my name on it because it is engraved with one of my favourite numbers, 13!”
Following this record breaking event, the next stop on the GPS tour will be the Genting Club Sheffield in May.
Here is how the final table finished up:
1. Ellie Biessek – £38,750
2. Jamie Rutherford – £25,600
3. George Clyde-Smith – £19,010
4. Dan Woodford – £14,880
5. Jimmy Charlton – £11,840
6. Jonathan Gill – £8,960
7. Ashraf “Wadey” Waheed – £6,400
8. Dom Mahoney – £4,320
9. Dan Hemmingway – £2,720
