GCBPT Teesside result

A novice poker enthusiast has beaten amateur and professional poker players alike to win the Teesside leg of the Gala Casinos British Poker Tour (GCBPT) landing the title of Teesside GCBPT champion. Anthony Arlott defeated runner-up Jim O’Connell heads up to scoop the £30,000 prize.

Arlott, a 45-year-old financial adviser from Leicester, battled through four days of tough competition at the Gala Casino Teesside to win the cash prize. He will now go forward to the UK final which will see the tour return to Gala’s flagship Harbourside Casino in Bristol from 1st to 7th December. Here Arlott will compete against regional winners from across the country for the coveted GCBPT championship title.

With 212 runners and a packed reserve list, the GCBPT has continued its over-subscribed form and with a massive Main Event prize fund of £111,000 there was much to play for at Gala Casinos Teesside.

Arlott said: “It’s very difficult to put into words right now, I think it’ll take a while to sink in, but I still feel brilliant. It’s been a marathon four-day effort at a brilliant tournament with very high standards of play; the GCBPT is a really prestigious competition.”

Gala Casinos Teesside manager, Stephen Andrew, said: “This really is the People’s Poker Tour. The sportsmanship displayed by the players reflected the overall friendly atmosphere of the event, where amateurs and professionals play alongside one another for the chance to win.”

The total festival prize money for the week was £155,950; full details of all the events plus hand-by-hand reporting of the Main Event can be found at www.gcbpokertour.com.

This is the second year of the GCBPT, which was created in response to poker’s ever increasing popularity across the UK. As well as a massive cash prize pool in excess of £1 million, poker professionals, amateur players and poker novices alike will compete for the ultimate accolade of GCBPT Champion 2008.