Ghatge takes down £85k Unibet Open in London

UK high-stakes cash specialist Pratik Ghatge has been the nearly man until now, but finally he has that elusive major title he’s been chasing. This year’s Unibet Open champ, had to defeat a strong field over four days on his way to lifting the title and claiming the £85,050 first prize, which takes his career tournament earnings to $275,000

The London-born historian admitted after his victory, “I ran pretty good today from the get-go, I got a lot of hands, and I picked up a lot of chips.”

Heading into the nine-handed final table, Ghatge was third in chips with fellow UK player Gavin Eley sixth. Eley eventually went on to claim third for a not-to-shabby £43,090.

After several hours of final table action only two players remained. The heads-up battle Tomasz Kozub from Poland was a very tight affair with play lasting for over an hour. Kozub was always trailing and when he shoved with Qd-Ts, Ghatge who by now had a comfortable lead called with Ah-7h and that was that.

His plans are to spend “at least half” of it on a big blowout trip to Vegas later this year.

But an even bigger congratulations has to go to our very own Ross Jarvis, PokerPlayer Strategy Editor, who took down the £200 buy-in, Unibet Open London Heads-Up Championship for a £4k pay-day! 

The heads-up tourney featured a new format with a group stage followed by semi-final matches. 43 players entered and were split into groups where they played a total of five matches each with the top players going through to the semis.

Ross won all 5 of his matches in the group stage, then won his semi and his best of 3 final 2-0. What an incredible run! Congrats Rossy!!

Here’s how the Main Event final table finished:

9. Sander Hart – Poland – £8,125