GUKPT Cardiff Result

GUKPT Cardiff, £1,000 no-limit Hold’em, 3-6th September 2009

Entrants: 120
Buy-in: £1,000
Prize pool: £120,000

1. Karl Mahrenholz, £38,700
2. Iwan Jones, £24,200
3. Craig Swotton, £17,400
4. Andreas Hoivold, £10,800
5. Jon Kalmar, £7,800
6. Tristan McDonald, £6,000
7. Andreas Papantoniou, £4,800
8. James Martin, £3,600
9. Daniel Nutt, £2,500

27-year-old Karl Mahrenholz has won leg 7 of the GUKPT at the Grosvenor casino in Cardiff. He defeated a field of 120 players to claim victory and take home the first prize of £38,700 and a seat in the Champion of Champions tournament.

He defeated Iwan Jones in a tense heads up battle. Iwan, who won $750,000 at the 2005 London Open, went into the final stage of the tournament with a 3-1 chip lead over Karl, but after an hour of small pot poker Karl drew level after flopping a straight against Iwan’s flush draw. A few hands later Karl emerged victorious after winning the vast majority of the chips in a race with A-K versus A-Q and it was all over the very next hand when Iwan, who only had 13,000 left was forced to put it all in with T-7. Karl had A-4 and it held up to give him the third GUKPT victory for the Hitsquad.

Karl finished as runner-up to Praz Bansi in the inaugural GUKPT event in Bolton in 2007 and this was his third main event final table on the GUKPT. A former City analyst, Karl gave up his day job four years ago to become a professional poker player and is one of the most highly respected pros on the UK circuit. He has consistently done well in live events, but this is his first victory in a major tournament.

Although it was the smallest GUKPT main event field to date, the final table was one of the highest quality affairs ever witnessed in the three year history of the tour. It included 2007 WSOP finalist Jon Kalmar, Norwegian Andreas Hoivold, internet pro Craig Swotton and Londoner Tristan McDonald. Daniel Nutt was the short stack going into the 9-man final and he was the first player to be eliminated, followed by James Martin and Andreas Papantoniou in 8th and 7th places respecively. Tristan McDonald, who last month cashed in the Luton main event finished in 6th place.

The five handed stage of the game then went on for over three hours, during which the lead changed hands several times. Jon Kalmer was a big chip leader at one stage, but after a series of hands in which he doubled up some of the shorter stacked players, he became the 5th place finisher. Moments later, Iwan Jones eliminated Andreas Hoivold in 4th and just a few hands later Craig Swotton became his next victim.