Londoner takes down opening leg of 2013 GUKPT in his home city
A huge congratulations to Martin Bader on being crowned GUKPT London champion following his win on the first leg of this year’s tour. Taking place at the famous Victoria Grosvenor Casino on Edgware Road, Bader saw off a star-studded field of 397 entrants to collect the first major title of his career along with the £56,000 pay cheque.
The London local is no stranger to the GUKPT though and his extensive list of impressive tour finishes is testament to that. His career highlight being his 2009 Pot-Limit Omaha side event title.
Heading into the final day of the £1,070 buy-in Main Event, twenty-one players remained in with a chance, but it was “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier who was the early favourite. The German pro is currently in the middle of one of the hottest tournament streaks in poker history and is coming right of the back of a third place finish at last weeks Irish Open. But like in Dublin this was not to be Rettenmaier’s week and his luck ran out when he came up against Bader who sent him to the rail in 16th place.
The high-profile scalp was clearly a big boost to Bader’s confidence and also his chip stack and the Englishman used the extra momentum to propel himself to the final table, which he started third in chips.
After some early casualties it took a while to eliminate eventual 6th place finisher Jamie Roberts, but following his exit, it was time for the first of three final table deals. After some deliberation the remaining five came to the agreement that everyone would walk away with at least £45,000, while the the remaining £38,630 would be left for the winner.
Following Roberts to the rail, next to go was the early final-table, chip-leader Marc Wright after his ace-queen lost out to Bader’s king-queen, which ended up rivering the straight.
Once Wright was gone, the group decided to make another deal, this time guaranteeing the four remaining players £50,000 each, and now leaving only £18,000 to the winner. Duval exited just behind Wright in fourth and again at the hands of the seemingly unstoppable Bader. Only a few hands later David Barraclough dispatched of Paul Alterman and the heads-up match had been decided.
Despite Bader’s excellent run of play, Barraclough had knocked out the majority of the big stacks and as a result held a commanding six-to-one chip lead. But once again, before the pair could get down to playing a third and final deal was struck, this one gave Bader £6k while Barraclough took the remaining £12k. Once the money was divvied up, all that was left to do was play for the trophy and its associated bragging rights.
Surprisingly with the pressure completely off, Bader started to dominate winning pretty much all of the early pots, both big and small. But the decisive moment came when the Londoner got all of his chips in on the flop holding top pair versus Barraclough’s ambitious Ace-King. Barraclough didn’t hit one of his cards and Bader found himself the four-to-one leader. With Barraclough clearly ruffled after throwing away such a big lead it began to show and only a few hands later his over-aggression got the better of him and he went all-in with only king-five. Bader on the contrary seemed only too happy to call with his ace-nine. The board improved neither players hands and from the very brink of defeat Bader has risen to become the GUKPT London champion.
Here is how the final table finished up:
1. Martin Bader – £56,000***
2. David Barraclough – £62,000***
3. Paul Alterman – £50,000**
4. Jeff Duval – £50,000**
5. Marc Wright – £45,000*
6. Jamie Roberts – £16,670
7. Chiraag Thanki – £13,100
8. Antonio Millan – £9,530
9. Sin Melin – £7,150
*denotes deal struck when five-handed
** denotes deal struck when four-handed
***denotes deal struck when heads-up
