Raul Martinez takes down the 2015 GUKPT Reading for £25k!
One of the most popular £550 buy-in legs on the GUKPT tour has finished after 248 players fought for the title of 2015 GUKPT Reading champion this past weekend. When the dust settled it was London resident Raul Martinez who emerged with the trophy and the lion’s share of the bumper £124,000 prizepool!
Raul, originally from Northern Spain, learnt poker five years ago with a group of close friends and has been an avid player ever since. The £25,250 he walked away with was by far and away his biggest live poker result to date. He plans to invest at least some of it wisely – by taking his girlfriend away on a summer holiday!
One of the biggest stories of the final day was the continued success of Grosvenor Casinos’ satellite qualifiers. Dad of three Lee Doran, local Reading boy Aaron Biggs and interpreter Florian Andrei all made the final table after winning their entry for a fraction of the £550 buy-in amount.
The second stand out story from Reading was the return to a GUKPT final table of two previous champions, David Lloyd (Brighton 2013) and Julian Davies (Cardiff 2015). Lloyd, widely regarded as the most experienced player on the table and indeed many spectators’ favourite to win, would ultimately fall in sixth place after his top pair was outflopped by Raul’s top two. Understandably all eyes were then on Julian Davies who was on a mission to become the first player in the GUKPT’s history to win back-to-back Main Events. It was only last month that fireman Davies went out in blaze of glory as he made a spectacular return to poker by winning the Cardiff Main Event for £25,000. Although he ultimately bowed out in fourth place this time, he left with another five-figure result to add to what is becoming an incredibly impressive year.
That left the stage clear for Raul to clinch the title, although not before an incredibly hard fought heads-up battle against the aggressive Hui Jin. Just before midnight all the chips went in the middle, a classic race with the A-7 of Raul ultimately out flipping the pocket Fives of Hui.
2015 GUKPT Reading final table
[table id=161 /]
The next GUKPT takes place in Leeds from July 26 to August 2. This is the last £500+50 buy-in (£100,000 guaranteed) Main Event of the year before the return of the £1,090 buy-in (£200,000 guaranteed) Main Event in Luton in September.
Shortly after the GUKPT wraps up in Leeds and before the bus heads for Luton, attention turns to Grosvenor Casinos’ record breaking event, the Goliath. The £100+20 buy-in (£250,000 guaranteed) Main Event will be at Grosvenor Casino Coventry from August 8 to August 16. All information can be found here
And why not join the PokerPlayer team in Coventry as we’ll be taking part in the Deep and Steep event on Sunday August 16 at 2pm.
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