Big field, big money

Author: Simon Dexter

The Devilfish and John Kalmar were among a mammoth field of 424 players who lined up for the GUKPT London Victoria event, the fourth of the season, which ended on Monday with 23-year-old online pro Ketul Nathwani winning a tasty £119,780 first prize.

Some of the biggest names in UK poker were present, including Littlewoods Poker pro Tony Cascarino and his former Millwall sidekick, ex-England striker Teddy Sheringham. Unlike their old days at the Den however, the pair for once failed to trouble the official scorers.

With a £424,000 prize pool at stake, each hand was fiercely contested, although perhaps the tourney’s most dramatic hand was dealt to Late Night Poker finalist Maria Demetriou. She held pocket kings, against pocket queens and not one, but two other sets of pocket aces. A queen flopped, but a king came on the river and she ended up taking down an awesome four- way all in.

Nathwani had previously enjoyed a deep finish in the 2007 WSOP, but this was his first major live result in the UK and we will no doubt see him at the next leg, which takes place in Manchester next month.

You could be there too! If you win a Monte Carlo EPT package we’ll give you a free seat to the GUKPT Manchester! Find out more, click here.