I Love The GUKPT (Part Two)

By Warren Wooldridge

7 September 2007

In the first part I told you how the first couple of days went in the Luton leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) where I got my deepest finish yet. This is how I got to the final table...

For Part One revealing what happened on Days 1 and 2 click here

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Day 3

12 players returned for the final day and the portents for a successful day were all around. The kids had woken up late giving me some much needed rest, Arsenal managed to score twice between the M1 and the car park to win their opening match of the season, and most importantly I seemed to have an excellent draw. I had avoided the strongest player left, Adam Stoneham, had the extreme short stack on my left and Nik Persaud on my right.

After 40 minutes I hadn’t won a single pot. One move had gone wrong and the only consolation was that 12 players left had become 11. When I was forced to go all in with 7-7 against A-K it looked like I could be heading out in 11th place. But the first card off the deck was a beautiful red 7 and the double-up took me off life support.

A few minutes later the absolute crucial hand of the whole tournament came knocking. Nik and I had not exactly been soft playing each other when left in the blinds but we frequently saw a flop. And so it was again when I found K-3 in the Big Blind. A flop of K-2-2 was checked around and when the turn brought another King my heart rate rose ever so slightly. Even more so when Nik bet out saying he thought his Queen high was good. The river was the miracle 3 but when Nik now checked I assumed I wouldn’t get paid off. I bet a speculative 50,000 and Nik beat me into the pot announcing all-in. Quad 2s did flash through my mind but I couldn’t pass, could I? Nik tabled K-J and almost apologetically I dragged in the monster pot.

Now with now more than 500k in chips I was second only to Alan Vinson and assured of my first televised final table. Nik’s misery was compounded a few minutes later when he couldn’t get A-Q to beat A-6 and finished a very unlucky 10th.

The next hour or so, whilst exciting, was a bit farcical. For the final table the walk-ons were shot a couple of times, the lighting, logos and sound were adjusted, and it seemed ages before play started again.

It has been well documented that it was an extremely ‘rocky’ final table and you can make up your own minds when the show airs in November. The final went on far longer than I hoped once I had taken a commanding chip lead but I couldn’t seem to land the killer blow.

I will be interested to see one hand in particular when we were three-handed that may have seen all of us holding pocket pairs. If that had played out differently (I was dominating with Q-Q) then I may have won it there and then.

Alas, it wasn’t to be and I finished second, good for £50,000. Not a bad result but not a win. Heads-up with Dave Clark I lost my remaining chips with Q-8 on an 8-6-4 board after check-raising all-in only to run into Dave's pocket Kings. Obviously, I was disappointed not to win it but it was a hell of a run and has given me a lot of confidence for the busy month of September.

Until next time,

Warren Wooldridge