The £1,100+£150 buy-in GUKPT Manchester Main Event drew a field of 436 entries over its three starting flights and generated an impressive £454,400, which was distributed among the top 56 players. In the end, France’s Vince Meli emerged victorious, taking home the coveted title and a substantial £83,895 in prize money. This was his largest score this year, surpassing the £58,690 he scored last month for his third place finish in the 1st leg of the GUKPT Main Event, which crowned a winner in Luke Porter who had defeated Tom Hall in the heads-up to claim the £116,710 top prize.
Total Entries – 436
Prizepool: £454,400
Places Paid- 56 (dday
Min Cash – £2, 250
The latest main event ended in a three-way deal with Tom Laghzaoui finishing runner-up for an impressive £72,700 and Jamie Brown walking away with a cool £64,240 for his 3rd place showing.
The third and final day of the main event on 11th February saw 19 players return to battle it out for the title and £100,000 top prize. James Parker (1,263,000 – 105BB) held the lead lead with Vince Meli holding the 9th largest stack with 436k – 36 BB).
George Pop (19th for £3,150) was the first elimination on the final day and was followed by Bo Le (18th for £3,150), Youness Barakat (17th for £3,300), Nathan Slater (16th for £3,300), Michael Howard (15th for £3,700) and Stuart Rutter (14th for £3,700). Stuart Rutter (13th place for £4,100), and Grosvenor Poker Pro Katie Swift (11th place for £5,600) fell a few spots shy of the coveted final table.
Final Table
The final table was reached after the elimination of Simon Taberham in 10th place for £7,200. The first casualty from the final table was Rob Douras who got it in against the kings of Lee Tatters. Surprisingly, the next to leave the final table was the start of the day chip leader in James Parker who, after getting short, shoved with A-2 and ran into the pocket nines of Vince. He was followed by Dean Hutchinson whose A-5 ran into the A-K of Tom Laghzaoui. A few hands later, Vince busted Bin Fu in 6th place. Fu shoved with QJ against the A-6 of Vince. A Little later, Lee Tatters ran his A-3 into the A-10 of Tom and got eliminated in 5th.
As the final table narrowed to the last four players, Vince Meli further solidified his position by busting Paul Trotter in 4th place. The final three, comprising Meli, Laghzaoui, and Brown, struck a heads-up deal. Ultimately, Meli emerged victorious. On the final hand of the touranment, Meli shoved on the river of the 5-Q-2-4-10 board for 3.4 million into the 3 million pot, and Laghzaoui called for his remaining 2.3 million stack. Laghzaoui had Q-3, which failed to hold against the Q-J of Meli. Laghzaoui, who placed second in the 2022 GUKPT Leeds Main Event, had to settle for runner-up finish, while Meli became the GUKPT Main Event champion.
Keep following PokerproNews for the latest updates and news from the ongoing EPT Paris series.
Final Table Payouts
1- Vince Meli – £83,895
2 – Tom Laghzaoui – £64,240,
3- Jamie Brown – £64,240*
4- Paul Trotter – £31,300*
5 – Lee Tatters – £21,300.
6 – Bin Fu – £15,000
7- Dean Hutchinson – £12,000
8- James Parker – £10,400
9 – Rob Douras – £8,800
Image Credit: Grosvenor Poker
