41-year old Terry Owens heads into today’s final as the current chip leader with over 100,000 more chips than his nearest competitor. Hailing from Liverpool, Owens is a landlord by day, but does boast previous GUKPT experience having finished eighth in the 2008 Walsall GUKPT, which, coincidentally, was the same event where neighbour Jeff Kimber took gold.

Marc Wright isn’t the former Derby and England football International, but a 22-year old young gun from Cornwall. Currently playing professionally, Marc’s specialty is online tournaments, but he’s equally apt live having cashed twice in GUKPT side events during 2009, including a third place n the £300 event in Cardiff.

New casino, new season… same old faces. Having whittled down our original crowd of 146 to a final table of 10, we are graced with two former GUKPT winners in Jeff Kimber and reigning champion Priyan de Mel, the latter of whom is looking to become the first player to win back-to-back £1,000 GUKPT titles.

If that wasn’t enough in terms of experience, we also have Aaron Barry who, like Jeff, will be entering into his third final table, the first of which was coincidentally in the 2008 Walsall, won by none other than Jeff Kimber. And who else was on that table?… Terry Owens. Boy, this is getting confusing.

But, in truth, it’s not just the permanent fixtures propping up this final table, but also a handful of Day Three virgins with Phillip Booth, Mark Robinson, Marc Wright, James Sykes, Justin Devonport and Andrew Purser all making their final table debuts. In fact, Phillip Booth, who was previously reported for his “curious play”, is rumoured to be playing in his first live tournament - a quite remarkable feat for the Preston-based player.

With all this in mind, tomorrow should deliver a rather intriguing spectacle, with the promise of plenty of action, so be sure to join us at 2pm as we search for this year’s first GUKPT Champion of the year. Until then, look after yourselves, and each other.

These are the chip counts of the final ten. Play will resume at 2pm on Sunday.

Player  - Chips
Terence Owens  - 425,000
Justin Devonport  - 318,500
James Sykes  - 252,000
Marc Wright  - 225,500
Priyan de Mel  - 225,500
Jeff Kimber  - 207,000
Aaron Barry  - 163,000
Mark Robinson  - 129,000
Andrew Purser  - 128,000
Phillip Booth  - 120,500

It looks set to be an interesting final table, with two previous main event winners and two other players who have previously graced final tables.

And after much teasing, the bubble has finally burst and we have our final table. Two hands played out simultaneously, but as Terry Owens folded to a flop bet from Aaron Barry on one table, an all-in and a call was announced on the other, former GUKPT winner Jeff Kimber coin flipping against Marcin Milde with As-Qd versus Td-Ts.

But whilst A-Q was his downfall last time against Priyan de Mel, it came up trumps on this occasion, the dealer rolling out a 9h-3s-Qs-6d-8d to hand him the victory. Milde, meanwhile, was covered, and thus became our 10th man and unfortunate bubble boy. He seemed accepting in defeat, shaking the hand of his assassin before heading off to the side-event to share his woes with anyone who’d listen.

Well, it was a somewhat short battle rather than the 100 Year War, but nevertheless, it was Andrew Purser who dealt the first blow, raising it up to 21,000 from the small blind. Mark Robinson (pictured) pushed for 91,500 more, and after a brief dwell, that was that: Purser folded and Robinson picked up the pot.

A curious hand just occured involving unknown - well, to me anyhow - Phillip Booth. It was curious enough when he made a rare call, limping from the button after the players before him had folded. Priyan de Mel made up the small blind and Marc Wright checked his option.

On the 9c-Ah-5c flop, de Mel and Wright both checked, allowing Booth to lead out for 8,000. De Mel passed, but Wright called.

The 9s saw a similar pattern: a check from Wright, a bet of 8,000 from Booth, and a quick flat call from Wright.

As the Jc river fell, it was Wright who took control of the action, becoming the aggressor by leading out for 30,000. Booth shrugged his shoulders, paused and then trickled the chips in front of him, just an inch prior to the line. ”Is that a call?” inquired Wright. “Yes,” came the reply.

On that note, Wright revealed Tc-9d, confident he was ahead with his turned trips, but he wasn’t. In fact, he was a fair few furlongs behind as Booth surprised everyone by tabling As-9h for a full house. ”Why didn’t you raise?” came the inevitable interrogation, but I’m not sure if we ever received an answer.

Curious indeed, and perhaps another example of the imposing power of the ever-foreboding bubble.

Following a familiar pattern from  previous hands, on both tables, Jeff Kimber raised it up to 25,000 preflop only for one of the table short stacks, Priyan de Mel on this occasion, to come over the top and move all in. 71,500 was the shout, but it didn’t take too long for Kimber to call, laying a credible As-Qd onto the felt. Sadly for the sponsored pro, his timing was slightly off on this hand, as de Mel was sitting pretty with Ks-Kc. A “good luck” wish and a Ts-Kh-5d-6d-8s board later and de Mel had doubled up, leaving Kimber with a diminished stack of 90,000. With the blinds high, it’s still anyone’s game.

… thanks to Jeff Kimber only being able to muster 5-3 off-suit in the big blind after youngster Marcin Milde of Leeds pushed all in. He may have snapped up the blinds and antes, but he remains a short stack with just one exit to go before the final whistle is blown.

Former Grand Final runner upper Sami Yusef will have to wait until Walsall before staking claim to his first title, as he’s just been disposed of here in Bolton’s Main Event. It was a classic coinflip situation in the end, Yusef looking for big cards to go with his Ah-Jd in the face of Jeff Kimber’s Tc-Ts. The board did indeed bring “big cards”, but the wrong kind, an 8d-3c-5d-Kc-Qs not quite enough to keep Yusef alive.

At this point, we dipped back into hand-for-hand, and players were reminded that if there is an all-in and a call, they sould refrain from revealing their hands as it may influence the action on the other table.