22-year-old Londoner Tony Phillips has won the 5th leg of the 2009 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in Newcastle. He scooped the £47,200 first prize by outlasting a field of 151 competitors in the £1,000 no limit Texas hold’em tournament. Phillips, who last year finished as runner up to Ketul Nathwani in leg 3 of the 2008 tour, is the youngest player to win a GUKPT main event. He defeated Steve Jelinek heads up in the fastest final table in the tour’s history. In the final hand, which took place at just 6.20pm, Phillips held A-J to Jelinek’s pocket nines. A jack on the flop settled the encounter in favour of the youngster.

Phillips was the overnight chip leader after the second day of the tournament and by the time the 9-man final started, he had increased his chip lead even further, commanding over a quarter of the 1.5 million chips in play. Steve Jelinek was in second place when the final started with 150,000 fewer than the chip leader. Norwegian Henning Granstad started the final in third place and maintained that position right up until his exit against the eventual winner. His compatriot Andreas Hoivold looked almost certain to make his third GUKPT final table, but the 2007 EPT Dortmund winner fell just short, exiting in 11th place when his pocket kings were busted by Jelinek’s pocket tens.

The final started off fast and furiously, with four players biting the felt during the first 30 minutes of play. Phillips and Jelinek took two scalps apiece during this early period of carnage and the pace of the game never slowed. Onlookers were quick to comment that it could all be over before the dinner break and with 20-minutes to go until the roast beef was served, the heads up stage had already been reached, by which time Phillips held a commanding chip lead.

The final table also included Dave Clark, a previous main event winner, but he was eliminated in 4th place on this occasion. Peter Smithson took 5th while online tournament pro Laurence Houghton, who was competing in his 2nd GUKPT main event final table exited in 6th. Haitao (Colin) Wu, Mohamed Muse and Finn Stewart completed the final table line up, finishing in 7th, 8th and 9th places respectively.

The main tour takes a break now until August when the 6th leg takes place at the G casino in Luton. However, the action continues next month with the GUKPT Summer Series, which consists of three mini-festivals taking place on consecutive weekends during June in Bolton, Aberdeen and Walsall. Each features a £500 main event plus two support tournaments. Full details of the Summer Series schedule can be found on the tour’s official website at www.gukpt.com.

The results in full:

Place  - Player  - Prize  - GUKPT Ranking Points
1st  - Tony Phillips  - £47,200  - 100
2nd  - Steve Jelinek  - £30,200  - 80
3rd  - Henning Granstad  - £20,400  - 64
4th  - Dave Clark  - £12,850  - 52
5th  - Peter Smithson  - £9,050  - 44
6th  - Laurence Houghton  - £7,550  - 36
7th  - Haitao (Colin) Wu  - £6,050  - 28
8th  - Mohamed Muse  - £4,550  - 20
9th  - Finn Stewart  - £3,000  - 16
10th  - Andreas Hoivold  - £2,250  - 12
11th  - Syed Zaidi  - £1,900  - 10
12th  - William Haughey  - £1,500  - 10
13th  - Surinder Sunar  - £1,500  - 10
14th  - Mark James  - £1,500  - 10
15th  - Sam Trickett  - £1,500  - 5

In the interview afterwards, Tony Phillips said he would have preferred not to play either Henning Granstad or Steve Jelinek heads-up and paid tribute to how well Steve have played in the last couple of days, especially when card dead. Meanwhile, Steve Jelinek thanked all the staff at Grosvenor and Blue Square for the tournament and how everything was run, while generously giving praise to Phillips’ victory.
As an aside, Ganesh Rao, last year’s winner took down thew £250 side event here moments before the main event finished, “I should just live here,” he laughed.

The main tour takes a break for the summer, but in it’s place is the Grosvenor Summer Series, three £500 freezeouts being held in Walsall, Aberdeen and Bolton over the summer to quench your poker thirst and the GUKPT will return in August at the Luton G Casino.

Hope to see you there!

Phillips raises to 32,000 from the button and Steve Jelinek calls but folds to a bet on the Qs-Tc-7d flop.

The next time Phillips raises from the button, Jelinek moves all-in instantly and Phillips quickly folds.

Phillips raises again on the button and the board of Q-T-8-9-J gets checked down. Phillips and Jelinek split it with 5h-5s and 6s-4s respectively.

Jelinek limps the button, Phillips makes it 50k and Jelinek moves all-in. Phillips folds.

Tony Phillips raises to 32k on the button again, Jelinek moves all-in. This time Phillips calls!

Phillips flips Ah-Jh and is racing Steve Jelinek’s 9c-9s, the board comes out 4h-3s-Jc-8c-Jd and Tony Phillips is the Newcastle GUKPT Champion winning £47,200 and a seat in the Champion of Champions Event.
Steve Jelinek finishes in second place and as runner-up takes home £30,200.

Congratulations to both!

The heads-up restarts, Steve Jelinek has about 320,000 and Tony Phillips on about 1.2 million.

While they’re on a dinner break, here are some more of my “arty” shots from this morning around Gateshead Quay. If you’ve never been to Newcastle, it’s well worth a visit; the quality of the architecture and the people is outstanding!

The Black Gate

Part of the Castle walls

The Sage

Phillips min-raises the button and Jelinek calls.

3c-Qc-7s

Jelinek check-calls 30k but then folds for 75k on the 8d turn. Phillips says he had Aces.

Phillips also won the last hand of the level too on a Kd-Jd-Th-3d-Qd board.

We’ll be back in about 40 minutes.

First Phillips bets 18k on a 3s-2c-5d-3h board to win.

Then he bets the flop of a As-4h-3h-Kh-4s board which Jelinek check/calls before both check the 3rd heart on the turn. On the river Jelinek leads out for 40k but Phillips makes it 150k and Jelinek quickly folds.

All the money goes in on a Kc-9s-5s flop as Jelinek flips Ac-9c against overs and drawing Qs-Ts of Phillips. But the board comes with two bricks, 8d and then 2c meaning Steve Jelinek doubles up to about 370,000 though Tony Phillips still has huge chips.

Henning Granstad raised to 30,000 on the button. Tony Phillips moved all-in from the small blind. Steve Jelinek folded and Granstad thought for a moment before calling.

Granstad: As-5s

Phillips: 9c-9s

The board came 9d-3c-6c-4h-6d, making a house for Phillips and knocking out Granstad in 3rd place, where he wins £20,400 for his work over the last few days.

Steve Jelinek and Tony Phillips are now heads-up. Tony Phillips has about 1.3 million and Steve Jelinek just 200,000 or so.

Henning Granstad

Tony Phillips and Steve Jelinek see a blind on blind flop.

Ac-8d-7s

Phillips check/calls 15,000.

9d

Check, check.

2s

Check, check.

Phillips shows Th-9c having just pipped Jelinek’s 8c-6h.