Andy Hills Wins GUKPT Manchester

Matthew Pitt Senior Editor

Mar 06, 2017 3 min read

The 2017 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Manchester Main Event attracted a crowd of 268 players and they were all outlasted by Preston’s Andy Hills who returned home with £46,987 after a four-way chop.

Official Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Andy Hills	£46,987*
2	Tuan Le	£38,104*
3	Mark Dyson	£45,899*
4	Endrit Gecu	£44,808*
5	Mark Bamber	£13,650
6	Justin Devonport	£10,200
7	Dan Charlton	£8,050
8	Lian Hooks	£6,400
9	Ben Jackson	£5,400

*reflects a four-way deal

It has been a solid year for Hills so far with five cashes, four of those cashes being final table appearances and one of those being an outright victory. Now Hills can brag of securing his first major live title and by far his largest live score.

Only 20 players navigated their way through to Day 3 and Hills found himself seventh in chips going into the final day’s play. Each of the 20 returning players were guaranteed £2,400 for their efforts as the money bubble burst late on Day 2 when Sanjay Patel moved all in with ace-queen and Hills looked him up with a pair of tens. The five community cards ran without a hint of helping Patel, which left 26 players in the tournament, all of whom were in the money.

Day 3 got started at a blistering pace and saw several players eliminated within the first hour, including the talented Dan O’Callaghan whose ace-ten proved no match for the dominating ace-king of Dan Charlton and Jamie O’Connor whose pocket nines lost to the king-queen of Endrit Geci when the latter flopped two pair.

As the clocks turned to 3:20 p.m, Brian Thompson bust in 10th place to set the nine-handed final table.

2017 GUKPT Manchester Final Table

Seat	Player	Chips
1	Liam Hooks	700,000
2	Tuan Le	666,500
3	Mark Dyson	573,500
4	Andy Hills	388,000
5	Justin Devonport	370,500
6	Mark Bamber	326,000
7	Dan Charton	946,000
8	Ben Jackson	166,500
9	Endrit Geci	1,124,000

Down to less than 15 big blinds, Ben Jackson was in desperate need of a double up and he thought he was on course for one when his all-in bet with pocket jacks was called by Justin Devonport who held ace-king. An ace on the flop and another on the river ended Jackson’s tournament in ninth place.

Liam Hooks was the next to fall after finding himself in a raising war with Endrit Geci. Hooks ultimately five-bet all in with a pair of tens and was snap-called by Geci holding a pair of kings. A jack-high board was no help to Hooks and the GUKPT Manchester Main Event lost another player.

The final seven became six when Dan Charlton moved all in with pocket tens for 15 big blinds and Mark Dyson opted to call with a pair of fives. The king-high flop kept Charlton ahead, but the five of spades on the turn flipped the hand on its head. No ten on the river and Charlton was gone.

Sixth place went to Justin Devonport, his suited king-queen failed to improve against Dyson’s tens. Mark Bamber’s ace-eight couldn’t come from behind to beat the ace-jack of Geci.

With only four players remaining and more than £175,000 of the prize pool remaining, the tournament was paused to allow those players to discuss a deal. Those discussions proved fruitful and a deal based on ICM was struck.

_{The official payouts can be found in the table at the beginning of this article.}

Not long after the deal, Geci bust in fourth place when he called a huge overbet shove from Tuan Le with a flush draw and an inside straight draw only to miss. Then Dyson crashed out in third place, again at the hands of Le.

After several all-in bets, one heads-up hand reached the river where the board read 4♠8♦J♦6♦7♠. Hills led out and Le jammed all in. Hills instantly called and turned over Q♦10♦ for a flush. Le mucked Q♠10♥ and was eliminated in second place, which left Hills to be crowned the 2017 GUKPT Manchester Main Event champion.