Florian Duta Wins the 2018 GUKPT Goliath For £101K
Birmingham-based Romanian Florian Duta is the new GUKPT Goliath champion after he topped a record field of 7,584 players to turn his £125 investment into a massive £101,450.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florian Duta | £101,450 |
| 2 | Warwick Brindley | £73,100 |
| 3 | Mariusz Czech | £52,500 |
| 4 | Bogdan Bolboceanu | £37,150 |
| 5 | Ricky Read | £25,650 |
| 6 | Craig Marnier | £17,950 |
| 7 | Ioana Belet | £14,050 |
| 8 | Gordon Paterson | £11,600 |
| 9 | Joseph Stoyles | £10,000 |
The 2018 GUKPT Goliath broke its own record for the largest poker tournament outside of Las Vegas with a 7,584-strong field. Grosvenor Casinos guaranteed the eventual champion would win at least £100,000 and that’s exactly what happened as Duta walked away with £101,450.
Some 747 players received prize money for their efforts. A min-cash was worth £150 with each of the nine players at the final table securing £10,000.
Joseph Stoyles busted in ninth-place and netted £10,000 with Gordon Paterson following Stoyles out the door in eighth-place to win £11,600. Seventh-place and £14,050 went to Ioana Belet before Craig Marnier exited in sixth place for a £17,950 payout.
Banking £25,650 for fifth place was Ricky Read and now the money was getting serious. Bogdan Bolboceanu saw his £125 turn into £37,150 when he fell in fourth place and Mariusz Czech crashed out in third for a £52,500 payday.
This left Warwick Brindley and Duta to battle it out heads up in what was essentially a £28,350 heads-up sit & go. No deal was struck, despite the huge pay jump, and it worked in Duta’s favor as he swept Brindley aside to win his second six-figure score in the space of a month.
Stellar Year for Duta
This latest victory was Duta’s second in a month after the Romanian won the $1,600 No-Limit Hold’em Championship at the 2018 Wynn Summer Classic in Las Vegas for a career-best $429,161. Duta managed six cashes at the 2018 World Series of Poker, including a 12th-place finish in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event.
Duta now has $1,248,636 in live poker tournament winnings, enough to place him sixth in Romania’s all-time money listings. He is now less than $200,000 behind Dan Murariu on the list and if Duta’s form continues, a top-five berth beckons.
Next on the GUKPT
Next up on the 2018 GUKPT is a trip up North to Leeds where a £560 buy-in Main Event with a £100,000 guarantee is the highlight of the festival. GUKPT Leeds runs from Sep. 9-16 at the Grosvenor Casino Westgate. Will Duta be there? You had better hope not!
2018 GUKPT Goliath Stream
You can check out the final table action via the video below.
