Jamie Le Takes Down GUKPT Luton Main Event for £95,630
The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Luton Main Event has crowned its champion, and it is Jamie Le who earned himself that accolade along with a cool £95,630 in prize money. The £1,250 buy-in tournament saw 353 players buy-in and create a £388,300 prize pool, the lion's share of which is now in Le's possession.
Le's victory ranks him alongside some of British poker's best-known players, who have returned from Luton as a GUKPT champion. The likes of Sam Trickett, Richard Gryko, Neil Channing, Charles Chattha, Jamie O'Connor, Driton Haxiaj (twice), John Eames, David Docherty, and Tom Hall are all former GUKPT Luton winners.
2022 GUKPT Luton Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamie Le | £95,630 |
| 2 | Atanas Pavlov | £67,100 |
| 3 | Matt Davenport | £41,010 |
| 4 | Ryan Spittles | £26,090 |
| 5 | Francis Obadun | £17,150 |
| 6 | Lorenc Boci | £12,670 |
| 7 | Steve Watts | £9,320 |
| 8 | D.A. | £7,830 |
| 9 | Johan Pedersen | £6,710 |
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A double elimination sent the GUKPT Luton Main Event to the final table stage. Ryan Spittles' ace-king of diamonds hit a flush on the river to bust J.M. in 11th place and Michael Howard in tenth.
Johan Pedersen was the first of the finalists to bow out. He called all-in with ten-eight on a ten-high board and found himself against the pocket queens of Francis Obadun. Pedersen has a gutshot straight to go with his top pair, but he ultimately misses all of his outs, and became the ninth-place finish.
The player known as D.A. was the next to fall. D.A. three-bet shoved over a Spittles raise, and Spittles called to put the anonymous player at risk of elimination. Spittles held ace-jack, D.A. held pocket queens, and two aces on the flop reduced the player count by one.
Seventh place and the last four-figure prize went to the popular grinder Steve Watts. The former professional footballer got his stack in with pocket tens against a pair of deuces and ace-five and could not hold.
The players gained a little more elbow room when Lorent Boci called off slightly less than 15 big blinds with king-queen after Obadun set him all-in. Obadun showed ace-six, which flopped an ace and turned a six to bust Boci.
Obadun was the next casualty despite winning Boci's stack. Obadun lost all but a solitary big blind in a hand where Matt Davenport made a superb call with a pair of jacks, and Obadun failed to spin it up.
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Former Sky Poker sponsored pro and the 2016 GUKPT Reading champion Spittles fell in fourth. It was a classic coinflip when Le four-bet shoved with pocket sixes, and Spittles called with ace-king. The five community cards failed to come to Spittles' rescue, and he headed to the cashier's desk to bank more than £26,000.
Matt Davenport busted in third place to send the GUKPT Luton Main Event into the heads-up stage. Davenport was down to only 1.5 big blinds at one stage but managed to claw his way back into contention. However, after losing two coinflips to Atanas Pavlov, Dvenport had to make do with a third-place finish.
Le defeated Pavlov heads-up to secure the impressive £95,630 top prize. Pavlov consoled himself with the £67,100 second-place prize only a few days after finishing second in the £2,000 High Roller for £34,350.
The GUKPT now heads to the seaside town of Blackpool for the penultimate stop of the 2022 season. Blackpool is always popular with GUKPT regulars and serves as the perfect way to warm up for the season-ending Grand Finale in London in December.
