GUKPT
28 year old professional poker player, Neil Raine, has won £17,960 and the GUKPT Stockton title. He was able to defeat the 166 runner field that included WSOP bracelet winner Lawrence Gosney, recent GPS Newcastle Champion Ellie Biessek and GUKPT leader board champion Martin Holmes on his way to that title.
Neil went into the final table with the chip lead, and extended it when he took out Gosney, giving the WSOP bracelet winner 5th place.
With the flop showing an eight, a nine and a ten, Gosney would have been happy with his top pair and a queen high gutshot, that was until Raine turned over a six and a seven for the flopped straight, and he sent the WSOP winner to the rail with £4,060 for his trouble.
Tom Hall went home in 4th after a monster pot when his AK ran into Sung’s flopped set of Jacks for most of his chips.
The three handed battle lasted a while, but it ended badly for Stephen Sung, who got it all in with Kings, only to see an Ace on the turn pair the one in Raine’s hand to see Sung head off in Third with £7,830.
Dave Maudlin had a small chip lead going into heads up with his 1.2 million chips just more than Neil’s 1.1 million.
With the blinds at 8k/16k the effective stack was 70 big blinds deep, and a long heads up battle was in the offing. That was until Raine won a large pot when he rivered a set of Kings against Dave’s flopped two pair, giving him a two to one chip lead. Neil took charge from here on out, and his aggression and reading skills kept the momentum with him.
The final hand saw his Kc9c flop top pair with a redraw to the king high flush, and the brick looking 2s saw the two get the remaining chips in. The king on the river piled it on, and Raine took the hand, the chips, and the title.
Neil Raine
“It was a tough final because we were so deep but I was really lucky with the table draw, Tom was on my table, but he couldn’t do anything because he couldn’t get past me. It was really enjoyable, a really good structure.” Said the new GUKPT champion, “Three handed was a nightmare it took so long, no one was getting coolered! I had a few hands where my opponent was in front ’til the river and I got there a few times.”
The final results were:
- Neil Raine – £17,960
- Dave Collins – £12,470
- Stephen Sung – £7,830
- Tom Hall – £4,930
- Lawrence Gosney – £4,060
- John Bousfield – £2,900
- Chris Howden – £2,320
- Chris Green-Smith – £1,740
- Dave Maudlin – £1,450
