Tony Cascarino wins 2009 GUKPT Grand Final

Poker News / Dave Allan / 30 November 2009 / Leave a comment

The former Republic of Ireland international footballer, Tony Cascarino is the newly crowned GUKPT Grand Final Champion after besting a field of 183 runners.

The bumper crowd each paid £3,000 to enter the Grand Final at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, creating a very impressive prizepool that would award £168,800 to the eventual winner.

After four-days of play, the final table was set and it included a host of well-known and respected names including the excellent Stuart Rutter, Danish high-stakes cash guru Albert Iversen and recently crowned World Heads-up Champion Bambos Xanthos.

One by one the final table members were eliminated until just Tony Cascarino and Antoine Arnault had chips remaining, each of them guaranteed at least £107,100. Whilst this amount would be significant to most people, it was potentially small-change for Arnault who's father, Bernard Arnault, is the world's 14th richest man with an estimated net worth of $16.5bn!

Cascarino went into the heads-up battle with a slight chip-lead but this was soon levelled out and then turned in the favour of the Frenchman. It was an epic battle, where the chip-lead exchanged hands on numerous occasions, that ultimately came down to some good fortune for Mr Cascarino.

Almost a third of the chips went into the middle preflop and when the flop came down TJ* with one heart, Arnault moved all-in. Amazingly Cascarino called, amazing because he held Ah" for nothing but Ace-high whilst his opponent held Th9h for second pair and a straight draw, making the latter over an 80% favourite to win the hand.

However, the Poker Gods have a warped sense of humour and decided to make the turn the Jack of Hearts and the river the five of hearts, completing Cascarino's runner-runner nut flush and awarding him the title.

This was Cascarino's third GUKPT final table and his second outright victory after winning the 2008 Bolton Leg for £52,850 and coming sixth in the 2008 Grand Final for another £27,600. This victory edges him near to the £250,000 mark and makes him the number one in the all-time GUKPT money list.

In an interview after winning the tournament, the popular Cascarino said 2009 had been frustrating up until now as he had won something in each of the past four years but 2009 had seemed like it would be fruitless. What a difference a result can make.