Ben Winsor Wins 2015 GUKPT Grand Final For £178,600

A total of 321 players entered the 2015 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final to create a prize pool worth £642,000 ($969,100), in the process smashing the tournament’s guarantee of £400,000. Three days later, and it was Ben Winsor who would lift the title, and walk away with its top prize of £178,600 ($269,597). After securing his biggest score to date, the 27 year-old poker pro who now boasts $557,626 in lifetime earnings commented:
“I thought I was going to have a big win this year and luckily it has come right at the end. I had been making final tables throughout the year but only really just ticking over. I had quite a downward patch in Las Vegas for a month over the summer but last weekend was great.”
The GUKPT Grand Final was held in London, and amongst the notable pros cashing in at one of the 30 paid money spots was Jason Wheeler in 29th (£4,500), Richard Ashby in 21st (£5,100), Sergio Aido in 19th (£5,800), and Adrian Mateos in 15th (£7,100).
By the time the nine-handed final table was reached, Ben Winsor was the chip leader on a 1.8 million stack, followed by Alexios Zervos (1.347m), with top pros Simon Deadman (898k) in 4th and James Akenhead (359k) the second lowest stack at the table. Nevertheless, Akenhead managed to progress all the way through to three-handed play, but was eventually eliminated by Ben Winsor to force heads-up against Greek player Alex Zervos for the title.
As the final battle commenced, Winsor held a roughly 3 to 1 chip lead over his remaining opponent, and not long after the deciding hand was played with Zervos moving all-in preflop holding 10-9, only to be called by Winsor with K-Q. The A-6-Q-8-9 board subsequently ensured that Alex Zervos would finish the runner-up for £118,100, while Ben Winsor was crowned the 2015 GUKPT Grand Final Champion. Commenting on his budding poker career, and what the victory means to him, Winsor explained:
“My Dad did not really get involved in the decision and has been supportive. My mum was more cautious. Until this win, I was probably going to have to start looking for a job. My family were really happy when I told them the news. They are already asking what presents I’m going to get them for Christmas.”
Final Table Results:
1 Ben Winsor £178,600
2 Alex Zervos £118,100
3 James Akenhead £72,500
4 Patrick Frew £46,300
5 Ronaldo Amirahiri £31,400
6 Simon Deadman £23,100
7 Alex Zeligman £18,000
8 Mikhail Petrov £14,800
9 Will Davies £12,200