Ali Mallu Heads GUKPT Manchester

Ali Mallu Heads GUKPT Manchester

Friday, 13 March 2015

The latest Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Main Event got off to a solid start in Manchester on Thursday with a total of 97 entrants taking to the tables at Bury New Road. After nine levels of action it was Ali Mallu sitting in pole position.

Mallu will have fond memories of GUKPT events in Manchester having won the 25/25 Series event in the city last year for a £15,260 score. He's well placed for another deep run this week and will start day 2 with 133,000 just ahead of Nigel Ventre (132,900), Mark Davey (109,400) and Lee Peacock (108,400).

The guaranteed £200,000 prize pool attracted the usual selection of hopefuls, grinders and poker superstars. Among the notables still nursing a stack by bagging up time were the likes of online superstar Tom 'hitthehole' Middleton (56,600), Jake Cody (37,100), John Eames (25,000) and Barny Boatman who closed the opening flight as the short stack with 9,600.

Yucel Eminoglu, who chopped the PokerStars Super Tuesday event for $71k earlier this week, topped the list of bustouts. Joining him on the rail were Irish Open winner Ian Simpson and former BlackBelt pro Kevin Williams.

They'll have the option to re-enter when the day 1b action starts at 1pm today. Railbirds can follow the action via the GUKPT Live Stream.

There's also a £75+£75 re-entry NLHE bounty tournament off at 7.30pm.

The latest £300 side event attracted a field of 101 runners and was won by Tim Hickling who pipped Osman Mustanoglu to the £9,540 first prize.



Tags: GUKPT Manchester, GUKPT, Ali Mallu, Jake Cody, Tom Middleton