Fenton the top dog; Les Fenton wins GUKPT Goliath

In a rapid final table that lasted under four hours Les Fenton came out on top to win the 2012 GUKPT Goliath banking £31,210 and a seat in the GUKPT Champion of Champions. He took the chip lead to heads-up and defeated Mark Harding in a battle that lasted just one hand.

“Good. Really good. It’s about time, ” said Fenton on his win. “I’ve entered a few big ones but I haven’t really gone deep for a while, not since my last final table [GUKPT Luton 2010] but fortunately it’s finally come round.”

The 30-year-old from St Albans started the final table with the chip lead and apart from a brief period when Harding took over he never relinquished it. Fenton, an architect by trade, had a game that was constructed on solid foundations and he couldn’t have designed a better final table performance and simpler conclusion if he tried.

Fenton with the winning hand

At the start of heads-up Fenton had a 30,000,000 to 18,000,000 chip advantage and all of those betting discs would end up over the line on the opening hand. Fenton raised to 1,000,000 with Ad-10s, Harding shoved with As-7d and Fenton made the call. A board of 8c-Js-8h-9h-7h saw Fenton make a straight and claim the title.

Harding seemed happy enough with second

Harding had come to the final table in third place and soon started making a nuisance of himself. He eliminated Kris Graham in ninth when his queens held up against Graham’s nines. Getting aces (twice) and kings in the first level didn’t do his chances any harm either. And, when he took care of Jacqueline Burrows (Ah-Qh vs As-Jc) to reduce the field to seven he also took the chip lead.

Burrows – was busted in eighth place

Fenton and Harding proved to be a pretty good wrecking crew taking it in turns to eliminate players. Fenton took care of Phillip Froggatt (seventh), Colin Inskip (fifth) and John Caplan (fourth). Whilst Harding dispatched Gavin Manley (sixth).

Phillip Froggatt – finished seventh

When three-handed play started their two stacks dwarfed that of the plucky Sung yee Hun. The second shortest stack when final play began she had dodged and ducked her way to the final three. When she found Kh-Th on the button she could wait no longer to commit her final five million (12.5 big blinds), Fenton found Ad-Jh and held on the 5h-6h-6s-Qs-Qd board. Her patience though earned her a £15,000 pay day.

Sung – laddered her way to third

But the day belongs to Fenton who led almost wire to wire to win the GUKPT Goliath, £31,210 and a seat to the Champion of Champions.

Final table payouts:

1st. Les Fenton £ 31,210
2nd. Mark Harding £ 26,610
3rd. Sung yee Hun £ 15,000
4th. John Caplan £ 12,000
5th. Colin Inskip £ 9,200
6th. Gavin Manley £ 6,600
7th. Phillip Froggatt £ 4,800
8th. Jacqueline Burrows £ 3,740
9th. Kris Graham £ 2,880

That’s it from Coventry, thanks for reading.

Les Fenton wins GUKPT Goliath (officially £35,800)

And we have a champion! Les Fenton took the chip lead to the final table and never slipped out of the top two stacks.

On the final hand Les Fenton raised to 1,000,000 with Ad-10s, Mark Harding jammed for around As-7d and after a brief dwell and a bit of rocking back and forth in his chair Fenton made the call.

Flop: 8c-Js-8h – ooh chop possibilities
Turn: 9h – now if either player hit their kicker it’d make the other player a straight
River: 7h

Fenton rivered a straight just for good measure and the 30–year-old from St Albans is the 2012 GUKPT Goliath champion and he takes home £31,210 (officially £35,800) and a seat to the GUKPT Champion of Champions.

A wrap of this rapid final table coming right up.

Les Fenton – The 2012 GUKPT Goliath champion

Mark Harding eliminated in second place (officially £22,340)

Heads-up did not last long – one hand in fact – Mark Harding finishes second for £26,610, officially £22,340 – details on the final hand coming right up.

Mark Harding

Deal

The two players have done a deal – they’ve basically chopped the cash so they’re guaranteed £26,610 each and are playing on for the Champion of Champion’s seat and the £4,600 that Grosvenor added to the prize pool

Quick break

The players are now on a quick heads-up break, the rough chips counts are Les Fenton 30 million against Mark Harding’s 18 million.

Rough chip counts

Looking at the live pictures it seems that Mark Harding has around 17 million, Sung yee Hun five million and Les Fenton the rest – approximately 26 million.

Colin Inskip elimianted in fifth place (£9,200)

Due to some technical difficulties we didn’t get the pictures of just how Colin Inskip busted. Thankfully tournament director Nick managed to fill me in on what happened.

He told me Inskip opened with 10d-8d, Les Fenton then moved all-in with A-7 and after tanking Inskip called off his remaining chips.

Despite flopping a flush draw and a gutshot draw ace high held up to send Inskip home, still £9,200 is far from a rubbish payday.

Colin Inskip

Blinds Up

Blinds are now 200,000/400,000/40,000

Harding makes the nuts

We’ve seen Mark Harding limp a number of big hands at the final table and when it folded to him in the cutoff with Ks-Qc he again just limped. This brought John Caplan into the pot with Ac-9h from the small blind and Sung yee Hun with 9c-5h checked her option.

The Jd-6s-10s flop checked through and the 9d fell on the turn. This gave Harding the nuts and when it checked to him he fired out a small bet of roughly 450,000 and Harding made the call.

So heads up to the river, the Ah was, it seemed the money card, two -pair now for Caplan. He checked to Harding who announced bet (the amount was not announced), Caplan, to his credit, snap called, never considering a raise and was quickly shown the bad news.

Phillipp Froggat eliminated in seventh place (£4,800)

And we’re down to six…

It passed round to Phillip Froggatt on the button and Qs-10s was more than enough to get his final five big blinds in with. Both blinds had similar hands, Fenton Ac-5d, Harding A-4. The former isolated and Harding got out the way.

The 5h-Js-Qh gave both a pair, Froggatt was now in the lead, but the Ad turn gave the lead back to Fenton and he stayed there on the 4s river.

Froggatt takes home £4,800 for his efforts over the past four days.

Phillip Froggatt