Charlie Carrel has taken the £108,625 first prize at the Grosvenor United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (GUKPT) after defeating the GUKPT Reading champion, Paul Vas Nunes, in heads-up action.
Then I had another thought.
It’s one thing running up $50 to $500,000 playing online cash games, and tournaments, but to get noticed in this business you really need to take down a noticeable live tournament. That was my advice to Epiphany77. Get involved in more live tournaments. Get some results. Get that mug splayed across poker media outlets. Get noticed.
Charlie Carrel has won the 2014 Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) in London. It’s one of the toughest UK fields of the year, and he defeated a stellar final table on his way to the first prize of £108,625.
He is starting to get noticed.
The 21-year old led when the penultimate day ended with 20-players, and when the numbers condensed to nine he was the only player to begin the final table with a seven figure stack count.
Carrel proved that he can joust with the best, both online and live, after navigating his way through a final table that included the likes of Will Kassouf, Priyan de Mel, Adrian Mateos, Tamer Kamel, Ben Vinson, and Paul Vas Nunes.
There were two former GUKPT champions on the final table. De Mel holds two after victories in Blackpool (2009) and Bolton (2010), and Vas Nunes took down the Reading event during the summer. The latter is also a former Unibet Open champion, and has six figure scores earned at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Estrellas Poker Tour. De Mel finishing in seventh after a straight v flush fatality against Ben Vinson; and Vas Nunes would reach heads-up, before finally succumbing to Carrel.
Will Kassouf was making back-to-back final tables. In 2013, Kevin Allen took all the plaudits, with Kassouf finishing in eighth. The 2014 Grand Final would see him climb three more places, before Carrel’s draw got there on the river to clip the wings off his top pair.
There was also an entourage of players who were coming off the back of impressive runs at the World Poker Tour (WPT) UK event in Dusk till Dawn (DTD). Ben Vinson finished 13th in Nottingham, and took third in this one after being eliminated by Vas Nunes; former WSOPE Main Event champion, Adrian Mateos, finished 11th in Nottingham, and 8th in this one; and finally Tamer Kamel added a 4th place finish to the 3rd place finish he obtained in Nottingham.
After Vas Nunes eliminated Vinson, in third, the pair did a deal that saw Carrel secure £100,005 and Vas Nunes £94,775. That left £8,620 to play for, and Carrel secured his first major live tournament win after his J7o nailed a higher straight than the 73o of Vas Nunes on a board of [9s] [6c] [3s] [8h] [Td].
GUKPT Grand Final Final Table Results
1st. Charlie Carrel – £108,625*
2nd. Paul Vas Nunes – £94,775
3rd. Ben Vinson – £50,500
4th. Tamer Kamel – £33,100
5th. Will Kassouf – £22,900
6th. Martyn Fuller – £16,500
7th. Priyan de Mel – £13,600
8th. Adrian Mateos – £11,400
9th. Walid Sawaya – £9,800
*Indicates a heads-up deal.
The GUKPT returns to a table near you on 25 Jan 2015. The action will return to The Vic for the first leg of the 2015 tour.
