Lee Rawson Wins Grosvenor Goliath

Lee Rawson of Doncaster has won the largest land-based poker tournament held in Europe – the GUKPT Goliath (August 24th-28th, 2011). He walked away with the trophy and £32,705, defeating a total field of 1,765 after three hard-fought days of poker at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

Grosvenor, in association with D4 Events, guaranteed £100,000 for this huge tournament, but in the end £176,500 was awarded in prizes to 261 players. In fact, no one who made Day 2 left empty handed: the few who missed out on the prize money were given free seats into next year’s event.

Rawson, a 42-year old professional poker player, defeated Coventry-based amateur Mark Broomhall heads up after a seemingly unstoppable run on the final table. Even Simon Deadman, who’d held the chip lead since Day 1, ended up with his chips in Rawson’s stack and a £10,590 4th place finish.

Lee blew a cylinder on the M18 on his way home after day 1 and had to borrow a car to come back for day 2, so there are no surprises that he will be looking for a new motor with his winnings.

Final Table

The charity Marie Curie Cancer care received £5 from each registration fee at Goliath (£10 from each re-entry) and the masseuses together gave £520 – this added up to a total donation of over £8,000.