Matthew Pitt
Only 17 players remain in contention for the 2016 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Blackpool Main Event’s £70,770 first place prize after the 96 players who returned for Day 2 were whittled to the final two tables. Tom Hall is the man to catch going into Sunday’s final day, but he is being pursued by a wealth of poker talent.
2016 GUKPT Blackpool Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Hall | 798,000 |
| 2 | Chris Johnson | 680,000 |
| 3 | Mark Kelsall | 501,000 |
| 4 | James Simms | 406,000 |
| 5 | Steven Beattie | 333,000 |
| 6 | Tom Middleton | 329,000 |
| 7 | Richard Kellett | 310,500 |
| 8 | Mitch Johnson | 247,000 |
| 9 | Ben Jones | 228,500 |
| 10 | Peter Mason | 228,500 |
| 11 | Jeff Kimber | 203,000 |
| 12 | Simeon Zacharias | 195,500 |
| 13 | Andrew Duffy | 138,500 |
| 14 | Paul McTaggart | 162,000 |
| 15 | Yusuf Erdem | 104,500 |
| 16 | Harry Zammit | 102,500 |
| 17 | Satpaul Sidhu | 88,500 |
Hall is a superb poker tournament player, one with more than $1.05 million in live tournament winnings and more than $2.4 million in online winnings. Those figures, particularly from online, only paint part of a picture because Hall is something of a beast when it comes to satellite tournaments, which many tracking sites don’t list. It would be fair to assume that Hall has one of the better ROIs among his peers due to his almost unnatural ability to win his way into big buy-in events.
Second place in the chip counts belongs to Chris Johnson who is better-known as “MAKKAPAKK” in online poker circles, where he can boast of more than $2.41 million in winnings. Johnson is no slouch in the live poker world either having accumulated almost $150,000 in winnings, including a victory in the 2015 Genting Poker Series Birmingham Main Event worth £37,000.
Other stars still in with a legitimate chance of glory in Blackpool include Tom Middleton (329,000), Richard Kellett (310,500), Mitch Johnson (247,000), Ben Jones (228,500), Jeff Kimber (203,000), and Paul McTaggart (162,000).
Each of the 17 returnees sit down knowing they will leave Blackpool with at least £2,510 to show for their efforts because the money bubble burst during Day 2’s action.
Andy Peters was the unfortunate soul to finish one place outside the money. Peters lost all but 2.5 big blinds when his ace-king lost a coinflip to the pocket fives of Howard Plant, and that tiny stack went into the middle of the felt with 
only to run into the 
of Plant. A queen on the flop was more than enough to bust Peters and send the remaining 26 players into the money.
Nathan Slater crashed out in 26th when his 
lost to 
in the hand of Yusuf Erdem courtesy of an all-club flop, and Slater was followed to the sidelines by Danny Hernon, John Eames,last year’s champion Jonny Gray, the aforementioned Plant, Kiat Lee, Enid Musson, Luke Reeves, and Derek Kavanagh.
Play resumes at midday on Sunday 13 November, continuing until only one players remains, the champion of the GUKPT Blackpool Main Event. Who will that champion be? Tune into UK & Ireland PokerNews on Monday to find out.
What do you think?