Matthew Pitt
UK & Ireland PokerNews said last week that the 2017 GUKPT Goliath tournament could smash its own attendance record of 5,232 entrants, a prediction that looks set to come true based on the first three starting flights of the £120 buy-in event.
Three of the tournament’s seven Day 1s have been completed and the number of entries already stands at an impressive 2,228.
Day 1a saw 882 players take to the felt, an increase from the 659 of 2016. Only 111 of those players made it through to Saturday’s Day 2 with Bogdan-Marius Aprodu finished as the overnight chip leader after the completion of 16 levels.
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bogdan-Marius Aprodu | 745,500 |
| 2 | Thomas Michael Plaskitt | 589,500 |
| 3 | Lee Baker | 481,500 |
| 4 | Rafael Henderson | 409,000 |
| 5 | Andrew Garland | 375,000 |
| 6 | Tom Bunker | 374,500 |
| 7 | Simon Green | 372,500 |
| 8 | Joe Skipsey | 370,000 |
| 9 | James Parker | 364,500 |
| 10 | Gareth Howard | 342,000 |
The second starting flight also exceeded the previous year’s attendance as 696 players rocked up to beat the 555 of 2016. Exactly 100 players navigated their way through to Day 2 and while Andrew Dodson finished as the night’s chip leader, his 495,000 stack was nowhere near that of the Day 1a leader.
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Dodson | 495,000 |
| 2 | Kevin Ly | 445,000 |
| 3 | William James Messenger | 432,000 |
| 4 | Craig Gruner-Overgaard | 400,500 |
| 5 | Harvey Lyndden Griffiths | 399,000 |
| 6 | Wei Cheng | 389,000 |
| 7 | Andrzej Ciesielski | 350,000 |
| 8 | Jatinder Singh | 333,500 |
| 9 | Daniel Smeeth | 312,000 |
| 10 | Uri Dinay | 304,500 |
Day 1c has traditionally been a quiet one for the Goliath tournaments but even this one was busier than the 2016 edition. In 2016, 417 entries were processed while this year’s tournament saw 650 players take to the felt, including re-entries. Only 84 players had chips that needed bagging up after the completion of 16 levels and it was Mark Price who earned the title of overnight chip leader.
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Price | 570,000 |
| 2 | Julian Lefevre | 559,000 |
| 3 | David White | 481,000 |
| 4 | Nizar Abu Daoud | 472,500 |
| 5 | Joseph McKeown | 430,500 |
| 6 | Christian Cernaianu | 408,000 |
| 7 | Arie Juliusburger | 401,000 |
| 8 | John Taylor | 387,500 |
| 9 | David Burt | 379,000 |
| 10 | Gary Rozanski | 370,000 |
According to the GUKPT’s blog, almost 1,000 players have pre-registered for the next four days which should help the total attendance get somewhere near 6,000 entrants. This would mean a prize pool of £600,000 would be created for only a £120 buy-in, and would ensure the 2017 Goliath was the largest tournament to take place outside of Las Vegas.
Will Kassouf Becomes a Sponsored Pro
Love him or hate him, there is no keeping the trash-talking Will Kassouf out of the headlines. Kassouf has been seen sporting a Grosvenor Poker patch in a few of his recent live poker tournament outings and it now looks like Kassouf is a sponsored pro.
Kassouf posted a photo on his Instagram account stating “I’m excited to be officially joining Grosvenor Poker as their new sponsored pro.” Kassouf, who has more than $1.3 million in live tournament winnings, joins Joe Beevers, Ellie Biessek and Jeff Kimber on Grosvenor Poker’s roster.
What do you think?