Walk in the Parkes for Kevin at Bolton GUKPT
33-year old Van salesman Kevin Parkes from Walsall has won the inaugural GUKPT
Summer Series main event at the G casino in Bolton. He defeated a field of 77
players in the £500 two-day event to take home a first prize of £12,700. His heads
up opponent was the very experienced Allan McLean from Blackpool, but the
head-to-head encounter was all over in a few short hands. After taking out Lee
Atherton in 3rd place, McLean drew level with Parkes in terms of their chip counts,
but the key hand took place just a few moments later. On a flop of A-8-T, Parkes
announced all in and McLean called. Parkes held A-K, which dominated McLean’s A-2.
The turn was a 6 and the river a king. That left McLean with just 11,500 chips and
it was all in on the next hand. This time Parkes had A-T to McLean’s J-6, but a
board of 9-K-5-9-Q brought no improvement for either player and with that it was all
over bar the handshakes and the trophy presentation.
In the post event awards ceremony the winner commented that he was delighted to have
won, as he had bubbled several times before in GUKPT events. It is however not the
first time he has lifted a GUKPT trophy as he won a side event here in Bolton on the
2008 tour.
The final table also featured Greg Hunt, who was the only player to have previously
graced a GUKPT main event final table. The talkative but good-natured Andy Bradshaw
claimed the 5th spot. The 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th placed finishers were all eliminated
early on during the final. Remarkably all four were taken out during the space of
five hands. They were Anthony Mace, Najam Qureshi, Ghalib Hussain and Philippa
Flanders, whose husband Tim narrowly missed out on a final table spot.
The four-day festival also featured a £200 NL Hold’em freezeout in which Dhanesh
Patel fended off a field of 122 players to take home the spoils. It also included a
£300 NL Hold’em freezeout, which had 65 runners and was won by Alli Mallu. The GUKPT
Summer Series continues next week at the GUKPT at the G casino in Aberdeen.
For an in depth account of how the tournament unfolded, please visit the Live page
on the GUKPT website – www.gukpt.com.
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