GUKPT - Manchester Winner

The fourth leg of the GUKPT in Manchester drew to a close in the small hours of Monday 23rd of April at the G Casino in Manchester. It was won by former European Number One Dave 'El Blondie' Colclough, who bounced back to victory after a lengthy spell in the poker wilderness. It has been well over a year since Welshman Colclough last tasted victory in a major event and this win returns him to his rightful place as one of the best players ever to come out of the UK. In scooping the £88,000 first prize, he completed one of the most satisfying victories in his illustrious career.

He defeated online qualifier Barry Neville in a marathon heads up encounter that lasted for over two and half hours. Going into the final these two were the runaway chip leaders, holding 60% of the chips in play between them. When they got down to the heads up stage Colclough held a 2:1 chip advantage, but could not convert this into a quick win. Neville played back at him and although El Blondie pulled away several times, the Sheffield publican fought back on each occasion. With the blinds at 25,000-50,000 the killer blow was finally dealt when Colclough, holding T-9 of clubs made a flush on the river against Neville's J-9. In a post event interview Colclough paid Neville a big compliment by saying that it was the toughest heads up match he has ever played.

Runner up Barry Neville has also had a poor twelve months at the poker tables. In 2005 he won several ranking events with his bold aggressive style of play but 2006 was not so kind to him. He was understandably gutted not to have won, but was gracious in defeat.

Dr Tom Sambrook, a poker commentator, finished in third place after suffering a bad beat at the hands of Neville. Sambrook, who acted as poker consultant on the recent James Bond film Casino Royale was one of four online qualifiers to make the final. In addition to Neville, the other two were Chris Bruce, a Scotsman who now lives in Nottingham and Greek Jack Dionysiou from Grantham. They finished in 7th and 8th places respectively. Fourth place went to Nick Slade, fifth to Portsmouth's Ryan Fronda and Watford's Richard Ashby took sixth. Mancunian Victor Kaye, who finished 9th completed the final table line up.

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