The poker player from France called Jerome L’Hostis managed to win the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Grand Final Minal Event. He won his second six-figure prize in 2018 and this is officially his highest cash in a live tournament. L’Hostis won a total of £140,445 which is roughly $180,530. The event had a total of 325 entrants, and £400,000 was guaranteed in a prize pool. On the second day, 115 of the players returned, but only 20 managed to get to the third day. The first 30 players were paid and the bubble burst when David Clarkson busted on 31st place. Some of the first players to drop out and collect prize money was Kevin Allen who is a former KUKPT Grand Final Main Event champion. He won a total of £4,600 as the 26th player. Some other players that managed to get onto the prize list but were not lucky enough to get to the final table are Katie Swift (who is a sponsored pro by Grosvenor Poker), Jamie O’Connor, Yiannis Liperis, Alli Mallu, Andrew Hulme (also known as “Stato_1”), Ben Jones (aka “Jenbizzle”), and Tom MacDonald.
A total of nine players managed to get to the final stage of the event and the chip leader at that moment was Julien Sitbon who did not take long to eliminate Tarjei Fours who ended up on ninth place with £12,300. Forus was soon followed by Matas Cimbolas (£15,000) and Carlos Sanches Diaz (£18,200). The sixth place belonged to Ludovic Geilich (£23,400), and the one to hit the rail after him was Paul Barnes who managed to win £31,800 as the fifth-placed player. The fourth place was occupied by Julien Sitbon, who lost to Ben Morrison. Sitbon had an ace-eight against Morrison’s ace-six. However, Morrison turned a six and it managed to get through to the three-handed play. At this moment, the players decided to go on a 45-minute dinner break.
As soon as the three best-placed players returned from their earned break, we could see that they made a deal regarding the prize pool. Kamel stated that he wants £110,000, L’Hostis claimed £120,445 and Morrison £123,155. What was left to win was additional £20,000 and the trophy of this interesting event. The deal was a great thing for Morrison who managed to bust in the third place shortly after the break. This meant that L’Hostis and Kamel were to face in the heads up which also proved to be really difficult for Kamel since the chip gap was pretty great. When Kamel dropped to 800,000 in chips, he went all in with a king-eight of diamonds. L’Hostis decided to call it with an ace-four. The flop revealed two queens and a ten, the turn gave a nine of hearts, and the river showed a three of diamonds. In other words, neither has managed to make a meaningful combo, and L’Hostis’ ace won as the highest card.