After three opening flights bringing 273 entries, 78 players returned to the G Casino in Bolton for day two of the 25/25 Series, with a five-handed deal seeing Justin Astley take the title and £11,000.
Down to the final five after John Cullen's exit in sixth place, the players decided to do a spilt roughly based on chip counts, with Amin Amirifar taking home £3,615 for fifth, Jehan Zaib, Mo Tidjani and Zac Goldsmith each pocketing £8,000 and finishing in that order, with Astley proclaimed the 25/25 Series Bolton champion.
With £54,600 in the prize pool and an average stack of 87,500, James Gilbert led the way on 277,400 at the start of the day, followed by Nick Slade on 264,000 and Craig Dawson on 196,700.
None of those managed to negotiate their way to the final table, where Mark Wilson was the only player from the top 10 at the start of the day to reach the last nine, converting his 145,400 chips at the start of the day to 502,500.
Zaib was the chip leader at the start of the final table on 1,478,000, with Astley second on 1,387,000 and Tidjiani third on 1,263,500. Amirifar was next on 619,500, followed by Goldsmith on 505,000, Wilson on 502,500, Cullen on 419,000 and Adam Piotrowski on 372,000. The short stack at the table was Adam Lulat on 279,000 chips.
And the fireworks started almost immediately, with Lulat moving all-in with AS-KD on the second hand played. Goldsmith shoved over the top with KH-KC and Zaid called with AC-KS.
The 8S-2H-8C-QH-7D board saw Goldsmith treble up, Zaid take a big hit and Lulat exit in ninth place for £1,090.
Goldsmith was also involved in the exit of the next two players at the table, when Wilson moved all-in with sevens, Piotrowski followed suit with pocket tens and Goldsmith did likewise with queens.
The rainbow board of JS-2S-3C-5D-3D meant the queens held and saw Piotrowski out in eighth place for £1,310, with Wilson in seventh for £1,640.
That left six players competing for the title and prize money and Astley, Tidjiani and Cullen still in the last-man-standing pot for a GUKPT seat and £640 of Grosvenor tournament tokens.
So the next exit proved pivotal when Tidjiani raised in the cut-off and Cullen moved all-in from the big blind with AS-KS, which Tidjiani called with pocket eights.
The 9D-7D-6D-3H-8D board confirming Cullen's exit in sixth place for £2,075 and seeing the last-man-standing prizes going to Astley and Tidjiani.
25/25 Series Bolton, 29-31 August
1 Justin Astley £11,000
2 Zac Goldsmith £8,000
3 Mo Tidjani £8,000
4 Anon £8,000
5 Amin Amirifar £3,615
6 John Cullen £2,075
7 Mark Wilson 1,640
8 Adam Piotrowski £1,310
9 Adam Lulat £1,090
