Adam Reynolds picked up a cool £53,500 after winning leg nine of the GUKPT at the G Casino in Luton from 16-19 October.
As heads-up play started Reynolds and Phil Corion were locked together on chips, just four big blinds separating them, so a deal was agreed that saw both bag £50,000, with £3,500 and a Grand Final seat on top for the eventual winner.
The duel between the pair lasted about 30 minutes before Corion shoved all-in with QD-10D against the AD-2D of Reynolds. Neither player hit the board and Reynolds' ace proved sufficient for him to take down the title and bag the Grand Final seat.
As 16 players made it back for the final day of the main event, Zimnan Ziyard was the overwhelming chip leader on 942,000, with Todd Cairns on 422,000 his nearest challenger.
Reynolds began the day in fifth place on 307,000, with David Greene the short stack on 71,000.
And the local challenger was the man to exit first, closely followed by James McBride, then Paul Dunne, Amy Mahrenholz, Ryan Spittles, Dinarte De Sousa and finally Mohammed Suhail, who bubbled the final table.
As the final got underway Ziyard was still out in front on 1,203,500, with Cairns up to 791,500 and Reynolds third on 741,000. Next came Gabriel Carter on 315,000, followed by Carlo Citrone on 305,500, Panny Ellinas with 304,000 and Vaidas Siriunas on 293,000. Corion was in eighth place on 214,000, with Richard Pipe the short stack on 208,000.
The final table started very cautiously and it was 90 minutes before the first casualty arrived when the only remaining previous champion, Siriunas, found his 6S-3S to be no match for the pocket threes of Reynolds.
The next man to leave was Citrone who got his chips in with jacks on a QS-4H-10H-JH board but ran into Corion with the KH-6H for the flush. The board didn’t pair on the river and Citrone exited in eighth.
Carter departed in seventh place after moving all-in with AD-KH against the AS-10D of Ellinas. A 10 on the flop sending Carter to the rail.
The sickest hand of the day and probably of the whole tournament was the exit hand of Cairns, who called a shove from Ziyard on a 2S-JD-9C-2H board holding QD-JC for two pair against Ziyard's complete bluff with the KD-6D, only for another king on the river to knock Cairns out.
Pipe finished in fifth place, moving all-in with AD-7D against the pocket eights of Corion, who rivered two pair.
Ziyard lost two huge all-ins against Reynolds before calling off his stack on an A-2-9 flop with pocket jacks. Ziyard got it wrong though as Reyolds held AS-JS for top pair.
The very next hand we see the demise of Ellinas, who opened and then called off his remaining chips holding J-10 against the A-2 of Corion. The ace high held and Ellinas exited in third.
GUKPT Luton
1 Adam Reynolds £53,500
2 Phil Corion £50,000
3 Panny Ellinas £25,600
4 Zimnan Ziyard £16,700
5 Richard Pipe £11,300
6 Todd Cairns £8,600
7 Gabrielle Carter £6,800
8 Carlo Citrone £5,400
9 Vaidas Siriunas £4,600
