The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) was at The Poker Room at the Victoria Casino from 25 January to 1 February and crowned its first winner of 2015 when Victor Ilyukhin took the honours in the main event.

The 63-year-old Russian topped a field of 289 entrants and pocketed a career-best score of £83,600.

The father of Victor Ilyukhin junior, who has enjoyed a string of excellent results on the European tournament circuit, senior Ilyukhin was one of 20 players who returned for the final day, along with Joe Beevers, Ellie Biessek and Barny Boatman.

But unlike the latter three who busted out early, Barny's brother Ross was among those who made it through to the final table, along with Ilyukhin, Master Classics of Poker finalist Charlie Combes and last year's Sky Poker UK Championship winner Alex Spencer.

But none could match Ilyukhin, who beat Spencer to the title after a brief but frantic heads-up contest.

The final hand summed it up with Ilyukhin in front with pocket queens but Spencer by no means out with A-J. A crazy J-J-2 flop gave Spencer the advantage but it proved short-lived as Ilyukhin hit his two-outer with the very next card. The blank river sending Spencer to the rail £54,050 to the good.

GUKPT London Main Event
1 Victor Ilyukhin £82,600
2 Alex Spencer £54,050
3 Zahari Petrov £33,800
4 Niall Murray £21,950
5 Vladimir Swaton £15,050
6 Adrian Memed £11,250
7 Charlie Combes £8,950
8 Ross Boatman £7,250
9 Jerome O’Shea £6,050