Leg 2 of Season 9 of the 2015 GUKPT sees a tour regular win from the front in Manchester
You might not have heard of Ali Mallu but if you’d ever played with him you’d never forget him. A veteran of the UK game, Mallu has been cashing with unerring regularity since 2002 and hasn’t missed many legs of the GUKPT since it started in 2007. His biggest live cash came in 2003 when he finished runner-up in the £2,500 European No-Limit Hold’em Championship at the Vic for £78,100. He went one better when he won the Grosvenor 25/25 in Manchester last March, and eclipsed that when he won the GUKPT Manchester in the same casino this March for his second biggest career cash of £59,000.
Start to finish
Mallu takes no prisoners at the poker table. His style is ultra-aggressive and he’s equally capable of building a monster stack or busting early.
It was the former on Day 1a of the recent GUKPT Manchester, as he ended on top of the field with a commanding chip stack of 133,00.
He still had it at the start of the final table, with 850,000 to Mark Davey’s second place stack of 848,000. Davey couldn’t keep up with Mallu and was eliminated in a disappointing sixth place when his K-J flipped badly against Liam Hooks’ sevens.
After Hooks was eliminated in third place, Mallu still had the chip lead when heads-up started. He had 2.28m to Tom Dunwoodie’s 1.68m and with both stacks playing deep (Dunwoodie still had more than 40 big blinds) a long drawn-out encounter was expected. True to form though, Mallu took no time in getting all his chips in the middle, holding K♦-8♣ on the 3♥-Q♦-9♣-k♣ board. Dunwoodie had a pair and a flush draw with 3♣-4♣ but didn’t improve on the 5♦ river and Mallu lifted the trophy.
From here the GUKPT moves on to Edinburgh in April (19-26) with a £500 buy-in and early £100k guaranteed. Satellites are running on grosvenorpoker.com now.
GUKPT Manchester Final Table
- Ali Mallu – £59,000
- Tom Dunwoodie – £38,000
- Liam Hooks – £24,400
- Tim Hickling – £16,600
- Nigel Ventre – £11,000
- Mark Davey – £8,200
- Jorge Rosa – £6,600
- Asif Choudry – £5,600
Get ready for the big one
The Goliath is back August 8-16 with a monster £250,000 guarantee for a £120 buy-in – get your catapult ready!
Qualify online
£8.80 rebuys play every Weds from May 7 – July 23 on GrosvenorPoker.com and guarantee five seats. You can feed into these for just £1.10. From July 27, the 8pm plays every night with ten seats guaranteed.
Qualify live
You can qualify live at your local Grosvenor Casino. Check with your local card room for details of all your local live satellites. You can also buy-in to the Goliath direct with your roulette winnings.
Turn up and play
Book a week off work and play the Goliath in style. If you crash out of the main event there are lots of side events to play in, including the PokerPlayer Tour £35 Deep & Steep event on Sunday August 16.
Every month PokerPlayer reports on all the big live tournaments and you can now read it for free here
