GUKPT - Thanet  -  By Poker Boss

A grand total of 96 runners and alternates assortedly made it all the way down to the sunny British coastal region of Thanet, out of the sunshine and into the G Casino Thanet for Day 1a of the GUKPT. Among their number were notably William Hill's own Julian Thew, eager to take a shot at his third GUKPT title, along with fellow GUKPT champions Sam Trickett, Jerome Bradpiece, Tony Cascarino and a rather hungover Dave Colclough.

The action was fast and furious, with the first exit coming in the form of "One Hand" Rumit Somaiya on the third hand of the day. Meanwhile things weren't looking good for Thewy either - he quickly slipped down to around 4,000 chips soon after his arrival. He doubled through Andreas Hoivold to put him up to 9,000, but it was not to be - eventually his flopped pair of aces fell foul of an opponent's flopped flush, and he hit the rail before teatime. In fact, the only GUKPT winner to make it through to Day 2 was Jerome Bradpiece, with the others all falling by the wayside as the card carnage continued.

The List Of Early Chip Leaders was thoroughly dominated by Mark Friedman (third place finisher in last year's GUKPT Grand Final) who quickly amassed a 70,000 stack, double that of his nearest chip rival. However, his super-aggressive, any-two cards style of play couldn't sustain that chip lead through the day and he finished up on around 25,000 at the end of play. Our chip leader going into Day 2 is one Michael Moore (although not the American documentary maker) who enjoyed a late rush of fantastic cards to put him on almost 130,000 chips, 50,000 clear of his nearest chip rival. Other notables who did make it through to Day 2 include number 1 Omaha player in Europe Dave Penly, EPT Dortmund winner Andreas Hoivold, the GUKPT's leading in-form player Nik Persaud and well-known poker journalist Adam "Snoopy" Goulding.