Record-breaking tournament at the Ricoh Arena
30th August 2011
Record-breaking tournament at the Ricoh Arena
An amateur player from Coventry finished runner-up as a record was set in the city for the largest land-based poker tournament in Europe.
The Grosvenor G Casino at the Ricoh Arena staged the mammoth GUKPT Goliath tournament between August 24-28 as Doncaster-based Lee Rawson defeated a total field of 1,765 players to win £32,705.
Mark Broomhall from Coventry earned £21,120 for finishing second after Rawson, a 42-year-old professional poker player, had an unstoppable run on the final table.
Grosvenor Casinos, in association with D4 Events, guaranteed a prize pool of £100,000 for this huge tournament but in the end £176,500 was awarded in prizes to 261 players. In fact, no one who made day two left empty-handed and the few who missed out on the prize money were given free seats into next year’s event.
Marie Curie Cancer Care received £5 from each registration fee (£10 from each re-entry) and masseuses provided to ease the players’ muscles gave £520 – which added up to a total donation of over £8,000 for the charity.
Paul Davies, general manager of Grosvenor G Casino Coventry, said: “We’re thrilled at the success of the first GUKPT Goliath event. We’ve broken the European record, we’ve witnessed some fantastic poker over the last few days and best of all we’ve raised £8,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.”
Liz Cooper, marketing director at the Ricoh Arena, said the atmosphere in the final stages had been extremely tense.
“It is fantastic that the Ricoh Arena was the setting for this new record,” she said. “Twelve players made it through to the final day which was streamed live on the internet.
“Congratulations to Lee for winning the tournament. His car blew a cylinder leaving the M18 on the way back to Doncaster after the first day and although he managed to get home, Lee had to borrow a car to make it back to the Ricoh for the second and third days. I am sure part of his winnings will be spent on buying a new car!
“The Goliath tournament has been such a tremendous success that plans are already underway to stage it again next year.”
To view all the results from the event, as well as a gallery and final table report, please visit www.gukpt.com
