GUKPT Event News & Reports

Ludovic Geilich Takes Big Lead into GUKPT Blackpool Final Day

By Jonathan Raab

17 Mar 2024

Jonathan Raab 17 Mar 2024

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Ludovic Geilich takes massive lead into final day of GUKPT Blackpool
The Scottish pro has almost double the stack of his nearest challengers
Grosvenor Casinos adds surprise £250,000 guarantee after poor turnout in opening flight.
Main event overlays by £22,300

Ludovic Geilich, Photo courtesy of Grosvenor Casinos

Ludovic Geilich Leads 2024 GUKPT Blackpool Main Event, which missed its guarantee by over £20,000

Grosvenor Poker’s newly signed Team Pro member Ludovic Geilich has taken a huge lead into the third and final day of the GUKPT £1,250 Main Event at Grosvenor Blackpool. He takes a stack of 660,000 into Sunday along with 15 other players, all of whom are in the money. He has almost twice as many as his nearest challenger, Callum Gordon, way back on 361,000. They are indeed bunched up behind Geilich, but a long way back. With just 20,000 chips separating 2nd and 5th place, its a bit like one of those stages of the Tour de France, where one rider has escaped the peloton and has put a huge gap between himself and the chasing pack.

It is no surprise to see Yucel ‘Mad Turk’ Eminoglu still in the mix, as he has made it to this stage of every leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour so far this year. Also still in contention are Andrew ’Stato’ Hulme, Paul Rigg, Robbie Bull and Keith Johnson. But it is Glaswegian Geilich who is setting the pace, is the one to catch and will been installed as the favourite by Grosvenor Sports when the final day betting book opens, at 7am (UK).

Low Turnout

Traditionally one of the more popular stops tour, which is now in its 18th year, this edition was somewhat less well attended than usual, with Grosvenor Casinos taking the unprecedented and risky step of slapping a £250,000 guarantee on the main event, but after it had started. The poor attendance of the first starting day, where just 31 players participated may have been the reason for the move, hoping to attract more players to make last minute decisions to visit the north-west seaside town. However, this turned out to be a losing gamble, as the tournament eventually fell short of its target by over £20,000.

Over 100 players did turn out for Friday afternoon's day 1b, however the evening's turbo day 1c appears to have been cancelled. Day 1d on Saturday morning drew a crowd of 58 players, but that still left a shortfall of over £40,000. Late registration was open until the start of day 2 and several more players did manage to get there just in time to register, reducing the deficit, but still leaving the casino with a liability of £22,300. Nevertheless, this is great value for the 207 players who did turn up and even better news for those who made it to the business end of the equation, with the minimum cash being worth £3,000.

First prize is £56,150, play resumes at 12pm (UK) and the action is being live streamed with commetary by Phil 'The Tower' Heald and Jay Harwood. The stream can be viewed on Grosvenor Casinos Twitch, Youtube and Facebook channels. At last month's GUKPT Manchester, Ludovic Geilich joined the commentary team for most of the final day. Its unlikely he'll be available to do that this time, but he'll be the main soryline, as he enters it as the massibe chip leader and favourite to win another GUKPT title.