There are times in a poker tournament player’s career when the stars align and they can seemingly do nothing wrong. India’s Ankit Ahuja has just experienced one of those times firsthand, demolishing the final table of the £1,650 High Roller event at the 2024 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Edinburgh festival.
A compact but star-studded field of 50 players competed for the largest slice of the GUKPT Edinburgh High Roller’s £72,000 prize pool. Only the top six finishers saw a return on their investment, with GUKPT regular Matthew Davenport bursting the money bubble when he crashed out in seventh.
Ahuja held a commanding chip lead when the bubble popped, and he used his big stack with deadly efficiency.
2024 GUKPT Edinburgh High Roller Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ankit Ahuja | £25,200 |
| 2 | Jamie Nixon | £17,280 |
| 3 | Thomas Clack | £11,520 |
| 4 | Keith Littlewood | £7,920 |
| 5 | Ciprian Berdan | £5,760 |
| 6 | George Demetriou | £4,320 |
George Demetirou’s first GUKPT final table appearance was cut short by Team Grosvenor’s Jamie Nixon when his ace-king could not get there against Nixon’s pocket tens. Demetirou banked £4,320 for his sixth-place finish.
An ill-timed move from Ciprian Berdan gifted the high-flying Ahuja a substantial pot and cemented his place at the top of the chip counts. Berdan opted to commit his last 20 big blinds with six-deuce of spades, and Ahuja called with pocket jacks. Ahuja’s jacks held, and Berdan made his way to the cashier’s desk to collect £5,760.
Popular grinder Keith Littlewood was the next player to fall victim to Ahuja. Littlewood, who won the £550 GUKPT Cup at the Blackpool leg last month, got the last of his chips into the middle of the felt with pocket eights, only for Ahuja’s pocket queens to melt those snowmen.
Although anything can happen in poker, the GUKPT may as well have handed Ahuja the trophy at the start of three-handed play. Ahuja’s stack weighed in at 117 big blinds, with Thomas Clack being his nearest rival with four big blinds at his disposal. Not 44, four big blinds!
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The unique dynamic created by the stack sizes saw Nixon and Clack forced to fold hands they would ordinarily play. Nixon managed to twice double through Ahuja, during which time Clack found himself down to a solitary big blind. Clack couldn’t embark on a miraculous spin-up, and he busted in third for £11,520.
Nixon set about trying to erode Ahuja’s gigantic stack, but his quest ended almost as soon as it began. A couple of hands into the heads-up battle, Nixon jammed for nine big blinds with king-five, and Ahuja called with queen-ten. Nixon spiked a king on the turn, but Ahuja caught some lightning with a nine on the river that improved to a tournament-winning straight. Nixon busted in second for £17,280, leaving Ahuja to bank a £25,200 top prize and the winner’s trophy.
Ahuja now has over $2.65 million in live tournament winnings and has closed the gap on Nipun Java, who currently occupies third place on India’s all-time winnings leaderboard. With Ahuja likely to enter the £1,000 GUKPT Edinburgh Main Event, that gap could shorten further over the weekend.
Day 1A of the GUKPT Edinburgh Main Event took place on April 11, and saw 14 of the 48 entrants progress at the first time of asking. The second of three flights shuffles up and deals at 12:00 p.m. on April 12, with the turbo-structured Day 1C scheduled to kick-off at 9:00 p.m. on April 12.