Tony Cascarino Wins GUKPT Grand Final

Former Republic of Ireland footballer Tony Cascarino has won the £3,000 GUKPT Grand Final, beating 183 players to take home the first prize of £168,000. The victory was Cascarino's best result yet, eclipsing the win he recorded just over a year ago at GUKPT Bolton and making up for disappointment in last year's event where he finished sixth.

Cascarino had a lot of work to do at the start of the final table for a number of reasons, notably that he was the second shortest chipstack and also because he was facing a high pedigree of players including heads-up World Champion Xanthos Charalambos and GUKPT serial final tablist Stuart Rutter.

Amazingly Cascarino ended up heads-up against the Frenchman Antoine Arnault who actually began the final table as the short stack. Cascarino started with a chiplead of 2.1m to 1.4m but the lead swung back and forth until finally all the chips went in on a 10-J-8 (one heart flop). Cascarino had Ah-2h for a backdoor nut flush draw but Arnault was well ahead with 10h-9h. The turn was a Jh and the 5h on the river gave Cascarino an unlikely nut flush.

In the post-tournament interview, Cascarino said, 'Getting respect from your peers and being acknowledged for being good at whatever you do with your life means a lot to me....I think I have proved myself now.'