Adam Wilkinson Wins GUKPT Blackpool Main Event Nearly 20 Years Later

Adam Wilkinson reached the main event title he had long been chasing by winning the GUKPT Blackpool Main Event, which had a 1,250 pound buy-in. In February 2007, Wilkinson had finished 11th out of 360 players at the Walsall Main Event. That was the second main event the GUKPT had organised. In the roughly 200 GUKPT events since then, Wilkinson was a constant presence and won many side events, but the main event title never came.

Wilkinson closed that gap in Blackpool. His previous best main event finish was seventh place in Newcastle in July 2007. This time he won 55,035 pounds in prize money, the trophy, and an additional 5,504 pound bonus paid through his GGPoker account. 190 players took part and the prize pool reached 237,500 pounds. After winning, Wilkinson described the day to Phil The Tower Heald, saying "I ran like God". He joked that after playing nine holes of golf and making par, he had not played golf since, and that he might give up poker too.

The nine-handed final table featured many experienced players. Peter Charalambous finished ninth and Trevor Reardon eighth. Benjamin Hill shoved his last 15 big blinds with pocket queens but was eliminated in seventh when Jon Kalmar's ace-nine made a flush. Chris Cox finished sixth for 8,880 pounds, the biggest payday of his career. His previous highest earning was 3,635 pounds.

Kalmar was eliminated in fifth place. He had also finished fifth in the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, where he won 1,255,069 dollars. Kalmar shoved his ace-king with 20 big blinds, but Wilkinson called with pocket eights and completed a full house, leaving four players at the final table. Chris Wood had finished fifth in this event in 2017. Nine years later, he was eliminated one place higher, in fourth. Wood shoved pocket nines with 12 big blinds. Michael Whitehead called with pocket fours and Chris Guertin called with ace-king. Whitehead completed a set of fours, and Wood was out.