Each month, Grosvenor Poker are hosting a special GG Will poker tournament giving players the opportunity to tangle with one of the most prominent professional poker players in recent history, none other than the king of speech play himself, Will “9-high-like-a-boss” Kassouf. What’s more, if you knock the Grosvenor Poker sponsored pro out of his own tournament, you’ll be greatly rewarded!
The inaugural GG Will tournament kicked off last month with a bang, smashing the guaranteed £5,000 with the eventual winner taking home just under £1900 and one lucky player, Lee Barrett, scooping a £2,500 GUKPT Grand Final Package for knocking out Will Kassouf. We caught up with the Lee to find out just how he took out the pro, and what his plans are for this year’s GUKPT Grand Final.
Hi Lee, congratulations on winning the £2,500 bounty GUKPT Grand Final package for knocking out Will. Firstly, will you be playing this year and have you played an event of this size before?
How could I pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity like this? Admittedly I did have some plans pencilled in for my 40th Birthday around that weekend, but what better way to celebrate “life beginning” to play in a tournament of this stature, so I moved a few things around and yeah….I’ll definitely be there! Prior to this the largest buy in event I’ve played was a £500 comp, so this will certainly be my biggest to date and hopefully my most lucrative.
How did you knock out Will in the previous “GG Will” event? Obviously being involved in any pot with him adds a whole new dimension to a £30 freezeout tournament, but what was your decision?
Well as I remember it, as it was a few weeks ago now and you tend to remember the bad beats better than the “good beats”… First up it was a 200+ runner event & to even be seated on the same table as Will would have been unlikely, especially when you consider that I had to late register the tournament too. But, it seemed my luck was in that night because I registered about 45mins into the competition and found myself seated directly across from the man himself.
I had tangled with Will a few hands prior to this decisive hand and my main priority was to try to always be in a position where I had Will covered in case we played for stacks at any point. It was a bit of a strange one really as Will open shoved in Mid-position on my Big Blind (100/200) for about 20 bigs. I had about 45 bigs at that point, so I was in the position I wanted to be but more to my surprise was that all other players insta-folded, so the action got round to me really quickly.
It felt like I hadn’t even had time to think about it. I looked at the screen and I was holding Q7off, obviously not the greatest of hands, but I said to myself “I have to call”. This was a £30 comp and there was a potential in front of me to win a prize valued at a minimum of £550, but as I’d liked, shared and tagged the Grosvenor Facebook post I was pretty sure it was actually worth £2500 and when else would I get an opportunity like this? So I called and Will showed A6 with the Ah. The board ran out 5,2,5 (2 hearts), Kh and then…bink…Qc!!!! I was running round my living room shouting “I’ve just knocked out Will Kassouf for £2500” so loudly that I woke my daughter up…..my Mrs wasn’t best pleased either until she realised what had happened!
Do you play much online or live with Grosvenor? What do you like about Grosvenor poker?
Unfortunately, I don’t get to play online or live as much as I would like, I’m a family man and family comes first, but when I do play Grosvenor is probably the site that I use most and Grosvenor Casinos tend to be the venue I would choose to play live at the most too. I do like the Grosvenor poker network as its very simple to use, the lobby is easy to find your way round and there are always some great promos on offer. I play a lot of the APAT games on there and always find them to offer great value too.
How will you approach the GUKPT grand final? Do you play a lot live?
I don’t want to give away too much regarding my approach to the Grand Final, as you never know who might be reading this, ha ha! No in all seriousness though my main aims will be to enjoy it and gain valuable experience from it. I do play live poker when I get the chance and I would class myself as a player who knows his way around the table… hopefully well enough to cause a few surprises which will see me go on a deep run in the GF!
There is another “GG Will” promotion on the 22nd of October, will you be playing? Last time a lot of players from your poker facebook group played, can you tell us a little about the group?
100% I’ll be playing the next GG Will promo and I’ll be inviting along as many of my friends from the LBPN Poker Facebook group that I run (Lee Barrett Poker Network). We are a small network of friends who play grassroots/amateur poker mainly for the social aspect of the game, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say we all have aspirations of taking down a big comp one day… it looks like my opportunity may have just arrived!!
You could win your £2,500 GUKPT Grand Final package alongside your share of the boosted £7,500 prizepool in the next GG Will tournament this Sunday 22nd October at 7pm. Be sure to like, share and tag the official Grosvenor Poker Facebook post, or like and retweet the official Grosvenor Poker tweet before you play the tournament to upgrade your potential £550 prize to the £2,500 package.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.