Nik Persaud Takes Heads Up Poker Championship

The Heads Up Poker Championship took place alongside the Grosvenor UKPT Grand Final, making it an exciting week at British poker tables. Despite the small field of only 28 poker players signing up for the £2,000 buy-in tournament, the event did make up for the numbers with the quality of the entrants. These included JP Kelly, Victoria Coren and Jeff Kimber. 

BlackBelt Pokers’ sponsored player, Nik Persaud, would see that title remain in British hands for the second year in a row as the home grown talent proved its worth. The final head to head saw Persaud taking on Leon Louis in an all English final but along the way he had to battle through the former champion Jeff Kimber and the EPT success story Toby Lewis. 

Persaud - holding a 9,8 - won the final hand the hard way after Louis went all in with a pair of fives. The flop revealed a 7,6,4 and it wasn’t until the river ran out with 7 and 6 that Persaud took the title. 

It came as great relief to Persaud to finally nail a final after so many near misses in his career, which has seen him reach the final table at GUKPT events on three separate occasions but fall at the last hurdle. Taking the title and the trophy along with £30,000 was fair reward for his efforts, commenting, “I am really pleased to have won this title.” 

Persaud added that there were “some great players in there, so it feels good to have won, especially in a format, which I’ve been playing a lot of.”