Hit Squad On Target Once Again

In past columns I have written about a young group of talented players from London, collectively known as The Hit Squad. They include former WSOP bracelet winner and GUKPT titleholder Praz Bansi, Karl Mahrenholz, James Akenhead, and brothers Sunny and Chaz Chattha.

James was a whisker away from a WSOP bracelet last year, but suffered a heart breaking outdraw in the final hand against Grand Hinkle. Although James was also on the final table in this latest success for the squad, it was Sunny Chattha who took away the top honors, outlasting a field of 301 runners to secure victory in the second GUKPT main event of 2009. He won first prize of £88,150 after four hard fought days of poker at the Grosvenor casino in Walsall, not far from the city of Birmingham. His win capped off a successful festival of poker, which saw a year-on-year increase in numbers for all ten events on the schedule.

His heads-up opponent was the very experienced Joe Grech, who was playing in a record equaling third GUKPT main event final table. Grech previously won a big event in Paris, finished second in a $5,000 WPT event in 2005, and has been a regular fixture near the top of the European rankings for the past four years.

The two of them have 11 GUKPT main event cashes between them, so a victory for either player would have been well deserved. They started off cautiously, with no significant pots during the first hour of heads-up play. It was min raise, call, and check poker, and although this may not have been the most crowd pleasing of finishes to a GUKPT main event, it was certainly an intriguing match up, with neither player wishing to concede too much ground to the other.

Chattha eventually wore down his opponent, and after 90 minutes of play with virtually equal chip stacks, the 22-year old South Londoner began to steadily build a lead over East Londoner Grech. The tournament concluded after two hours and 30 minutes of heads-up play with Chattha's A-7 holding up against Grech's K-J. Surprisingly, this final hand was the only hand of the heads-up encounter in which either player had made an all-in move.

Two years ago, when he was only 20-years old, Sunny won his first major event in the UK-the £1,000 main event of Northern Lights festival in Blackpool, which was the last major Grosvenor festival before the GUKPT was created. On that occasion he ended up heads-up against his older brother Chaz.

In 2007 Chaz once again missed out on a major UK title, having made it to the heads-up stage of the Plymouth GUKPT main event, where he finished as runner up to Julian Thew. Sunny finished eleventh in that tournament, but cemented his consistency with three consecutive cashes in GUKPT main events.

He is delighted to have put all the bead beats behind him and with the confidence from this win, it will surely not be too long before he makes an even bigger mark on the world stage. He is certainly one to watch out for at this year's WSOP. He has a great temperament, a gracious table manner, and is by all accounts a very popular winner. He is currently not sponsored, but would be a great advertisement for any company looking for a well-mannered and highly talented ambassador for the game. Congratulations Sunny, you played well and truly deserve it.

Jonathan Raab is a poker consultant and tournament reporter. He also represents online poker site Blue Square at live poker events in the UK and Europe, and manages the GUKPT. Email Jonathan at jr@bluesq.com