Cedric Schwaederle Wins the GUKPT London Main Event (£102K)

Frenchman Cedric Schwaederle helped himself to the sixth six-figure live score of his career by taking down the £1,250 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) London Main Event. Schwaederle came out on top of a 432-strong crowd and took home £102,880 of the £450,180 prize pool.

It has been an impressive 12 months for Schwaederle at the live poker tables. He won the $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the Dolce Vita Series in Cyprus in July 2025 for a career-best $310,000. Another victory came in October 2025, this time in the €2,200 European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta Deep Stack; he scooped €99,400.

Since those victories, Schwaederle has run deep in several live events, most recently in the $2,200 EAPT Cyprus Main Event in March, where he finished 10th for $13,400.

Social media was awash with congratulatory messages following the French grinder’s win, with a few tongue-in-cheek comments mentioning him “getting the badge in,” a meme-like craze in the United Kingdom revolving around the Stone Island fashion brand.

The top 56 finishers won a slice of the £450,180 prize pool. The likes of Dale Wilson, Joe Hindry, Conor O’Driscoll, and Matthew Davenport were among the in-the-money finishers. Timothy Chung, Arthur Conan, and Trevor Reardon also cashed.

Grosvenor Ambassador Katie Swift put in another sterling performance. Having spun up a short-stack on Day 2, Swift fell just shy of a final table appearance, busting in 10th for £6,030.

2026 GUKPT London Main Event Final Table Results

Ken Wong was the first player busted from the final table, and in cruel circumstances. Wong got the last of his chips in with ace-queen against the pocket kings of Jiaze Li. An ace on the flop seemed to have locked in a much-needed double for Wong, especially because another player had folded a king. However, the case king appeared on the turn, and when the river bricked, Wong was gone.

Li claimed another scalp, but this time with less drama. Antoine Labat was all-in for six big blinds with king-five of diamonds against Li’s pocket nines. Li flopped a set and turned a boat to reduce the player count by one.

Seventh place and the first five-figure prize of the night went to Tsz To. He committed his stack on the turn, holding a straight and flush draw. Unfortunately for To, Schaederle held the nut straight, which remained true to send To to the showers.

The final six became five after the untimely demise of the anonymous player going by the initials “C.K.”

Li fell in fifth after a clash with Longmao Fan didn’t go to plan. Li’s last 17 big blinds went into the middle holding king-ten of hearts, but Fan had the dominating ace-king of spades in his hand. Fan flopped an ace, but Li had a gutshot Broadway straight draw. The turn and river failed to alter the course of the hand, and Li was done and dusted.

There was a career-best score of £29,220 for Spaniard Ignacio Amelung. According to The Hendon Mob Database, Amelung had $5,908 in live tournament earnings, with his last recorded result coming in March 2017. His final action was to call a jam on the river with top pair, only for Tobias Kirby-Hogarty to turn over bottom set.

The GUKPT London Main Event progressed to heads-up when Fan made an ill-timed move in a hand with Kirby-Hogarty. Fan ultimately moved all-in with nothing but queen-high on a double-paired board, only for Kirby-Hogarty to call with a full house. Three years ago, Fan finished second in this event.

Kirby-Hogarty held a substantial lead at the start of the heads-up clash, but Schwaederle grinded his way back level before losing ground again. A huge hand went down during the 40,000/80,000 level that flipped the contest on its head.

Kirby-Hogarty completed the small blind with pocket nines, Schwaederle raised with pocket kings and instantly called when Kirby-Hogarty moved all-in for 45 big blind effective. The kings held, and the ball was firmly in Schwaederle’s court.

Almost immediately after that cooler hand, another reared its head. Schwaederle min-raised with pocket eights, Kirby-Hogarty three-bet jammed for around 16 big blinds with ace-jack of clubs, and Schwaederle called. A nine-high board failed to melt the Frenchman’s snowmen, and Schwaederle became the 2026 GUKPT London Main Event champion.

GUKPT Heads to Luton From May 14

Next up for the 2026 GUKPT is a trip to Luton for the fourth leg of the tour’s 20th season. The GUKPT visited Luton twice last year, in May and August.

Calogero Morreale triumphed in the May Main Event, turning his £1,250 into £56,720 after leaving 283 opponents in his wake.

Popular grinder Keith Johnson won the August edition of the GUKPT Luton Main Event, banking £56,890. Johnson defeated Charlie Waters heads-up to deny the GUKPT finally having a female Main Event champion.

As always, there will be satellites running at the Grosvenor G Casino during the live festival, along with dozens of online satellites at Grosvenor Poker.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.