Chop It Up: Goliath Monster Stack Ends in an 11-Way Deal

Deals being made in live poker tournaments are nothing new, but they rarely extend beyond two or three players. However, an unprecedented turnout for the £100,000 guaranteed Monster Stack at the Grosvenor Goliath festival ultimately resulted in the final 11 players deciding to chop up the remaining prizes.

An impressive 2,726 entries were processed across the Monster Stack’s four flights. Those entrants created a £207,100 prize pool, more than twice the size of the advertised guarantee.

According to some comments on social media, the low buy-in combined with the massive field meant the average stack was only eight big blinds for over two hours, until the final 11 players decided enough was enough and struck a deal.

The original first-place prize was meant to be in the region of £30,000, but Hongtao Sun, the player announced as the Monster Stack’s champion, took home £13,255. Ryan Bignell was the deal’s biggest beneficiary. Bignell was nursing a mere two big blinds when the deal was announced, which boosted what was all but guaranteed to be a £1,000 score into one weighing in at £4,300.

£100,000 Gtd Monster Stack Deal Payouts

_{Prizes reflect an 11-way deal}

Can Ravi Sheth Go Back-to-Back in the Goliath Main Event?

The £1,250 buy-in, £1 million guaranteed GUKPT Main Event has reached its nine-handed final table from a field of 876. Ravi Sheth is the player to catch going into the final day’s action and looks set to help himself to a top prize worth £194,750.

That in itself would be newsworthy, but the fact that Sheth won this very tournament in 2025 makes it even more so. Last year, Sheth topped a 1,023-strong field to capture his second GUKPT title and a cool £192,700.

This event paid the top 111 finishers prizes starting from £2,700. Such luminaries as John Bousfield, Phil Tate, Vikrum Mehta, Alex Todd, Brandon Sheils, Mitch Johnson, Tom Hall, James Rann, Antoine Labat, Calogero Morreale, Kully Sidhu, and Yucel Eminoglu were among those who cashed.

Five players cashed in this event, having won or paid for their seat via their GGPoker accounts. Steven Ricketts, Airidas Benosenko, Samuel Newsome, and a pair of anonymous players received a 10% boost on their winnings thanks to the Grosvenor Casinos and GGPoker partnership.

All eyes will be on Sheth when play resumes at 12:00 p.m. BST. You can watch the action unfold on Grosvenor Poker’s Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube on a 20-minute delay.

£1M Guaranteed GUKPT Main Final Table Chip Counts

Day 1a of the Goliath Sets a New Record

The £200 Goliath, with its estimated £2 million prize pool, has seen two of its flights completed and everything points to this extraordinary event reaching new heights.

Day 1a of the Goliath was the best-attended Goliath flight in the tournament’s storied history. Some 1,744 players chose the first of nine flights to begin their quest for glory. However, only 105 of those starters progressed to Day 2.

Yesterday’s Day 1b drew in a 1,473-strong crowd, a slight increase from the 1,444 in 2025. As of 10:00 a.m. BST on July 27, Day 1c already has 699 players bought in.

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.