12/1 Shot to Leeds Champion: Cush Berlyn Completes GUKPT Comeback

GUKPT Leeds began with £550,000 in advertised guarantees and finished with one of the better comeback stories of the tour’s 2026 season.

British grinder Cush Berlyn entered the Main Event final day eighth of nine and priced at 12/1 to win, then worked his way through a final table featuring recent Luton champion Renee Xie before taking the title for a career-best £43,490. 

The £1,000 Main Event drew 250 entries, giving Berlyn a slightly steeper uphill battle than defending champion Keith Littlewood faced when he won in Leeds last year.

Berlyn didn't begin the final table looking like the obvious winner. He sat eighth of nine in chips and was listed as a 12/1 outsider, while Xie arrived chasing something that had never been done before: back-to-back GUKPT Main Event titles after becoming the tour’s first female Main Event champion in Luton only weeks earlier. 

Xie’s run ended in ninth for £4,250, her 25th GUKPT Main Event cash, while the field continued towards a final three of Berlyn, Niall Duffy and James Shaw.

A three-way deal settled much of the remaining money before play continued for the trophy. Berlyn then eliminated Shaw in third to take roughly a 2:1 chip advantage into heads-up against Duffy and converted it into the title.

The £1,500 High Roller produced 50 entries and one of the strongest final tables of the festival.

Chris Balmforth eventually took the trophy and £31,060, beating 2023 Irish Open champion David Docherty heads-up. Brandon Sheils, Bryan Taylor and eventual Main Event winner Berlyn also made the money. 

Balmforth’s day came with an extra bonus before the Main Event had even begun. He was selected for GGPoker’s Golden Draw and won a GUKPT Main Event seat, which he then converted into a Day 2 stack worth 86 big blinds.

The final live trophy of the Leeds stop went to Liam Rose-Black, who won the £200 Closer for £3,360.

It was his second live tournament victory in little more than a month after taking down a media event at EPT Barcelona. The Leeds win came against a final table that also featured Xie, who added another cash after her Main Event ninth-place finish.

While the September Main Event didn't recreate numbers from the start of the decade, it did continue its slow and steady recovery from 2024.

This year’s 250 entries narrowly exceeded the 247 recorded in 2025 and were well ahead of the 192-player field from 2024. Berlyn’s £43,490 payout was also larger than the prizes won by James Jones and Keith Littlewood in the previous two editions.