Sunny Chattha Proves a Hit in Palm Beach Big Game

Hitsquad member Sunny Chattha has picked up £23,150 for winning February’s staging of the £1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Palm Beach Big Game in London.

The 25-year-old Londoner decided to stay at home while the World Poker Tour (WPT) Venice even was taking place – and it appears he made the right decision by collecting the top prize from a 69-player field that created a prize pool of £69,000, even though he won’t be in with a shout of lifting the $302,065 on offer for taking down the €4,950 buy-in event in Italy.

Still, his home soil victory is still better than the $33,683 the seventh-placed finisher will receive from the Casino di Venezia Ca Vendramin Calergi tournament that ends on Friday as Chattha – who is joined by his older brother Chaz, James Akenhead, Praz Bansi and Karl Mahrenholz in the five-strong London-based group of poker pros named The Hitsquad – pocketed $36,590 in the British capital city to add to the $600,000-plus he has earned from live cashes.

Tough Final Table for Eventual Champion

The former mechanical engineering student, who has won three major British titles, certainly didn’t have it easy at the Palm Beach Casino, having to outlast players such Daniel Hardy, Hendon Mobster Joe Beevers and 12-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) in-the-money finisher Andrew Teng at the final table before ultimately defeating Nick Irving in their heads-up clash.

Irving – also the runner-up from the £2,500 No-Limit Hold’em main event at the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Grand Final in London for £98,325 ($156,272) in November of 2010 – left with £13,800 for his runner-up spot this time, while Hardy picked up £9,660 in third, 16-time WSOP casher Beevers pocketed £1,380 for exiting in ninth place, and Teng added £3,450 to his live tournament winnings in sixth.

However, Chattha’s biggest cash win is still the £88,150 ($125,929) he banked for taking down the £1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event from the second leg of the 2009 GUKPT in Walsall.

Top 10 payouts from the Palm Beach Big Game:

1. Sunny Chattha (England) – £23,150 ($36,590)

2. Nick Irving (England) – £13,800 ($21,812)

3. Daniel Hardy (England) – £9,660 ($15,268)

4. Tamer Kamel (England) – £6,900 ($10,906)

5. Rob Cooper (England) – £4,830 ($7,634)

6. Andrew Teng (England) – £3,450 ($5,453)

7. Guy Bowles (England) – £2,760 ($4,362)

8. Ramey Shaio (England) – £2,070 ($3,272)

9. Joe Beevers (England) – £1,380 ($2,181)

10. Ian Woodley (England) – £1,000 ($1,581)