Nottingham's Sam Trickett confirmed his burgeoning reputation on the poker scene after taking down the sixth leg of the GUKPT, which was held at the G casino in Luton writes Rob Eddy.

The 22-year-old outlasted a veritable feast of UK poker talent to emerge triumphant and collect the top prize of £106,050, which he said would boost his bankroll to keep in the game for years to come.

Judging by the way he has been playing of late, that could be for a very long time as he recently landed a cool $245,927 for finishing in fourth place in Event 46 of the recent World Series of Poker in Las Vegas - a $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed tournament.

His success in Luton made him the youngest ever winner of a GUKPT main event and he proved his talents, after overcoming a who's who of UK poker in the field of 376 players.

Among those taking part were Dave Colclough, Marc Goodwin, Neil Channing, Julian Thew, Ian Frazer and John Gale, while there was no shortage of celebrity talent either as Teddy Sheringham, Tony Cascarino, Michael Greco and Wayne Mardle added a bit of glamour to proceedings.

Indeed, 'Hawaii 5-0-1' Mardle made it to the final table but lost on a coin flip to David La Ronde and departed in seventh for a not-too-shabby £14,100.

La Ronde had begun the final table with the chip lead but by the time play got down to the final two, Trickett had just edged in front.

However, any thoughts that may have lead to a long stint heads-up could not have been further from the truth, as all the chips were in the middle pre-flop of the very first hand and Trickett was able to celebrate when his A-Q held up against A-7.

Trickett can now head to the WSOPE in London next month in good heart and he has already shown he is not overawed by the big stage after his success in Las Vegas, so could be a dark horse to land the big one when proceedings get underway from September 19.