Sudunagunta Stages Incredible Comeback in the PartyPoker Tour Sheffield Main Event

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Feb 02, 2026 4 min read

The first PartyPoker Tour stop of 2026 is in the books, with Siddarth Sudunagunta walking away with the Sheffield Main Event title and a £20,000 first-place prize. Sudunagunta added this title to the £1,000 PartyPoker Birmingham High Roller he captured in October 2025.

Taking down a major tournament is always a significant achievement, but Sudunagunta's victory was particularly memorable. The Birmingham-based veterinarian sat down at the final table with only nine big blinds, yet still came out on top for a career-best score and his second PartyPoker Tour trophy.

The £500 PartyPoker Tour Sheffield Main Event attracted 273 entrants, resulting in a £121,485 prize pool, with the top 41 finishers sharing it. Paul Romain, Dara O'Kearney, Rick Trigg, Hasmukh Khodiyara, and Timothy Chung were among those who finished in the money place but fell short of a spot at the nine-handed final table.

2026 PartyPoker Sheffield Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

According to the live updates that Poker.Pro provided, Sundunagunta doubled early into the final table action when his ace-five prevailed against the queen-jack of Benjamin Liu. Liu never fully recovered and was eliminated soon after the first break, Muhammad Khalil cracking Liu's pocket jacks with his pocket tens. Khalil hit a miracle ten on the river, a miracle because another player folded a ten preflop!

Emmanuel Mulemwa joined Liu on the rail a few hands later. Mulemwa led, then jammed on a jack-high flop with queen-jack, only to discover George Achllea had flopped a set of jacks; Mulemwa was drawing dead on the turn.

Hungary's Csaba Kovacs became the third player to bust during this level when he ran into the hot-running Khalil. Kovacs moved all-in for 985,000 with ace-jack after Khalil had opened to 130,000. Khalil instantly call, as would you had you been dealt pocket kings. A queen-high board was safe for the cowboys, and Kovacs crashed out.

Almost two hours passed before another player busted, with Abdul Mukit's elimination breaking the deadlock. The action folded to Max Burney in the small blind, and he jammed with king-six of hearts. Mukit called off his last eight big blinds with pocket eights, only to see those snowmen melt when Burney hit a runner-runner flush.

Five-handed play ended with Khalil heading to the cashier's desk to collect £7,100. Khalil four-bet all-in for 27 big blinds with pocket nines after Burney had opened and Sudunagunta had three-bet. Burney ducked out of the way, but Sudunagunta snap-called with the powerhouse hand that is pocket aces. Both players flopped a set, but there was no miracle one outer for Khalil, and he was left with three big blinds.

The four surviving players took a scheduled break after that hand. No sooner had they returned to the action, Khalil found himself void of chips. His nano-stack went into the middle with king-nine, which lost to the nine-seven of Sudunagunta courtesy of a seven on the flop.

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Khalil's seat hadn't had a chance to go cold when Achillea also busted. Sudunagunta raised all-in from the small blind with queen-seven of clubs, and Achillea called off his seven big blind stack with ace-king of hearts. A seven on the flop proved enough to send Achillea home in fourth place.

Soon after Achillea's demise, the dangerous Andrew Teng fell in third for £10,630. Teng, a GUKPT champion, open-shoved for a shade over seven big blinds from the small blind with what turned out to be king-eight. Burney looked down at ace-ten of clubs, and the chip leader made one of the easier calls of his career. Teng picked up a flush draw on the all-diamond flop but couldn't hit any of his outs on the turn or river, and had to make do with a third-place finish. Having started the final table eighth in chips, navigating to third was an impressive result for Teng.

Burney held a substantial 10,000,000 to 3,200,000 chip lead over Sudunagunta at the start of heads-up play. Sudunagunta almost immediately closed the gap, which may be why both players agreed to a deal that saw Burney lock up £17,120, Sudunagunta £16,390, leaving £3,700 more for the eventual champion.

That champion was decided during the 100,000/200,000 level when Burney opened to 325,000, and Sudunagunta called. A jack-deuce-jack flop saw Sudunagunta check-raise a 200,000 continuation bet to 700,000, and Burney call. Sudunagunta then fired a 1,500,000 on the four of hearts turn, only for Burney to move all-in for 5,400,000 after some deliberation. Sudunagunta instantly called and revealed pocket deuces for bottom set. Burney flipped over ace-six with the ace of hearts. The river was a black nine, busting Burney in second place and leaving Sudunagunta to revel in the glory of victory.

2026 PartyPoker Tour Sheffield Main Event Final Table Results

_{Reflects a heads-up deal}

PartyPoker Tour Jets Off to Seville in March

There is no PartyPoker Tour festival in February, but the fledgling tour returns from March 16 in sunny Seville. It marks the first time the tour has left the United Kingdom since its revamp and rebrand in 2025.

Satellite for the PartyPoker Tour Seville Main Event are available online at PartyPoker right now. They start from only €0.30, eventually feeding into the €50 PartyPoker Tour Seville Round 5 satellites, where three €1,500 packages are guaranteed. Those packages consist of the €500 Main Event buy-in plus €1,000 towards travel and accommodation expenses.

_{Lead image courtesy of Nunzia Esposito}

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.

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• Tags Abdul Mukit Andrew Teng Benjamin Liu Dara O'Kearney Emmanuel Mulemwa George Achllea Hasmukh Khodiyara Max Burney Muhammad Khalil Paul Romain Rick Trigg Siddarth Sudunagunta Timothy Chung Travel partypoker
• Related Players Andrew TengTimothy ChungPaul RomainRick TriggHasmukh KhodiyaraMax Burney