Thomas Clack, who earned the 2025 National Poker League (NPL) Player of the Year award in England, was stripped of his £40,000 Grosvenor Poker sponsorship over the weekend. The decision was confirmed by Clack himself in a series of Instagram stories on his @airdraken handle.
Another GTO Wizard Scandal
Thomas Clack had already secured the 2025 Grosvenor Poker title when the incident occurred. According to Clack, he was playing the online flight of Grosvenor’s Behemoth tournament, the final series of 2025.
The iPoker Network, the platform where Grosvenor Poker operates, suspended Clack from the platform. This alone put Clack in violation of the NPL Terms and Conditions, which state that players must be eligible to play both live and online to claim season-long prizes. This generally means that foreign players aren’t able to win the awards, though being banned from online play also applies.
Clack admitted to using the GTO Wizard solver tool during play, though he claims that he was using the tool to study after the hands were over, not to give himself an advantage.
“I was just studying with GTO out whilst I was playing,” Clack said.
“After a hand had been played, I looked it up to see if I played it well. I wasn’t using it to affect my play, but I had it open, which was silly.
“I wasn’t trying to use it to cheat. I wasn’t using it to gain an advantage,” he said. “It was a really stupid way to study.
“Plenty of sites use what’s known as fair play checks,” Clack said. “And plenty of the hands I played, I didn’t play to the best of theory. You’d think they would see that and be like, ‘Oh, that’s fine.’”
Unless he is reinstated, Clack will no longer be eligible to compete in the Grosvenor Poker NPL going forward.
Clack’s scandal adds to the list of players who have been either banned or publicly shamed for getting or providing real-time assistance (RTA) via solver or via ghosting.
In early 2025, Nacho Barbero was seen on Instagram playing on ACR Poker while GTO Wizard was in the background. No action was taken, though he would lose his ACR sponsorship a few months later for bad-mouthing the company during a live stream.
Shortly after Barbero’s scandal, old screenshots of fellow ACR pro Ebony Kenney resurfaced, which showed GTO Wizard being open behind active tables.
Late in 2025, Ren Lin lost his GGPoker sponsorship and was temporarily banned from all WSOP events after providing real-time assistance to a player during the GGMillion$ final table. However, he was reinstated a few weeks later, and WPT Global would controversially add him as their newest ambassador in January.
On top of all the RTA scandals, the Bovada bot farm saga took a new twist last month when Martin Zamani provided video proof of the farm’s existence.
Grosvenor Poker statement
Grosvenor Poker confirmed Clack’s outcome in a Facebook post, though they didn’t name him. They have said they will reallocate the £40,000 to the affected players in due time, though they have yet to do so at the time of writing.
“After the conclusion of the 2025 National Poker League (NPL), we were informed by the iPoker network that one of our players had been suspended from their online platform.
“As a result, the player, who had qualified as a leader in the National Poker League 2025 promotion, no longer met the criteria outlined in clause 46 of the National Poker League 2025 Terms and Conditions and therefore could not be awarded the full prize, including the sponsored player pro package. Upon conclusion of our investigations, we will proceed with the payment of any remaining prizes in due course.
“We recognise that this outcome may be disappointing for some; however, the integrity of Grosvenor Poker and the events we put on for our valued players is extremely important to us and must be upheld.
“We will not be providing further comment on this matter. We wish you all a fantastic 2026 poker season and look forward to seeing you at our events, both in venue and online.”
Clack’s incredible 2025 NPL run
Clack is one of a handful of players who grind the Grosvenor Poker events across the United Kingdom, most commonly the GUKPT and UKPL, to pick up NPL points for the season-long leaderboard.
Clack recorded an amazing 36 cashes, 15 final tables, and two GUKPT High Roller wins in Leeds and Coventry. However, it was his £217,500 second-place finish in the £200 Goliath, a tournament with an insane 12,961 entries, that set him apart from everyone else, winning by an insurmountable 57.01 points.
Overall, Clack had won over £430,000 in 2025, making up more than half of his $1.1 million in career live tournament earnings.
2025 National Poker League Standings
In addition to the £40,000 package for first, the second and third-place finishers received £20,000 in Grosvenor Poker Live Credit. Fourth and fifth received £15,000, sixth through 12th received £10,000, and 13th to 18th received £5,000. The following 75 players in the leaderboard effectively played a satellite, with the top-25 players each receiving £5,000 in Grosvenor Poker Live Credit. The next 197 players were eligible to play in a £10,000 online freeroll.
In addition to the prizes, the top-18 players in the Grosvenor Poker NPL faced off in a £100,000 invitational tournament at GUKPT London. Yucel Eminoglu won the invitational and the £23,000 top prize, while all players were guaranteed at least £2,000.
| Rank | Player | Points | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Clack | 423.48 | £40,000 Sponsorship Package |
| 2 | Keith Littlewood | 366.47 | £20,000 Live Credit |
| 3 | Ravi Sheth | 359.62 | £20,000 Live Credit |
| 4 | Harry Sandford | 354.82 | £15,000 Live Credit |
| 5 | Michael Rosaman | 341.82 | £15,000 Live Credit |
| 6 | Andrew Hulme | 324.68 | £10,000 Live Credit |
| 7 | Philip Tate | 323.02 | £10,000 Live Credit |
| 8 | Dale Wilson | 317.38 | £10,000 Live Credit |
| 9 | Calogero Morreale | 312.93 | £10,000 Live Credit |
| 10 | Yucel Eminoglu | 311.57 | £10,000 Live Credit |
