Author: calvin

The clock is starting to tick down to the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) Event at Wembley Stadium in London and the focus is turning back to how many people are going to turn up to this event. There was a lot of criticism at the start for the over the top prize pool, with €1m going directly to the winner and many felt that this tournament would fade away long before it arrived at Wembley.

The appearance of the Dusk Till Dawn company on the scene changed all that though. DTD is a highly respected name in the UK poker industry with a lot of sensible and driven people at the top of it. With the owner Rob Young guaranteeing that the event would go ahead and the money would be as stated, there was a lot more confidence behind the event and the publicity and promotion has been building ever since. With a top name like Red Bull getting in touch for some corporate sponsorship, there has definitely been a feeling that the event is heading in the right direction. However, now that we are mere days away, it is inevitable that people are now starting to question just how popular the event is going to be.

Poker fans have a lot of questions to ask

On the Dusk Till Dawn website, Young was fairly open about the upcoming Wembley event, no doubt deciding that honesty was the best way to go. He answered a number of questions relating to the event and it was his response to the question of “how many players have you got and how many do you think you will get?” that will grab a lot of the attention. Young replied;

At the time of writing this (4.22am Tuesday morning) we have 373 player names – this equates to a prize pool of just over €1 million euros, with more guaranteed seats over the next 4 days. But how many players will buy-in directly for €3000 on Day 2a Friday and Day 2b Saturday – this is the million dollar question – literally!

I heard 700-800 players bought in for €5K at this year’s EPT Berlin – but the EPT’s are established, prestigious events so maybe it’s not correct to compare? When we partnered with ISPT they had around 30 players in Day 2 with only 12 weeks to go. At the time I said to the press that 500 runners would be a disaster, 1000 would be okay, 1500 a job well done and 2000 a miracle from the poker gods, so I am just praying that all the of hard work done by the ISPT team in promoting the event in so many different countries will pay off.

ISPT is a new organisation, a new event, a new concept, a new format, is brave attempt to challenge ‘the norm’ by allowing players to buy directly into Day 2 for an average stack, taking all this into consideration, it’s not easy to predict the number of €3k buy-ins, but we have a €1M prize pool to build on.

With the winning prize amount guaranteed, it could be a costly few days for DTD and the ISPT but poker players should be viewing this as an excellent opportunity to make some big money. The chance to play at Wembley Stadium is going to be something you will never forget but if not too many poker players are involved with the tournament, there has to be a genuine chance to win some big money at this event.

This should be an incentive for people to come along, which could of course boost the number of players that attend. There is no doubt that Young in his interview was aiming to drive home the incentives so that even more poker players attend the big event but it remains to be see whether there will be enough demand to cover the prize pool promises or whether the businesses behind the event will need to shell out.

It has already been announced that final table deals will be allowed so there is going to be a chance for the huge prize at the top of the pile to be filtered around the final table if players and the organisers agree to the figure. If poker players play their cards right, this could be a rather lucrative few days at Wembley Stadium.

There are plenty of great poker tournaments to choose from these days and one of the best is the Genting Poker Series. Given the huge number of Genting casinos around the country, it makes sense for the company to have a tournament of this nature and the tournament looks like being a big success.

Over 300 players were involved at the Genting Poker Series Sheffield Main Event and there was definitely a lot of action and excitement around. With £100,000 on offer as a guaranteed prize, this is definitely the sort of thing that people wanted to get involved with but anyone hoping for a local or English poker victory would have been sadly disappointed.

This is down to the fact that Mudasser Hussain came all the way down from Glasgow in Scotland to show the English poker players how to win a tournament. With the top prize being just short of £43,000 this was a smashing success for Mudasser and you can bet that he’ll be delighted at taking part in the event. He has already taken to Twitter to celebrate and he kept his followers up to date with how his tournament went.

Anyone looking for some solace in an English player finishing second will have been disappointed too because Yucel Eminoglu grabbed the second spot. However, his prize fund was at the same level as third placed player, Athir Ali who does hail from England with both second and third prize standing at £28,500. There were prizes over £10,000 for fourth and fifth place too with Wai Yu and Adam Chadwick picking up a sizable amount of cash too. With plenty of big money on offer, these poker events are always going to be of benefit to players who play well and have a little bit of luck on their side.

Everyone can get involved with this poker series

One of the most interesting things about the Genting Poker Series is that it has an entire leg online. It is always good to be able to travel around the country and play in different poker venues but this is not always suitable for every poker player. Being able to stay in the comfort of your own home and have the same opportunity as other poker players to reach the grand final is definitely something that will appeal. Online poker is something that is open to everyone and it is good to see that there is scope for every poker to be involved.

The online event is not scheduled until November so there is plenty of time to go until players get the chance to enter last chance saloon and make a play for the big final which is scheduled for the middle of December. If you are looking to play your way to success at the end of the year, this is definitely going to be something that will appeal to you.

You don’t have to wait until November to get a chance of grabbing some poker winnings and playing your way to poker success though. There is a slight break for the summer but the Genting Poker Series recommences in August with a trip to the Genting Club in Wescliff Southend. After this, the focus falls on the Genting Club in Stoke in the middle of September. In October there is a jaunt north of the border to the Genting Club in Edinburgh. The success of Mudasser Hussain indicates that there is no need think that cross-border relations will stop your chance of success. This could be another brilliant chance for a Scottish poker player to grab a big victory or there could be the chance for an English player to get revenge for Hussain grabbing the big win in Sheffield.

Some poker players may think that the idea of qualifying for a decent poker event via a satellite is a waste of time. There can be a natural reaction that the major players are going to be the winners at these events and that it is a waste of time to play your way through the online events to book your place with the big boys. That is not the attitude to have though. Just think about saving money through qualifying through the satellite naturally and you will start to see the benefits of playing in this manner. There is also the fact that qualifying through a satellite event is going to give you a boost in confidence, which is definitely going to be great news for many poker players. It never hurts to give yourself a boost in confidence at any point.

The East End Live poker event is not going to claim to be one of the most important poker events but there were many reasons why this event was being taken seriously. In total, there were 287 players involved at the event at the Aspers Casino, which tells you a lot about this poker promotion. Getting close to 300 players out for a major event is definitely something to take pride in and the organisers clearly pulled a lot of things together to make this event such a huge success.

Some big name poker players were involved

You can also look at some of the major names that were involved at the event to get a feel for how big this poker event was. James Dempsey, a player for Team Ivey was on hand, the Sky Poker expert Jen Mason was on hand, Joe Beever was involved and there were some big names from Blackbeltpoker.com in Richard Ashby and Jerome Bradpiece on hand too.

However, despite all of these big poker names being in attendance, it was Nik Stylianou who qualified via a satellite who rose to the top. This saw him clinch $9,000 and this was well deserved after defeating Dan Whittaker in the final showdown. Nik is a 40 year old poker player from the North side of London so if you think that the poker glamour and excitement has passed you by, don’t be too hasty, there could still be an opportunity for you to achieve poker success.

As you can imagine, Nik was very complimentary about the event and the organisation after his win! It is not as if he was going to start bad mouthing the event after he clinched victory but there did appear to be a high level of fun and excitement at this event. There is no doubt that Apers is fast becoming a very popular venue for poker players and this is going to see a lot more poker events in the near future.

As for Nik though, he told Blackbeltpoker.com that he may well give Las Vegas a shot after his triumph. With $9,000 to get him over there or to boost his bankroll, there is going to be a big chance for him to have some fun and see where his poker skills can take him. Playing in satellite events is no guarantee of success and the vast, vast majority of satellite qualifiers fail to make any real mark on the major events. However, we know that all it takes is one day to go in your favour and your life can be positively impacted in a serious way. If you have been thinking about playing satellite events but always decided against it, you may want to rethink your outlook.

While Nik picked up $9,000 for his win, second place went to Dan Whittaker who received $8,500. In third was Jim Parberry, who received $5,700. In fourth position was Mark England, who received $4,600 and fifth place earned $3,600 for Craig Connaughton. In 6th position was Carlo Hassan, who earned $2,750 and in 7th place was George Achillea, who picked up $2,000. Michael Brock was in 8th, earning $1,560 and in 9th spot was Lee Brooke- Pearce who picked up $1,200.

The latest leg of the GUKPT has been another huge success with 116 poker players taking part in the main event. This is another promising turnout for a poker event that is growing in popularity all the time. There are plenty of UK poker tours and events to look out for the strong name that the GUKPT seems to have is helping to convince players to come out in good numbers. Of course, the fact that there are decent prizes on offer too is always going to be of benefit in enticing players to get involved.

There is no doubt that Neil Raine will be delighted with the money that is on offer. The new GUKPT Stockton champion will hopefully be delighted with the trophy and all of the adulation he will receive for his triumph but you can bet that he will be delighted with picking up £17,690. This was the first prize for the event and this is certainly the sort of poker prize that many players will be interested in playing for. It may not be at the high end of poker prizes but when you think about the size and scope of the event, it is definitely a prize worth taking a look at!

Poker success is a big thrill

After claiming top spot, Neil Raine gave a quick interview to GUKPT where he said;

It was a tough final because we were so deep but I was really lucky with the table draw, Tom was on my table, but he couldn’t do anything because he couldn’t get past me. It was really enjoyable, a really good structure. Three handed was a nightmare it took so long, no one was getting coolered! I had a few hands where my opponent was in front ’til the river and I got there a few times.

Neil was head to head with Dave Collins and the 28 year old poke professional held his nerve to beat his opponent and take home all the glory and the big cheque! This was the first GUKPT title for Raine and it was quite a journey from him. Raine made his way to the final table all the way from a £55 online qualifier. This again should give confidence to players that taking part in satellite events and online qualifiers can provide the perfect starting point for big success at tournaments.

There were a number of major players involved in the GUKPT Stockton Main Event including a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner. Lawrence Gosney was the main trying to snap up more poker glory as was Martin Holmes, who is a GUKPT Leader board champion. Add in the fact that Ellie Biessek, a recent poker winner in Newcastle was involved too and you start to think that there were a lot of big poker names involved in Stockton. Martin Holmes fell by the wayside quite quickly but Lawrence and Ellie were well involved deep into the final day of the event. Ellie was the player that was the final table bubble, which was unfortunate but it allowed every other poker to breathe a sigh of relief.

If the excitement at this GUKPT event has whetted your appetite for the next event, you will be delighted to know that you don’t have to wait too long. This is because the fourth leg of the GUKPT 2013 schedule is heading to Portsmouth at the end of May and will run all the way through until the 2nd of June. The festival of poker in the G Casino will begin on the 26th of May and the Main Event, which is a guaranteed £50,000 Main Event will start on Thursday the 30th of May, which is a Thursday.

With Genting casinos up and down the country, the tournaments being put on by the company are certainly rather popular. Knowing the fact that there is a regular chance to play big money poker events outside of London is a great comfort and assurance for everyone. There will even be London based poker players who will appreciate the chance to get out from the capital and to explore what else is available around the country. Okay, the only real chance that people will have time to explore what other locations have is if they get knocked out of the poker event early but that aside, there is a genuine chance for people to have fun with other poker players.

The 2013 Sheffield leg of the Genting Poker Series has a lot to live up to as the 2012 version was a huge success. Well over 500 players took part in the Main Event, which was no mean feat when you consider the buy-in was £400+£40. When you have a lot of players and a strong buy-in amount, you are going to create a strong prize pool and that is exactly what was on offer at the 2012 event. There was £224,800 on offer, a sum of money that will definitely get people involved with a poker event.

A lot of money was played for in Sheffield

The biggest share of this cash made its way to Hasmukh Khodiyara, who came out on top in the Sheffield event. A grand total of £50,000 went to the winner, who defeated Stephen McGrath to claim the top prize and this is exactly what players will be looking to emulate this year. There are going to be plenty of opportunities to get involved with the Main Event and a lot of this is down to the fact that there are going to be 3 starting days for the Genting Poker Series Sheffield Main Event. The first of these will take place on Wednesday the 15th of May with a 1pm start-time. The remaining two first days will take place on Thursday the 16th of May and Friday the 17th of May. These additional first days will also have a 1pm start-time, so this is the time to remember if you are planning on getting involved.

In addition to the Main Event, there are going to be side events at the Genting Poker Series Sheffield festival too. On Tuesday the 14th of May there is a £30+£3 rebuy satellite event for the Main Event. With 10 seats guaranteed, this could be an affordable way to play your way to the big money. If you are more interested in the side-events that are not related to the Main Event, the action begins on Wednesday the 15th of May.

7pm on Wednesday sees the start of a £100+£10 game, which will be for Pot Limit Omaha specialists. There are plenty of UK poker players that consider themselves to be a PLO expert and this may be a great way to play. Each player in this game will start with a stack of 20,000 chips.

If you are more of a No Limit Hold ‘Em player, there are plenty of side-games for you to enjoy. Thursday the 16th of May sees a £100+£10 game where players can win the button! There is a NLHE £150+£15 event spread over Saturday and Sunday and on the final day, there will be a bounty game for players to enjoy too. This is a £50+£25(B)+£10 bounty game, which is kicking off at 3pm on Sunday the 19th of May.