Category: Live Poker Tournaments

With the Hippodrome playing host to some top class poker this weekend, the Aspers Casino in Stratford may have been feeling a bit left out. After all, this has been the host for so many great poker tournaments already this year but it may be that the Hippodrome is going to give it a run for its money. There is no getting away from the fact that a casino and poker room in the heart of London’s tourist centre is going to be a popular choice and its location at Leicester Square is a huge draw for the Hippodrome.

However, the Aspers Casino in Stratford is not that far away and it is not as if there are no other attractions in the nearby area. It is a huge complex, a place you could easily spend all day in and there are plenty of reasons for poker players to spend a lot of time in this part of the capital city. Next weekend though, there is a very strong reason for spending a good amount of time in the Aspers Casino.

A big venue for the big poker events

The Boylepoker.com event, their International Poker Open (IPO) will be taking place and there will be a £200+£25 buy-in for the event. This tournament will be hosted in the same venue that has recently played host to the World Poker Tour National London event and the recent Premier League VI from PartyPoker.com was also held in Stratford. The venue has very quickly established itself as one of the main draws in the London poker circuit and you can guarantee that plenty more events will be hosted here.

The event starts on Wednesday the 17th of April but there will be three starting flights for the event. Yes, Wednesday will be Day 1A, Thursday will be Day 1B and Friday is all set to be Day 1C! Saturday will be Day 2 proper and Sunday is Day 3 and the final day where the poker action will continue until there is a winner. With respect to the flight days, the evenings will begin at 7pm and it is expected that the events will carry through until just before 1am. There is a lot of interest in this event and organisers have said they expect there to be around 700 poker players involved at the time when the registration process is shut.

There is an added boost for the players with the news that Boylesports have added £5,000 to the prize pool, boosting the amount that will be on offer. The kudos of taking on and defeating your fellow poker player is always good but when it comes down to it, nothing spells success like poker winnings!

Wednesday is as good a time as any to start looking forward to the weekend’s activities. To be honest, Monday morning is probably as good a time as any to start looking forward to the next weekend but there is no doubt that many people like to get some days behind them before they start wishing their life away. As the middle point of the week, Wednesday feels as though you have put the Monday blues far behind you and the weekend starts to move into touching distance. Wednesday is far from being the ideal day of the week but if you love to play poker at the weekend, this is the day to start pulling your plans together.

If you are looking to play online poker, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so. The big sites all offer massive Saturday and Sunday games so you’ll not be short of options. However, there are players that prefer the chance to play against actual people in real-life venues at the weekend. If you are sat behind a computer screen all week at work, you may not find the idea of sitting behind a computer screen all weekend too appealing. This is why you should get out and play poker around a table against other keen poker fans.

There were not too many big poker options for UK players last weekend but that is not the case the weekend. In fact, if anything, there is too much choice because two of the biggest names in UK poker have events this weekend. This lack of convergence may be slightly annoying for some poker players who would love the chance to be able to take on the biggest names and play all of the biggest venues. Different poker bodies and organisations don’t need to plan ahead with other bodies in mind but it would be good if there was a bit more thought put into the planning process.

Some big poker choices have to be made

One big poker highlight of the weekend comes with the UKIPT Series which is launching at the Hippodrome just off Leicester Square. This is going to be one of the most popular poker venues in the country due to its great location. However, the fact that big names like PokerStars are also getting involved means that there will be a lot of interest in what the venue has to offer.

This should be enough to get poker players excited but if you are looking for a different option, Leg 2 of the GUKPT tour will be taking place in Didsbury in Manchester. The event is already underway but it will start to get exciting this weekend. Thursday and Friday represent Day 1A and Day 1B of the event with Saturday representing Day 2 while Sunday is the Main Event Final Day.

One thing that is of benefit to players is the fact that there is a geographical split for the event. The players in the South of England can focus on London for their event and anyone in the North of England or Scotland can look towards Manchester for their poker activity. There has already been a huge North / South divide this week due to the passing of Margaret Thatcher and the differing views of her work in both of these areas. In this sense, a slight poker difference is not going to be too big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

While playing and winning this weekend can be of benefit, there is an incentive to get along and play to ensure you have poker plans later in the year. Both of these events grant entry to later tournaments and events where you will get to play alongside other champions. There is no doubt that poker players looking to mingle with the best can benefit from being active this weekend with some proper poker tournaments.

While footballers dream about winning in famous stadiums like Wembley or Hampden, poker players want to play at the most prestigious poker venues. There will be many poker players who have dreamt about winning a major event in Las Vegas and having all eyes of the gaming community on them. However, a poker player doesn’t have to go all the way to Las Vegas to experience playing in a world-renowned poker venue, there is one in Nottingham.

Okay, Nottingham may lack the glitz and glamour that Las Vegas delivers nonchalantly but there is no doubt that the Dusk Till Dawn club is one of the most respected poker venues in the country. It hasn’t been easy for DTD to earn this reputation but it is fully deserved and it shows no sign of slipping away. This means that poker players will always be keen to make their way to the venue and try and be a winner.

One player that no longer has to dream about being a DTD winner is Zahir Aslam. This is down the fact that he has become the latest poker player to clinch the £300 Deepstack game. This is no mean feat, especially when you take on board that there were a total of 468 players vying for the prize. A top prize of £33,596 is definitely a huge incentive for players and there was a massive turnout.

Plenty of interest in this poker game

This is always a tournament that is very popular with DTD players and even though there was a £300+£36 buy-in for the event, there ended up being an overlay of close to £10,000. When there is a guarantee of £150,000 for a single poker tournament, it is probably not surprising that there is a massive level of interest in the event.

Of the 468 players, only the top 63 were guaranteed to take cash home which meant there was heartache for Terry Jordan. Jordan was the 64th player in the event which meant that everyone still sat at a table upon his exit knew there was a minimum of £600 coming their way. When the bubble bursts, some players can relax, safe in the knowledge that they will receive some cash reward for their poker endeavour. The final table was set up when Dennis Troake crashed out in 10th position.

Paul Hardy was the first player to exit from the final table with £3,138.75 for his trouble and he was swiftly followed by James Sykes who earned £3,720. In 7th place was Peter Wigglesworth who received £4,650 and in 6th was Robert Moss, who received £5,231.25. In 5th place was Aaron Brunskill who received £6,939.75 while 4th placed finisher David Shaw received £8,137.05. Third place went to Hasmukh Khodiyara who smashed through the ten grand level with £11,625. The runner up spot went to Adam King who received £19,413.75.

All of these players were left in the slipstream of Zahir Aslam though who take home more than £30,000.

Sports fans love it when there is a chance to see so many of their big name stars and heroes in the one place. For sports like football, tournaments like the Champions League are hugely exciting because they bring the best teams and the best players from around Europe into the one main competition. This is the sort of event that gets fans interested, which means that it gets TV companies interested. They then start the hype machine and before you know it, the Champions League has become the biggest sporting event in the world, probably even eclipsing the excitement and drama that comes along with the world cup.

There is a lot to be gained from having these major events and it is not just football that can benefit from it. If there is one man that understands the power of publicity and the different TV can make to a sport, it is Barry Hearn. Hearn made snooker one of the biggest sports in the world and he has had huge success in the darts and boxing arena too. This means he has his finger on the pulse when it comes to creating events that people want to know about and it seems as though Hearn is making his way into poker.

Poker is the big thing at the moment

This makes perfect sense for him because poker is huge at the moment and he is not the sort of businessman that is going to let a massive opportunity pass him by without at least trying for success. This is behind the first ever World Snooker Championship Poker event which has just been announced by the Grosvenor Casino. The event takes place in conjunction with Barry Hearn and the Matchroom Sport banner. Some of the biggest names in professional snooker will be taking part in the event which is billed as a £500+£50 No Limit Hold ‘Em poker event.

There will also be a lot of good coming from the event in the fact that a large pot of money will make its way to the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice. It has been announced that half of the registration fees collected from every player and a whopping 10% of the total prize pool will be donated to charity. This is definitely a great outcome and something that should make sure that this event is even more highly anticipated than it would have been if it was a standard event.

As you would expect from such a major event, there will be a number of brilliant prizes on offer. One of the most enticing prizes will be a direct entry into the £200,000 GTD Goliath. However, if you are coming at this event from a snooker angle as opposed to purely being all about the poker, there is a big incentive for you to get involved. One of the prizes for the event is a VIP table for 10 people which will see you gain entry into the very exclusive closing party for the World Snooker Championship. You’ll be going snooker loopy at the thought of winning this prize!

The event takes place on the 5th and 6th of May 2013 with a 12pm start time each day. The event will carry a £500+£50 buy-in and the structure for the event will follow the standard GUKPT two day event structure. There looks set to be a number of qualifiers for the event taking place over the next month so there will be a strong opportunity for players to get involved if they desire. The event takes place at the G Casino in Sheffield.

One of the best things about Twitter is that it forces you to be brief and get to the point. With Facebook and email you can witter on endlessly, boring everyone around and making everyone forget what the initial point to the story or message was. This isn’t the case with Twitter and when Sam Trickett (@Samtrickett1) updated his status from Australia, it was fairly obvious how his latest poker game panned out.

Lasted 2 hands today! Pretty annoying to get out of bed for that…..

That is not the sort of tweet you want to see from anyone but given that Trickett was looking to push on in the hunt for a WSOP bracelet, it is doubly disappointing. There is still an awful lot of poker to be played at the WSOP-APAC festival but every time you get knocked out of an event, it is understandable that your nerves will increase and your confidence will dip a bit further. It can only be hoped that Trickett bounces back from this quickly and to be fair, even the best players know that they lose a lot more than they win. It is how you bounce back from defeat that marks you out as being a top poker player and you can bet that Trickett will be on hand sooner rather than later!

Poker players fell quickly

The PLO event at the 2013 WSOP-APAC is the second event where a bracelet went up for grabs. More than 170 players were involved at the start of the play and by the end of 8 levels of poker play on the first day; this had been whittled down to 29 players. By Monday morning, there were a total of 10 players in the running.

At this point, Jim Collopy was in the lead with respect to chips, holding 207,000 while Dan Shak was in second place holding 122,000 chips. There was a fair spread all the way down to 10th place with Scott Reid looking nervously over his shoulder. Reid was holding on to 29,000 chips at this point but of course, a lot can happen in a moment or two at a poker table.

The final table is scheduled to begin at 12pm local time and play will continue until the event is done. This means that there will be a WSOP bracelet making its way to another player before too long, it’s just a shame that it won’t be going to Sam Trickett.

Make sure to follow @maxpokerbonus on Twitter to stay up to date with the latest news on UK poker players participating in events abroad.

This is one of those rare weekends in the United Kingdom where everyone goes a little bit mad for gambling. While there are people who look down on us gamers and gamblers at other points in the year when it comes to the Grand National, it is fair to say that Britain loves a flutter. The thought of horses being used in burgers has been one of the biggest stories of the year so far so it will be good to have a weekend where the horse focus is on the racing. Whatever your opinion on the Grand National is, and hopefully the improved safety measures brought in will result in fewer horse fatalities, there is no doubt that this is a major gaming event.

Of course, the majority of us poker fans like their gambling a bit more regularly than once a year and it is good to know that there will still be poker events taking place this weekend to look forward to. There is no getting away from the fact that the biggest poker event in the world this weekend will be taking place half the world away.

Typical “Brits Abroad” behaviour from Sam Trickett!

Down under, WSOP have geared into life and the WSOP-Asia Pacific event is already underway. Sam Trickett has already tweeted images from Melbourne but rather than pictures of the stunning views or some local wildfire, he has pictured a serious hangover kit! Perhaps it is not all going to be work related fun in Australia but hopefully Sam is just having some initial party fun down under before he gets down to the serious business of winning poker tournaments. Sam is the captain of Team Europe in the international event so he will have plenty of people looking to him for advice and leadership. Perhaps that what the Berocca and bottles of water are for, to make sure that all of his team are bright-eyed and bushy tailed after a night out on the town.

There are going to be a number of major events streamed live around the world and for the first time ever there will be a WSOP bracelet handed out down under. All in all, the WSOP-Asia Pacific event looks set to be a festival of poker with lots to look forward to.

While the WSOP-APAC event is going to be a big poker draw, some players may be holding off and instead turning their attention to the WPT Barcelona event. This starts on Friday the 5th of April and continues all the way through until Thursday the 10th of April so there may even be the opportunity for some keen poker players to fit in both events if they are so desired.

Those looking for live poker action a little closer to home will surely have an interest in Westernmania which is taking place at the Western Club in Acton, London from Friday evening. This may not leave you with a lot of time to get involved with the event but as there is a £250,000 guaranteed prize pool on offer, you will likely be able to shake yourself quickly into action. The final opening flight of the event is taking place on Friday evening so this really is the last call for the event.

The final flight gets underway at 7pm on Friday evening but if you are quick off the market, there will be a chance to play in a satellite event from 4pm. Given that this is a £33 satellite event, getting along early may be the best thing you can do. One poker player is going to be in line to grab £75,000 at the end of this event so there is definitely a huge incentive. It will be far from the biggest poker field that gathers in London to play for big money so there may be a slightly better chance of success if you get involved.

The first leg of the Champions League quarter final games threw up some interesting questions. A lot of them surrounding David Beckham and whether he can still run but other questions like did the officials have money on PSG to score and did Borussia Dortmund’s strikers have money on themselves not to score? Beckham’s limited involvement aside, there was no British or Irish involvement in the premier tournament in European football but that doesn’t mean that the Brits are out of the running for European glory.

No, we’re not talking about Eurovision and that’s not just because we don’t fancy Bonnie Tyler’s chances of success. The main focus for Brits in Europe turns to Cyprus and the upcoming European Nations Cup which is being held in Paphos. This is the first International Federation of Poker (IFP) event of the year and it takes place between the 12th and 15th of April at the Annabelle Hotel.

Technology is at the forefront at the IFP event

It promises to be a landmark event because there will be no poker cards or live dealers at the event. This is not an oversight in that someone forgot to bring the cards or the dealers have all been sacked it is down to the fact that all players will receive hold card information and all other essentials via their smartphone. This will ensure that every single play that is made in the game will be stored and then made available to review and watch again.

It is quite an intriguing set-up and there are a number of distinct rules and structural components. For instance, there will be players from 14 different countries sat at each table but each nation will occupy a specific seat at every table. This means that if the UK team is sat at Seat 1 on the first table, someone from Team UK will be positioned on seat 1 at every table.

Also, every player from each nation will receive the exact same cards. Again, using Team UK at seat 1 as an example, if table 1 receives a pair of Kings, every Team UK player sat at seat 1 of their respective table will receive a pair of Kings. This provides an interesting scenario and it can be seen how different poker hands pan out thanks to players making different decisions from the starting situations.

Team United Kingdom consists of Daiva Barauskaite, Karl Mahrenholz, Ben Roberts, John Eames, Neil Channing, Ross Boatman and Barny Boatman. Team Ireland consists of Cat Taylor, Dara O’Kearney, Dermot Blain, Eoghan O’Dea, John O’Shea, Mick Graydon and Padraig Parkinson.

Hoepfully the technology is up to the task because it will be a right kerfuffle dealing and shuffling cards to make sure every table gets the same run of cards!

Heading to Australia at any time is going to be a great trip but when you think that we’re in April and the British weather is still diabolical, you cannot blame people for wanting to head down under. Poker players get the chance to see sunnier climes and enjoy a number of brisk poker challenges in Australia for a large part of April. This is down to the fact that the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific event will be taking place. Thankfully the name of the event has been shortened to the slightly handier WSOP-APAC!

A lot of British hopes are going to fall on Sam Trickett and he has some national or pan-European pride to play for. This is down to the fact that he is the Team Europe captain and he will be responsible for leading the team into battle against Team America (not the World Police unit made famous in film, a poker team) and Team Asia-Pacific. The other captains are Phil Ivey and Joe Hachem so Trickett is in great company. You can also expect Trickett to have an interest in the High Roller event and he could well come up against Dan Shak again. The two of them faced off at the end of the PartyPoker.com Premier League event when the American triumphed and he is supposed to be heading to Oz to take part. If Shak does travel, you just know the high roller event is calling him!

A massive festival of poker

There is sure to be a lot of poker excitement in Melbourne for this event which lasts for nearly two whole weeks. The first event takes place on Thursday the 4th of April and the event runs all the way through until the 15th of April. Every one of the WSOP-APAC poker events will be taking place in the Crown Casino in Melbourne. This is an outstanding venue and one that will be familiar to many poker players across the world. This is because it is a huge poker room, big enough to fit in more than 70 poker tables. This is one reason why the Aussie Millions poker event has been run so well in the past few years. It is this history and organisational skills that leaves you confident that the 5 WSOP bracelet events and the two non-bracelet events are being held in the perfect venue.

If your heart is set on winning a WSOP bracelet, the fact that the first bracelet event at the tournament starts on the 4th of April may come a little too soon for you. There is a buy-in of $1,100 and the event runs until the 8th of April. The other bracelet events that will take place at the WSOP-APAC event includes a $2,200 Mixed Event, a $1,650 PLO event, a $5,000 NLHE 6-Max and the final bracelet to play for is the $10,000 Main Event. The final figures are yet to be released but there is a lot of confident talk that there will be more than 500 players taking part in the Main Event.

Even though there are many excellent poker destinations in the world and online poker means you can have great fun without leaving your home, there is still a lot of glamour and glory attached to Las Vegas. For many people, Las Vegas will always be the place they associate with gaming and gambling. This means that many people have a big ambition to make it to Las Vegas and play in some of the most illustrious gambling venues in the world. Slots and roulette may hold a lot of appeal but poker is always going to be a game that stands out for many folk.

There is one pub poker player in the UK who is going to have the chance to live this dream. John Kendal who plays in the Ellesmere Port Labour Club has scooped this remarkable prize after taking part in a poker tournament which was held at the Genting Club in Sheffield. The Redtooth Poker Vegas 100 tournament may not be the biggest name when it comes to poker tournaments but you try and tell that to John! There is a genuine opportunity for John to live out his dreams thanks to this event and he is not the only one.

Plenty of poker players playing for a big prize

There were over 200 pub poker players from all over the UK at the Genting Club taking part in one of the national semi-finals. Of this 200, 10 players managed to book their way to the United States of America and in total, there will be 100 poker players from the UK heading over. You now see why the Vegas 100 event got its name! It’s a tremendous achievement for John and he will get the chance to put his wits against some of the best poker players in the country in one of the best surroundings.

It would be fair to say that the Vegas 100 event is the biggest pub poker league in the country. It has been going since 2007 and is played across over 1,000 venues in the UK. The fact that there are 150,000 players registered to the league gives you a sense of the interest that surrounds this league.

While there have been a number of UK poker players taken to Las Vegas by the company in the past few years, 2013 will see the biggest number yet, making it a very special occasion.