Category: Live Poker Tournaments

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.

The Irish economy hasn’t been too bright in recent times and it is understandable that many people have looked for ways to boost their income. In days gone by, people have turned to a second job to get support at these times but with so few jobs available, this is not an option. More people are looking for one job or desperately trying to hold onto their current job as opposed to worrying too much about getting a second job.

Money is definitely a sore point for many people in Ireland at the moment but this makes the notion of playing poker for big money such an appealing thing. You should never play poker to get out of a financial crisis and you should never play poker with money you can’t afford to lose. However, poker is a skill and talent and if you are able to make money through using your skills and talent, it is something that you should look into.

One major poker event that will definitely have people looking forward with great anticipation is the UKIPT Galway Main Event, which is taking place during the Full Tilt Poker Galway festival. This festival is taking place between the 29th of July and the 12th of August, so there is plenty of time to plan ahead for the big event. The UKIPT Main Event will run from the 8th of August and go all the though until the 12th and the action will be taking place in the specially built poker village that will be erected in the centre of Galway.

A whole lot of action and excitement will happen in Galway

There is going to be a big buzz around Galway at this time of year because the Galway Raceweek takes place between the 29th of July and the 4th of August, so you’ll find that there are plenty of people in town looking to take advantage of everything that is on offer. If you love poker, the fact that there will be 55 different poker tournaments spread out over the course of the festival means that there will be something for everyone. Even if the Main Event is out of your reach or a bit too pressured for your liking, there will be plenty of other great games. There will even be the Irish Bridge Masters if you have card skills in games apart from poker!

As you would expect, there are going to be plenty of satellites for this event but with a number of cheap entries available for some of the events, you will find that you can head to Galway and have a lot of fun, even if you aren’t taking part in the biggest events. With a million euros guaranteed in the Main Event, it is inevitable that this game will grab most of the focus but there will be plenty of other great poker games to look out for in Galway at the start of August.

When you have over 530 poker players involved with a major event, you know that you are dealing with a special tournament. This is definitely the case with the EPT Grand Final Man Event! The fact that there was a €10,600 buy-in for the event was not the sort of thing that was going to put players off. With the final day of the Main Event Grand Final set for Sunday, there is surely going to be a lot of exciting poker action left. Just one look at the names left in the event will let you know that there is a lot of drama about to unfold at the final table. Given that the players will be battling out for a top prize of €1,224,000 the action may just be beginning.

Jake Cody, the Rochdale poker player is listed as a Triple Crown winner and he is no stranger to poker success. When you have a WSOP bracelet and you have triumphed in an EPT Main Event before, you know you have achieved something in the game but this is far from the only success that Cody can upon. Since 2009, he has been consistently cashing out on a big scale at major poker events and 2013 is no different. Sitting pretty with a lot of chips at the start of the final day is not a bad position to be in but of course, it means nothing until the final reckoning has taken place.

British hopes are still alive

However, it is good to have a UK entrant in the later stages of such a prestigious event. Victoria Coren was the most high profile poker player from the UK in the Main Event and her Twitter messages kept people amused and entertained. However, the TV presenter bombed out before she could venture too far in the tournament. Jake Cody has not been drawing attention to himself in the same manner that Victoria Coren manages to but in the grand scheme of things, he is the one who should have the spotlight thrust upon him now. Cody is currently sat in third place with 1,633,000 chips behind him. This is not a bad amount, the smallest amount of chips at the table is 786,000 but the largest amount of chips at the table is 4,452,000.

This is the amount held by chip leader Steve O’Dwyer, who will definitely consider himself in with a good chance on the final day. However, anything can happen. The fact that the final eight players have such a huge pedigree means that there may be one or two shocks and turnarounds to come. Between the final eight players, just under $40m has been picked up in live tournaments. This goes some way to showing the calibre and experience of players at the final table.

In addition to Cody and O’Dwyer, you will find Andrew Pantling, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier and Grant Levy. This means that poker fans tuning in on Sunday for the final table will be able to see some of their favourite players and some of the biggest names of the poker industry.

The first day of a poker Main Event can go either way. Sometimes you will find that it is a hugely popular and a highly populated event with plenty of people looking to get involved. After all, if you are able to book your seat for the main days of a Main Event as quickly as possible, you can’t blame people for looking to get involved early on.

However, there will be plenty of Main Events that can take a while to get started. This is especially true for Main Events that have a first day during the week. With a growing tendency to offer more Day 1 poker events, the first day of major tournaments is moving further back into the week away from the weekend. It can be no real surprise when a Thursday Main Event day 1 receives a limited crowd when a Friday Day 1 event is taking place too. It stands to reason that a Friday is more attractive than a Thursday for many people.

A Level 42 of poker entrants

This is why some folk may smirk at the fact that there were only 42 entrants, which includes people who re-entered, for the Thursday Day 1 event. This will leave some people convinced that the GUKPT Stockton event is not going to be a huge success but everyone involved with the organisation of the event appears calm.

There are already 18 players booked through to Day 2 on Saturday and you won’t hear any of these players complaining or worrying about the turnout. Taking the lead in any poker event is a big challenge and regardless of the size of the event, Craig McDowell can take great heart from his performance. He grabbed an early lead and held his position to be the chip leader at the end of the night. McDowell is a familiar face in the poker community in the North East of England and there will be a few folk tipping him to go far in the Main Event. With a guaranteed prize of £50,000 on offer, he will be hoping he does rather well too!

The rest of the top 10 was made up by Mark Harding, Tom Hall, Stephen Sung, Richard Howe, Hamid Rowshanaei, Latif, Darren Knaggs, Nigel Ventre and George Brown. All of these players can look forward to the Day 2 event with confidence.

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.

This time of year should be a difficult time of year for students. This is the time of year when the allure of Jägerbombs and meeting up with potential sexual partners takes a slightly back seat to ensure that they are in perfect condition for their exams. Some students will already be involved in their exam period whereas others will find that they are in the final days of studying. With so much resting on these exams, you would expect to find that most students were knuckling down and studying hard. Then again, first year students may be a little bit more relaxed about the whole thing. There are plenty of chances at University and college and the thought of having one or two exams to resit is hardly the worst thing in the world for some students.

This may have been the rationale behind the decision of Liam O’Brien to enter the Dusk Till Dawn £150 Deepstack event but whatever the reason for his involvement, he will be delighted. This is because O’Brien has become the latest poker player to add his name to the list of winners at this prestigious poker event. He may be a first year student studying philosophy but he had to overcome 363 other players to get to the top of the pack. His skill and talent, not to mention a lot of effort was well rewarded with the £12,435 that he picked up for the first price. That will certainly buy a lot of Jagerbombs when he gets back to the student union and Liam should find that he has a lot more friends on campus when he returns.

A big poker prize pool on offer

The overall prize pool was £54,600 which was higher than what was expected. Given the good weather and the Bank Holiday weekend, not everyone was confident of such a good turnout but it just goes to show that poker is big business these days. There were a number of big name poker players at the event including Colburn Tomlin, Ben Vinson, Maria Demetriou, Mark McCluskey, Mitchell Johnson and Julian Thew.

This success for O’Brien is his second major placing, with the previous big finish coming back in February 2011. This also happened at the Dusk Till Dawn club as O’Brien found his way into the money places at the UKIPT Nottingham Main Event. In an event with more than 1,000 players involved, O’Brien finished in 86th place. It wasn’t a huge cash prize but it gave him some money and no doubt boosted his confidence. This recent triumph will definitely go a long way to providing O’Brien with the chance to make some real money and develop his poker game.

The build-up to the FA Cup final may have begun in earnest with Manchester City and Wigan looking forward to a trip to Wembley on Saturday. The FA Cup may be more about kudos than cash but both clubs can still expect a financial boost from making it to Wembley. This will be of greater benefit to Wigan than City, especially if they are relegated this season from the Premier League but this is not the only focus on Wembley cash this week.

This is because the ISPT have made a number of announcements about their big poker tournament that is bound for Wembley at the end of May.

The payout structure of the event is already announced and there are a number of alternatives available on site, allowing you to calculate how much you will earn for a specific finish depending on how many players sign up for the poker action. There are five separate payout structures listed on the official ISPT site, informing players of how much money they can receive if there are 1,000 players, involved, 1,250 players involved, 1,500 players involved, 1,750 players involved or 1,852 players involved. The more players involved, the more money there will be on offer, which makes perfect sense.

There is a guaranteed million up for grabs

If there is a limited turnout and there are only 1,000 players involved in the game, the winner should expect to receive £1m but this is down to the fact that there will be an added amount to the winner’s prize fund. The winner of the event should expect to see 20% of the pot and for 1,000 players, this would only amount to 540,000 euros. However, with the guaranteed 1 million prize being a major component of this event, it is no surprise to see that the winner gets a big boost to the amount of money that they will receive. This means that it doesn’t matter how many people turn out for the major ISPT event, the winner is going to be a very happy person indeed.

The great news is that half of the players who take part in the live event will receive some money for playing in the event. The thrill of being at Wembley should be more than enough to excite some players but the fact that there is a genuine chance of making some cash should go a long way to cheering some poker players up and providing a strong incentive to get involved with the fun and excitement that will be on offer at Wembley.

A prize of 540 euros may not seem like the biggest return but with 500 players from an original starting number of 1,000 bagging this prize, there is definitely a big incentive to get on with the poker action at Wembley Stadium. If over 1,800 players take part in the event, there will be 900 or more players earning this amount of money which goes a long way to making this huge poker event something that stands out from the crowd.

The make-up of the tournament is such that deals are going to be allowed at the final table so there may be a slight downscaling for the eventual winner but at least they know that they will be guaranteed a certain amount. While some poker players are unhappy at the thought of making a deal at the final table, there are plenty of players that appreciate the chance to have a guaranteed amount for finishing in the final few places.

Given that it is the biggest poker event launched in the United Kingdom, it is understandable that there is going to be a lot of structural importance and planning about the ISPT event at Wembley Stadium. There may still be some time to go until the event takes place but we are pretty much looking forward to the big event and we are sure that there are plenty of poker players around the country looking forward to it too. This is why we make no apologies for providing as much information as and when it is released because it is going to be one of the premier poker events in the UK this year so why shouldn’t we talk a lot about it!

The ISPT Wembley event really gets underway on Friday the 31st of May and it continues all the way through until the 5th of June. This is the second stage of the event though with the first stage being underway already. Anyone looking to make money at the big event but doesn’t want to pay the big fees will know that there are satellite events already up and running, which can help to lower the cost of playing poker games. In addition to the online satellite events, there are also live satellite events at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker club so there is a genuine chance for lots of players to play their way through.

Day 2 action is important

This means that Day 1 players can make their way to Day 2 but there is also an opportunity for players to buy a direct buy-in to Day 2. This will be available at €2,700+€300 and all of these players will have an average poker stack of 50,000 chips. The two Day 2 events will take place on Friday the 31st of May and Saturday the 1st of June. Anyone that busts out on the Friday will have the chance to re-enter on Saturday, Day 2B where again, the buy-in stands at €2,700+€300 and will provide a chip stack of 50,000.

Day 3 gets underway at midday on Sunday the 2nd of June, Day 4 takes place on Monday the 3rd of June, it will come as no surprise to learn that Day 5 will be on Tuesday the 4th of June and then it rolls onto the 5th of June. This is the Wednesday and it will be the Grand Final where some poker player will win a minimum of €1m.

There isn’t even a Wembley spot up for grabs in the FA Cup final with Manchester City having a Champions League place sewn up and Wigan getting an automatic Europa League spot on the back of City’s league placing. This means if you want a Wembley event with a real Euro focus, you will need to look towards the Champions League final or the ISPT event where one lucky poker player will walk away with a million euros! That is certainly the sort of prize that will help to build a warm feeling to the European Union!