Category: Live Poker Tournaments

Another week and another big poker event being held at the Aspers Casino in Stratford. This week it is the turn of the Boylepoker.com International Poker Open (IPO) London event and the poker tournament is already building nicely to what should be a big weekend of poker action. The Day 1A of the event took place on Wednesday night and these events are really becoming drawn-out affairs for keen poker players. Having more attempts to qualify for the major events is definitely going to be of benefit to most poker players though and you won’t find too many people moaning about the increased opportunities.

Then again, you would get some people moaning but that’ll be down to the folk who never quite managed to qualify after playing on Wednesday night! There were a grand total of 86 players taking part in the big event and with a buy-in of £200+£25 there was a reasonable price to pay. Getting close to 100 poker players on a Wednesday night is not a bad haul and you can bet the numbers will pick up as the event marches towards the weekend.

A lot of poker players go home disappointed

Of the 86 players who started playing poker, it was left to 32 players to go through and make their way to Day 2 of the event which takes place on Saturday. For some of the 54 players that failed to make it through, Wednesday night will have represented their only opportunity to make it through to the weekend but there will definitely have been some players that decided Thursday and Friday provided fresh opportunities to bounce back and have another go at making progress in the big tournament. It is not as if the organisers will mind because poker players that want to re-enter will have to pay the money again so it all helps to increase the player pool and bring money into the big event.

One player that was able to relax on Thursday and Friday was Mihal Antone. This is down to the fact that Antone finished Wednesday night as the chip leader with an impressive 99,000 chips at the end of the play. This total was 14,000 more than second ranked player Andrew Berkecz who finished up with 85,000 chips after his play on Wednesday night. In third place was Huseyin Houssein, who lead for a large part of the evening before ending up with 74,300 chips. 59,400 chips were enough for Yen Nenh to take fourth place and in fifth position was Sarah Holt who managed to bag 54,500 chips for her play on Wednesday night.

The rest of the top 10 was filled out with Stefania Toader, Keith Miller, Mats Rosen, Renier Zyl and Lee Dang in 10th position and 48,500 chips. These 10 players and 22 more are definitely back at Aspers Casino in Stratford when the IPO 2013 continues on Saturday but there will be plenty of other poker players joining them for the big Day 2 poker event.

While the big name poker events and tournaments will always grab the headlines and attention, there are plenty of great poker opportunities for players up and down the country taking place all the time. If you have a genuine interest in poker and you want to get out and play against real opponents, there has never been a better time for you to do so.

One such place where you can enjoy a great poker game is at the poker room of the Manchester 235 venue and they have been having success with Freezeout events. There was a big Christmas Confidential Freezeout that got everyone buzzing and it meant that there were plenty of folk looking forward to the Spring event which inevitably followed. In total just less than 100 poker players were involved with the event and there was a prize pool of over £2,300 on offer at the event.

Competition and compromises at the final table

The final ten players at the poker event were Tim Wagner who received £30 for his efforts and in ninth place was Chris Evans who also received £30 for his troubles. In eighth place was Sam Kalu who grabbed £60 and in seventh place was Royce Joseph who picked up £90. In sixth place was Daniel Shapiro who earned himself £130 and Jeff Thomas came in fifth, picking up £170. In fourth place was Angela Houghton who received £240.

The final three players all came to an agreement that they would take £500 each and would then play for an additional £75. The third placed player should have received £50, the second placed player should have earned £480 and the winner should have picked up £745. David Herrity was the real winner of the tournament but in financial terms, he was the big loser as he dropped a lot of money compared to what he would have received if they played without an agreement. Second placed Nick Bowyer was slightly better off, picking up £500 for his efforts rather than the £480 he would have been due for being a runner up.

In some ways, the player that finished third, Mihai Pop was the real winner. Third placed should have earned a prize of £350 but there was a £500 reward coming to Mihai thanks to the agreement made. The praise and confidence that comes with winning a poker tournament is obviously a key factor so in that sense David will still be delighted at winning the big poker event but you just wonder if David and Nick will be feeling a little bit jealous of the way that Mihai managed to do much better with respect to money coming in compared to money that should have been brought in!

There is always something of interest taking place at the Dusk Till Dawn and aside from being the driving force behind the big poker tournament heading to Wembley in May, there is always something that will catch your eye. This weekend looks set to be another brilliant weekend of poker at the Nottingham club and thankfully there is still time to get involved if you feel as though some poker fun will help to make your life a lot more enjoyable this weekend.

Day 1A has already taken place but this was an online leg while Day 1B and Day 1C will take place on Thursday and Friday at the actual club. The event will run all the way through until Sunday the 21st of April and play will continue it is all done and dusted with the Monte Carlo tournament. There may be a lot of focus on the actual Monte Carlo tournament at the moment thanks to the tennis event where once again British hopes are resting on Andy Murray but let’s be honest, Monte Carlo is a place that is always going to generate an interest.

There is a lot of poker money to play for this weekend

Anyone looking to get involved with the event should know that it has a buy-in of £1,000+£100 but there is plenty of money up for grabs with this event. There will be a prize pool of £500,000 and there should be a first prize of £90,000. This is definitely worth spending a weekend in Nottingham and any poker player that is at a loose end this weekend would be advised to check out what was on offer at the DTD club.

All players will pick up 30,000 poker chips to start off with and the tournament features a blind structure that will increase every hour. The players that battle through the 3 opening days will be in the mix on Saturday when Day 2 properly begins. The scheduled start time for Saturday’s start is 13.00 which is still a early start time for many poker players. There will be some poker players looking to grab the US games online that may just be crawling to their bed at one o’clock in the afternoon so there will be a need to be alert a lot earlier than they would usually expect to be.

On Sunday, the start time is again 1pm and play will continue through to the end. Nottingham may not have the glamour or prestige of Monte Carlo but this weekend you can bet that there will plenty of poker players that are keen to be in Nottingham as opposed to anywhere else in the world.

There is definitely something special about the first person to do something. You only have to look at the accolade and acclaim that goes to Neil Armstrong in comparison to the esteem that Buzz Aldrin or Michael Collins are held in. Armstrong was the first man on the moon, Aldrin was the second and bizarrely, Collins went all the way to the moon and never even stepped foot on the surface. You can’t help but feel that this was a wasted opportunity but if Collins was merely following orders, you can see why we wouldn’t want to do anything to jeopardise the mission.

So, Armstrong is the hero for millions of people all around the world while Buzz Aldrin is just that other guy, even though he has achieved what barely anyone has managed to do. If you ever need reminding that first is everything, you only have to think about how history has treated Buzz Aldrin!

So, given that the weekend was the first every UKIPT Series event, there was a chance for a poker player to grab a little bit of history. The event was taking place at the Hippodrome, a London casino and poker venue that is currently working hard to be the number one poker destination in the city. It faces an almighty battle because Aspers in Stratford is determined to be the number one poker venue too but this can only be great news for poker players. The more brilliant poker venues the better and if these venues are looking to get into a battle, there is a very strong chance that promotions, bonuses and major events like the UKIPT Series will take place.

Team PokerStars Pro picks up the title

The first ever winner of a UKIPT Series event was Jake Cody. Cody is a Team PokerStars professional player and he added yet another big poker title to his illustrious list of successes throughout his career. There is no doubt that Cody was a worthy winner in this competition because he has shown himself to be one of the better poker players over a consistent period of time.

The event, which carried a £250 buy-in which made it accessible for so many online poker players managed to bring together 343 poker players for the initial two days. Although the first event of any well publicised promotion or event should get a good following, this was a big turnout and when the UKIPT Series finds it feet and develops, there is every chance that it will develop into a popular activity for poker players in the UK.

The fact that 343 poker players were in the mix for the big event ensured that there was a prize pool of over £80,000 to play for. There would be money for the top 40 players and the first player to exit the tournament with some cash to make it worthwhile was Darren Fuller. No doubt Fuller would have preferred to have stayed in the event longer and bagged more cash for himself but at this sort of event, making it to the money and earning £520 is not to be sniffed at!

By the time Sunday tea-time rolled around, there were eight players gunning for glory at the final table. With respect to the final table, Shantanu Banerji finished in 8th place with £1,977. In 7thh place was Kaloyan Kirov, who bagged £2,700. In 6th place was Uzzol Miah who received £3,400 and in 5th place was Enzo Gomez, who received £4,880. In 4t place was Tim Wong, who picked up £6,240 and in 3rd place was Terry Jordan who picked up £8,110. In second place was Lydia Cugudda who grabbed £13,140 and of course, Jake Cody grabbed the acclaim and £13,140.

It may not have been as big an accolade or achievement as walking on the moon but Jake Cody being the first winner of the UKIPT Series event will see his name listed in the history books.

There has been a fair bit of chart controversy in the UK of late. The death of Margaret Thatcher has certainly caused a great deal of controversy with opposing viewpoints taking polar stances but rather surprisingly, the battle between both sides has been played out in the charts! Those people who hated the policies of Thatcher and who believed she ruined lives and communities around the world were in no mood to hold back when her death was announced. Amongst the impromptu street parties, there was a celebration of “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead”, a song from the Wizard of OZ film.

Very quickly, a campaign grew to have the song downloaded from iTunes and before you know it, it was rocketing up the charts. So much that so on Sunday it hit number two on the UK Top 40! The BBC refused to play the song in full, playing a snippet and then providing a news story about Thatcher’s death. This was deemed by many to be a cop-out and similarities were drawn to the way that The Sex Pistols were suspiciously kept off the number one spot in the charts during the Silver Jubilee in 1977. There has been a fair bit of controversy in the charts and this meant that a change at the top of the poker charts for UK players may have gone unnoticed.

All hail the new UK poker leader

There is a new leader in the UK section of the Global Poker Index with Toby Lewis now sitting in the number one spot. The player often known as “810ofclubs” when he plays online overtook Roberto Romanello to be the poker leader in the UK. Over in Ireland, there was no change at the top of the poker hit parade as Dermot Blain remains in the number one position.

Toby Lewis was able to grab the number one spot thanks to a number of big cash ins of late. Finishing in sixth position in the 2013 WPT LA Poker Classic was always going to make a splash. This win managed to help Lewis to earn $193,560 as Lewis stayed in the field longer than more than 500 players. There was a hope that he could add the title to the EPT title he picked up back in 2010 but sadly this was not to be. However, it was still a rather impressive showing by Lewis. This was followed up by 36th place in the Main Event of the EPT London event. This may not be the sort of finish that grabs the headlines but with a £12,500 prize winding its way home, it took the overall prize fund picked up by Lewis to be a staggering $1,787,313. This is an excellent amount of money to grab in live tournaments so kudos to Lewis for achieving this success and it is easy to see why he has jumped into number one position.

The nature of Lewis’ success can be measured in he managed to overtake Romanello even though Romanello achieved three cash finishes at the EPT event. It is tough at the top in the UK poker industry but this can only be a positive thing for poker players and poker fans. The pressure is now on Toby Lewis, who recently joined Team Ivey Poker, to remain at the top but Romanello will be pushing him hard!

Sometimes you can hit a run of form where everything goes for you. The trick is to either make this run of form last as long as possible or to enter as many competitions and tournaments as you can when you are on fire to ensure that you make the most of your good fortune and skill. When Eirimas Livonas looks back on his poker career, he may think that April 2013 was the best time of his career. The challenge is now on for him to make his good run of form last for as long as possible but at the moment, he is probably too busy celebrating to worry about that sort of approach to life!

April was already pretty successful for Eirimas due to his success at the APAT World Championships. His success at the Main Event was a great feat and perhaps that gave him an added sense of confidence coming into the GUKPT event in Didsbury. Whatever the reason, Eirimas managed to claim the Main Event title and this seen him take away £22,570 from the event. That is exactly the sort of poker prize that people are interested in winning so well done to him for his big achievement.

Chip leader held his nerve and his lead

Eirimas was the chip leader coming into the final table but this is no guarantee of success. He did have a major chip lead but given the erratic nature of poker play that Livonas delivers, he was as likely to be caught out as he was to push on with his lead. Fortunately for him and unfortunately for the rest of the final table, there was success on the cards.

The first player to exit from the final table was Matt Davenport who went out in ninth with £1,530. Following him was Alex Zeligman in eight position who bagged £2,105. In seventh position was Amir Dandanfard, who received £2,870. In sixth place was Andy Booth who managed to receive £3,630 for his efforts. In fifth place was Tom Hall who received £4m785 and in fourth position was Justin Devonport, who took home £6,120. In third place was Ben Winsor, who received £9,945 and Yani Yanev broke through the £10,000 barrier in second place with a prize of £15,870.

Yanev had played the key role in busting Devonport and Winsor but in the end, he didn’t have enough about him to overcome Eirimas Livonas who is experiencing a great run of form and success at the moment.

The next GUKPT event will take place in Stockton at the start of May at the Grosvenor G Casino and no doubt there will be a lot of excitement for that event as it grows nearer. It isn’t that far away so all poker players keen to emulate the success of Eirimas Livonas would be advised to hone their skills quickly and make sure that they head to Stockton at the start of next month.

While a great deal of focus at the WSOP-APAC event has been on bracelets and big money, there has been more in store for keen poker players and fans. The Caesars Cup event has definitely been of great interest to players and Team American were going all out to retain their title. This was the third event of this team tournament and going into the WSOP-APAC event, the score was tied 1-1 with America and Europe. As reigning champions, the Americans got a bye to the final which meant that Europe had to play against Team APAC to regain their crown.

English poker player Sam Trickett was the team captain of Team Europe and ultimately, he would be the captain that would taste success at the end of the event. The captain picked wisely from a squad that was not too exhaustive, given the location of the tournament there was no surprise that European players were a bit thin on the ground but success was achieved regardless of overall numbers or crowd support.

Poker glory is a big prize

Sam Holden was another English member of the team and he was very excited on Twitter when talking about the big event.

We won! I managed to beat Greg Merson in the deciding game to win. No money, only pride. It’ll be shown on sky later in the year.

This tweet goes some way to showing that it is not only money that motivates poker players. There was a great deal of money going around at the WSOP-APAC event and you can imagine some players would have had their focus on the cash. However, there is definitely a lot of kudos in putting yourself up against some of the best poker players in the world and the European team can take a lot of pride in overcoming their opponents.

Phil Gruissem may be a German poker player but he lives in Brighton and anyone looking at the best poker players residing in England at the moment would definitely have him on their list. The team was rounded out with another two Germans with Marvin Rettenmaier and Dominik Nitsche completing the line-up. This meant that the five man team was comprised of two English players, two German players and an additional German player that lives in England. There has been some differences between Germany and England in the past but the make-up of that team was a great blend to ensure there was balance between the two sides!

2-1 was the score of the tournament

The nature of the event saw teams take part in a best of three event with the first two games being team games. Every side would select two players who would share their stack and then take on their opponents together. After the two team games had been completed, if there was a need to decide the tie, a one on one game would be played. Europe took the first game but Team APAC levelled it which meant that there was a need for a one on one game to decide it. Europe went with young German Domink Nitsche against Jeff Lisandro, a WSOP Champ on five occasions and the odds were on Europe taking an early exit. However, luck was on the side of the Europeans and Nitsche won the hand, taking Team Europe through to the final.

The final between Europe and the USA followed a similar pattern. Europe took the first game but the Americans tied it at 1-1, leaving it to a one on one game to complete the tournament and decide who wins the prize. Sam Holden managed to defeat Greg Merson, giving Europe their second win, adding to their triumph in 2009.

So far there has been no announcement whether there will be another Caesars Cup event or where and when it will take place but you cannot imagine the Americans will be happy at a tournament ending when it is not in their grasp. The trophy has never been contested in America so it would make sense if the 2015 event was held in America but Europe will be keen for more success.

Thursdays are good but Fridays are always better. The closer you get to the weekend, the more excited you become and the more exciting your options are. There is no doubt that Day 1A of the GUKPT Didsbury event went down well and was a big success but there was a big difference between the Thursday and the Friday. This was no criticism of the organisers or the players that took part in the opening day but there were more players and a bigger buzz of excitement surrounding the Friday play.

There were a total of 94 players involved in the Day 1B activities, which was a sharp rise from the 59 that took part on Day 1A. In total, 153 players were fighting for the rights to make it through to Day 2 and just less than a third managed to progress to the Saturday action. 55 players were starting out on Saturday morning with high hopes for the event but 40 of the players will be leaving very disappointed. This is because only the top 15 players will be taking cash away with them. This means that there is a lot to play for and the tension and drama is guaranteed.

Plenty of chips picked up on Friday

The big chip leader on the day also turned out to be the big chip leader of the Day 1’s as Neils Ladefoged made hay with his 20,000 stack of opening chips. By the end of play, Ladeofoged had turned this into 119,750 chips. This beats the amount of Nigel Ventre who managed to claim 99,925 on Thursday evening.

Ladefoged does not have many cashes showing in his Hendon Mob page, but the ones that are displayed are quite impressive to say the least. He has live tournament winnings of £37,900 with his most recent cash being for £10,350 that was his reward for finishing seventh in the 2012 English Poker Open.

With players like Ventre, Peter Wigglesworth, Kevin Houghton, Matt Davenport and Erimas Livonas already through from Thursday, there were some big UK poker players making it through on Friday too. Coming through with Ladefoged were players like Mike Hill, who managed to pick up 118,375 which was also more than the amount picked up by Thursday’s leader. There was Day1B success for Julian Thew, the Sky Poker player too, who managed to earn 93,500 chips. Other players making it though were John Eames, Stuart Rutter, Steve Holden and Tom Hall.

A lot of the poker focus this weekend may fall on Australia and the WSOP-APAC Main Event but that is not the only place to find great poker action. There is plenty on offer for UK poker players and you don’t need to be in London to have something to look forward to. London is great and it is always worth a visit but it is good to see other places getting the nod when it comes to exciting poker events. Recent weeks have given Nottingham the chance to shine and very few UK venues do poker better than Dusk Till Dawn. This weekend though, it is time for Didsbury to be the one of the key poker places in the country.

This is because the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) Main Event is taking place. The first of two Day 1’s took place on Thursday and the leader of the day was Nigel Ventre. After being given the same starting stack of 20,000 as the rest of the field, Ventre managed to turn this into 99,925. This made him the leader from the 59 poker players that were involved in Day 1A.

Ventre is the Day 1A leader

Of the 59 players, only 22 poker players managed to book their passage through to Say 2 which takes place on Saturday. Then again, you can bet that many of these players will have tried their luck again on Day 1B which took place on Saturday. The Friday event was always likely to be the busier of the two so the players who are already guaranteed for the Saturday action will be delighted to have booked their place but at least the players who fell by the wayside know that they still have a chance.

Poker success is nothing new to Ventre though and he has picked up some success in GUKPT events before. Ventre received a cheque for £1,400 for a £200 buy in event which took place at the 2010 Club GUKPT Club Championship. That event was in Huddersfield, so he knows all about playing poker in glamorous locations and he will be keen to add to his GUKPT success in Didsbury.

Other poker players that managed to book their place on Day 2 alongside Ventre include Rob Sherwood, who managed to get 32,500 chips, Peter Wigglesworth, who held 59,450 chips and Kevin Houghton who managed to just pip Peter with 59,700 chips. Putting up a closer fight to Ventre are Matt Davenport, who managed to earn 85,700 chips and Erimas Livonas, who held 76,500 chips. Livonas has recently tasted success at the APAT World Championship Main Event and will be keen to do well in this event too.

The poker fun has only just begun in Didsbury and there will be a lot more to look out for over the course of this weekend. It may not have the media focus or the luxurious surroundings that the WSOP-APAC can offer but the GUKPT event is always worth following.