Category: Online Poker Tournaments

You certainly won’t find too many UK poker players complaining about the recent PokerStars SCOOP extravaganza. There has been a two week fiesta of poker with players playing from the comfort of their own home or wherever they decide to play poker. Not every poker player from the UK has been a winner, that would be impossible but the fact that so many British poker players have triumphed has to be seen as huge achievement. Any player looking for encouragement to get involved more with online tournaments will hopefully have picked up a lot from what SCOOP has provided this month.

It has to be said that the statistics are highly impressive. In total, there were 48,746 entrants from the United Kingdom at the SCOOP events. This saw the UK being ranked as the fourth highest represented nation or entity in the entire tournament. When you take in population sizes, this is a great return and it goes a long way to indicating the level of love that we have for poker on these shores.

There were a lot of wins for UK poker players

There was great joy for the UK players in the amount of events won. There were a total of 19 triumphs for the UK players and this was the highest number of wins for any nation! This may mean that it wasn’t always the biggest events that were won by the Brits but for some players, winning any online tournament would be the biggest thrill of their poker playing career so the more event triumphs the better to be honest!

With respect to cash places, the UK managed a total of 6,482 cash finishes. This put them in fourth place with respect to cashing out and when you think that we had the fourth level of entrants too, this shows a level of consistency.

If you are the sort of player that likes to focus on making the final table, you will be delighted to know that in total, there were 107 UK players who managed to make their way to the final table of events. This placed the UK third with respect to the national rankings for final table places.

Of course, for some people, it is all about the money and anyone looking to find what UK poker earned at SCOOP are in for a treat. In total, $8,754,363.06 was picked up by UK players, which is a huge sum of money and there is a lot to be proud of in the poker success found at the SCOOP event.

There have been plenty of UK poker players making it big with SCOOP and the list seems to be growing bigger all the time. This is great news because the more UK and Irish poker success, the better. Anything which encourages people to play or gives people an incentive to get involved with poker has to be seen as a good thing. It can be all too easy for people to think that they’ll never win an online poker event but someone has to win them and if you don’t get involved, you will never get the chance to see if you can win!

Event number 36 at SCOOP was the No Limit Hold ‘Em 1R1A event and there were UK players grabbing cash here. The low buy-in events at SCOOP have been very popular but there has still been UK player rising to the upper reaches of the tournaments. One player who has experienced a great run of form of late is “BubsenMan” as he has grabbed 14 cash wins of late. The latest of which was a 12th placed finish in this event and this saw him grab $2,360.91. However, one UK player managed to do better with “GodsTeacher” finishing in a very credible seventh place. This placing saw him pick up $9,229.02.

The medium level event also saw some British player and poker players who call the UK their home rank very highly. Rhys Jones finished in 19th and the player known as “reecelfc69” came 25th. However, the main player with a UK link was Bertrand Grospellier, who finished 10th, not a bad position for the Team PokerStars professional player to be in.

Some big UK success stories to be proud of

The High Event also saw UK success as “vindog03” finished 14th grabbing some much needed cash while Rory Matthews managed to grab his 14th cash place in the tournament. He finished seventh overall, which was enough to see him earn $40,640.

There was a big prize in event number 40 which was the No Limit Heads-Up High Roller event when Ben Warrington, who has the online name of “KidCardiff6” managed to win in the Medium event. This success ensured that he was bagging over $90,000 which was definitely a great prize!

There was a cash prize at the SCOOP Main Event for Victoria Coren too. She was keeping her twitter followers up to date with her progress and she was very relieved to make it through to the cash stages. She played in 3 SCOOP events and this Main Event was her first cash finish, so it was definitely worth tweeting about! She was knocked out quickly after the bubble but picking up over $1,600 is enough to justify taking part in this event.

There has been a great deal of success at the SCOOP event and even if you don’t get involved with the poker tournaments now, you have to be thinking about getting involved at some point!

As far as successful poker tournaments for UK poker players go, the SCOOP event organised by PokerStars has to be one of the biggest and best. The fact that players are able to take part in these events from the comfort of their own home is always going to be a good thing and it has certainly encouraged a great number of UK players to get involved. While the high number of UK success stories indicates that this is a great tournament for the Brits, it would be interesting to know how many UK poker players are taking part.

For every success there are going to be plenty of failures and disappointments but there is no real sense in focusing on that is there? The real point of any event is to look towards the winners and this is something that will see poker players remember this tournament very fondly.

If you love poker events with a long name, the 27th event at SCOOP would be one that would appeal to you. The Fixed Limit Triple Draw Deuce to Seven game probably had some players eliminated from the action before they could finish the title! However, it appears to be a poker discipline that is growing in popularity and stature and its presence can only increase after the latest event.

Low buy-in price generates a lot of interest

As you would expect from an event that had a buy-in of $27, there was a lot of interest in the low level event. There were a total of 1,668 players taking part in this game and there were a few UK players in the upper reaches. When you think about how many players were involved, reaching 28th (“GrowsOnTrees”), 19th (Jamie “buffslayer1” Wilby) and 4th (“crack2”) represent big achievements.

The jump in price to $215 for the middle level game saw the number of players fall to 376 but this was still enough to represent a prize pool of $75,200. Large swathes of this money made it to the UK with “AceOddity” finishing in 18th, “$IERRA_TANGO” finishing in 9th and Stephen Chidwick, who plays online under the name of “stevie444” finished 7th.

This was a great performance by Chidwick but he was to do even better in the High buy-in event. The $2,100 buy-in was no deterrent although UK player “Wrathchild57” will be gutted at busting out when they were just two places from the money. Another unlucky defeat fell to “Jackal69” who finished in 7th place but just fell outside of the final table!

However, there were two players from the UK in the final table, Rory Matthews and the aforementioned Stephen Chidwick. Sadly Rory was the first to leave the table but “stevie444” managed to fight his way to the front and grabbed the $52,320 which goes to the winner! Yes, Stephen Chidwick grabbed his first SCOOP title and going by his Facebook update, he seemed delighted by this outcome!

Stephen said;

After 6 years of being titleless I finally got the monkey off my back…2k triple draw champion for 50k and a watch!

While UK players showed the had the skill to make good poker hands, the success at the Razz event at SCOOP indicated that they have some talent in making rubbish poker hands too! The player called “TomaszRa” online came third and managed to earn himself $5,112.29! If you can recall the amount of rubbish hands you have played over the years and earned nothing, this sort of prize will definitely annoy you a little bit!

Hopefully the level of success that UK poker players have received at the SCOOP event will give other players confidence and motivation to get involved. There is no chance of winning if you don’t get involved and we can guarantee that you will fail to win every single poker hand that you fail to play.

The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has turned out to be a brilliant tournament for UK and Irish poker players and there is no doubt that many people have made the right decision in choosing to play in this event. The fact that there is the chance to play for big money against some great players from the comfort of your own home is always going to be of benefit to many poker players. While having the chance to play against top class players in beautiful surroundings is a large part of the charm and appeal in poker, for many players, it is the comfort and convenience of playing at home that really provides the important aspect for players.

Of course, when you learn that UK and Irish players have managed to bag over $4m in the tournament you will wish that you had gotten involved yourself! This is a huge sum of money to be heading to these shores and while there have been a considerable number of online events in the SCOOP tournament, there has been a great deal of competition up for grabs. This PokerStars event has been a huge success and it seems as though there will be plenty of players clamouring for this event to return next year and perhaps even be extended into other seasons too. Now that Spring is slowly making its way into Summer, you can bet that there will be plenty of UK and Irish poker players who are hoping to see Summer, Autumn and Winter events of a similar nature!

No No, No No No No No, There’s No Limits!

Some of the latest successes at the SCOOP event have been found in the No Limit Hold ‘Em events. NLHE games are always going to be popular and the fact that there was such an affordable buy-in level for the event listed as number 21 on the schedule ensured that there would be lots of players involved. There was a buy-in price of $27 but there was also a $300,000 guarantee attached to this event so it was no surprise to find that there were plenty of players looking to get involved.

In fact, there were more than 23,000 players involved in the running and there was a UK player, going by the name of “Run Bad King” in the final four positions! The thing is though, with respect to cash, this player had a great time because they managed to pick up more cash than the second or third player. With deals being made between the last 5 players in the event, the cash prize of $35,892.38 was a great deal for this player. There were also three other UK and Irish players in the top 45, which when you think of the huge number of players involved is a considerable achievement.

The medium level, priced at $215 didn’t feature any UK players in the top 10 but James “jamerOK” Cawley came 21st, which is not bad out of a field just short of 6,000 players. In the High event, with a $2,100 buy-in event, two UK players broke into the top 10. A player called “JackRich” finished in 10th, earning $19,483.20 while “callmemanu” came fourth, earning $92,906.

Event 22 was another NLHE event and this had larger guarantees to play for! The low level event, priced at $27, drew over 25,000 players to it and there was a huge amount of cash to play for. The guarantee was set at $400,000 but the actual amount of money played for was over $615,000!

Two local players managed to grab a hefty chunk of this money. The player called “monk419” earned over $8,000 for coming in second place and gallant runner up “hartwith” picked up just under $46,000. The medium buy in level also smashed its guarantee amount and “mariivida” got into 6th place, earning $51,509.60. The high level event only welcomed 1,048 players to it but again, there was a UK player in the top 10. The “dagunman” John O’Shea came in 10th and received $22,008.

It seemed as though there was UK and Irish success at every event of SCOOP and it has been a hugely popular and profitable tournament for so many local poker players!

With the weekend nearly upon us, you may be thinking about your plans for the weekend. If the weather manages to stay nice, many people will be desperately heading out into the sun, making the most of what is on offer. Of course, it is still far too early to say whether the weather will be nice this weekend because you can never tell on a day to day basis in this country! There is definitely a need to have a Plan B up your sleeve and if there is no chance to get out and have a brilliant time in the sun, you should look into staying indoors and having some fun.

This is where playing online poker may be the best bet for you. There are some players that think that playing online poker is a waste of time and that they would be as well burning their money for all of the good that it does them. This is one viewpoint but it is not the attitude to have in life. You can only become better by practising and playing. Online poker players should view their progress like a journey and there are many steps to take before you become good and confident. However, once a breakthrough is made, you will never look back!

Anybody that is looking for inspiration for what can happen to UK poker players when they play online only needs to look at some of the results from the SCOOP event. The Spring Championship Of Online Poker has been a big draw in the past week and there has been a lot of money heading to the UK thanks to the skills and determination of many of the best bedroom poker players in the country. You don’t need to be one of the big name poker players to win these tournaments but you do need to be involved.

Play poker and be a winner

An example of getting involved can be seen in the UK players that took part in the eight event at the SCOOP tournament, which was a No Limit Hold ‘Em offering. There were a number of levels for players to get involved at and the low and medium levels were won by British players. If this is not the sort of thing that will inspire you to success then it is hard to know what will.

The low level event had a buy-in of just $11, which is something that many UK players will be happy with as this works out as being less than a tenner! The top prize for this category was scooped up by a player called “1hmm11” who earned $20,057.76 for his efforts.

The medium level, which had a buy-in of $109 was won by a Britain too. The player listed as “potbet11” was the heads up winner who grabbed a SCOOP watch and just under $80,000 in prize money! Sadly the $1,050 high rolling buy-in event was not win by a British player but Sam Grafton did manage to earn himself $153,251 for his efforts.

It wasn’t all great news for British poker players at this event though as Jon “LUFCBAS” Spinks was the player who managed to be the bubble buster at the final table. Then again, if the LUFC part in his online name stands for Leeds United Football Club, there will be plenty of people up and down the country having a slight chuckle at Jon’s expense! Such is the nature of football rivalries!

So, no matter what sort of weather there is this weekend, you should think about finding some time to enjoy online poker. You don’t need to commit yourself to a major event like SCOOP or even any of the big name poker tournaments which take place every weekend but you do need to commit to doing something with your time. The more poker you play, the more you will hopefully learn and this weekend might just lay the foundations for a lot more poker success to come in the future!

It can be hard to keep up with the amount of big events and tournaments that PokerStars provide for players but this is not something to complain about. Poker players are always on the lookout for promotions and tournaments to keep them interested and to boost their chances of winning a great deal of money. The latest PokerStars event to get UK and Irish poker players excited is the Spring Championship of Online Poker. If this seems like a bit of a mouthful, you will be glad to know that the event is more commonly known as SCOOP and the 2013 event is proving to be successful for Irish and UK poker players.

The fact that the third event at SCOOP 2013 had three different buy-in levels meant that it was always going to be a popular choice for poker players. The No Limit Hold ‘Em Rebuy Six-Max Action Hour is quite a title but it proved to be a popular choice and it brought some money to players over here!
With the low level buy-in coming in at $5.50, there was an opportunity for plenty of players to get involved. The huge popularity of this event can be seen with the fact that the prize pool reached $305,385. This is a tremendous sum of money for such a low buy-in and it indicates that players will look to get involved with low buy-in events if the incentive was there.

This huge sum of money was spread out amongst a huge range of poker players but a good chunk of it came to the UK thanks to the player known as “Shaunn1”. Even though there were 17,403 players taking part in the event, this player managed to be number 3 in the overall standings. This position ensured that a prize of $28,530.64 was on its way to Blighty! Thanks to a three way chop, this prize actually turned out to be about 3 grand higher than the money earned by the player who finished in second place.

There was strong interest at mid-level too

The mid-level buy-in for the event was still an affordable $55 and with a lot of money on offer at this level, some well-known poker players could be found sniffing around! Again, there was a big placing for a UK player with Southampton’s Christopher “NigDawG” Brammer picking up $16,502.50 for finishing in fifth place.

There was a big jump up with respect to the high level buy-in, which stood at $530. This is the sort of money that rules out all but the top, the most confident or the already rich players. It was therefore no surprise to see that Chris “Moorman1” Moorman ranking highly at the final table. A sixth place finish is not going to be the highlight of Moorman’s year but picking up $26,212.50 is never a bad thing.

Once again, the allure and appeal of online poker is laid out starkly and the fact that this event provided a level for every type of player made it an extremely popular choice for UK players.

The size and scope of PokerStars means that there is always going to be a good reason to log on to the site. Some players will find the fact that there are so many poker players on site will be intimidating and likely to negatively impact on their chances of winning. That is true but it also means that the spoils available to successful players can be of great importance and highly enticing. This is definitely the poker site for players that like to think they have a chance of winning big money and at the weekend, another UK poker player struck big.

The Sunday Second chance game at the PokerStars site is a big hit with players and the fact that there is a $175,000 guarantee is definitely going to be a big factor for many players. This weekend there was an even bigger incentive as the prize pool was inflated thanks to the huge number of players that were involved. With 1,568 players battling it out for the top prize, there was a total of $313,600 up for grabs. This ensured that the top 180 players would receive money for taking part in the event but if you are going to get involved with an online poker tournament; you may as well be involved to try and win it!

A large sum of money was picked up on Sunday

The big prize on offer was $52,386.88 and that amount of money made its way to the UK thanks to the poker skills of Matt Perrins. The player, who goes by the name of “pezler06” online will definitely be thankful he made the decision to get involved with the online tournament on Sunday. This is far from the first big win in Perrin’s poker career though and he can boast of a WSOP bracelet! This came about in rather bizarre circumstances when he won the $1,500 buy-in No Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball at the WSOP. This prize alone saw him bag $102,105 and he has achieved success in the live and online poker arena since then too.

The fact that there is a big UK poker success or two online should ensure that you have the motivation and confidence to try more big name poker events. Just because one UK poker player wins an event doesn’t mean that you will win an event but it should indicate that there is no reason why you can’t win an online poker event. A lot of it is about finding the right event for your level because if you are a rookie poker player, you are going to need a lot of good fortune to bag a massive prize. However, we all have to start somewhere and low online tournaments can help you to develop the confidence that will one day see you rise to the top in the big events.