Even though there are plenty of great poker tours and events taking place in the UK and Ireland, it seems as though the Sky Poker Tour has managed to find some friends. There is a lot to be said for the way that Sky has managed to take over our lives and its live coverage of football and other sports is central to this. However, with their Sky Poker programmes and a genuine dedication to poker, it is easy to see why so many poker fans have fallen in love with what is on offer from Sky Poker.
The London stop-off of the 2013 Sky Poker Tour took place in the popular Aspers Casino in Stratford City and it seemed that plenty of people wanted to get a piece of the action. A £200 buy-in for the Main Event was an attractive price but there were 267 players seated and listed by the time that registrations were closed. This meant that the event is the biggest Sky Poker Tour event outside of any Grand Final event, so the organisers were extremely happy with what they had pulled together. With so many players you would expect there to be an interesting prize pool on offer and there was, with £53,400 up for grabs. However, players knew that they had to get into the top 36 places to take some of that money home with them!
Plenty of big name poker players were involved
Julian Thew was on hand to represent Sky Poker but there were plenty of big poker names like James Dempsey and Dave Shallow involved too. None of these three players managed to make it to the final table where nine players contested. At the final table, the minimum amount of money that was being won was £1,180 but when there are bigger prizes to play for, you know there is going to be a bigger element of competition.
Sam Bayliss dropped out in 9th, taking the £1,180 prize with him while Silvano Leighio followed soon after with £1,575. The final two players battling for the big prize was Chris Love and Aaron Flamand. There was certainly no love lost between the two when Flamand managed to pull out a King-high flush which defeated the flush of Love and it was all over. Chris had to settle for £8,725 while Aaron received the trophy and £11,905.
There is some respite for the Sky Poker Tour for a little while but it returns in Dublin in May and that is bound to be a thrilling time for poker players.