Poker Blog

Even though there has already been a series event for UKIPT players to get their teeth into, the excitement is really starting to build for the proper opener of the season and the rest of the campaign. Season 4 looks set to be the biggest and best United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour yet and PokerStars are once again fully behind the tour. The Series 1 event held in April at the Hippodrome got things off to a handsome start but most poker players are now turning their thoughts towards Marbella.

The idea of getting a great sunshine break in June is definitely going to appeal to people but for many poker players, there will not be too much of a chance to grab sunshine and a tan. Then again, if the poker games are played late at night, there is nothing to stop the poker players from grabbing an al fresco snooze during the day helping them to top up their tan while getting some proper rest before the poker action begins again. The PokerStars Marbella Festival is the setting for the first not UK or Irish event in the United Kingdom and Irish Poker Tour and the action begins at midday on Wednesday the 12th of June. It is also best to stay out of the sunshine at midday so this could be the best time to start playing poker. It is also going to be the first time that the new style of Main Event at UKIPT events, the €1,000 +€100 buy-in will take place.

After the Marbella jaunts, there is another series event with Series 2 taking place at the Hippodrome yet again with the last few days of June being the relevant dates for this event. The next proper event on the tour takes place in Galway with a guaranteed €500,000 on offer between the 8th and 12th of August. The Galway event could be the biggest event of the tour as this is the one with the highest possible capacity. At the moment the Galway leg is being listed as having a capacity of 1,200 whereas the next highest capacity available is 1,000. There is a huge passion and drive for poker events in Ireland so there should be no real surprise that there would be a high level of interest for this event. The buy-in for this event stands at €1,000 +€100 which means that there is going to be a great deal of money floating about if the capacity target is reached.

Plenty of poker events to look forward to

There is then another series event at the Hippodrome at the end of September but the 2nd to the 6th of October welcomes a London event at Connaught. Again there will be a guaranteed €500,000 on offer but this time the buy-in will be £1,000+£100, which is actually dearer than the buy-in events for the Main Events in Ireland or Europe. Then again, this all depends on the exchange rate and given the current economic outlook, is anyone going to be so confident to predict what the exchange rate and economies will be like by the time October 2013 rolls around!

Halloween sees the event shift to the Isle of Man for the first ever time in the Villa Marina and then the 28th of November to the 2nd of December sees the famous Dusk Till Dawn club in Nottingham host the premier six-man UKIPT Main Event.

There may be some folk that get annoyed about the fact that the UKIPT is heading out of the United Kingdom and Ireland for this tour but to be honest, most poker players will welcome the chance to get around a bit more. A trip to Marbella in the height of summer is never going to be a bad thing and if you can combine it with a bit of poker, all the better!

While online poker is a great way to play and it provides all the benefit and convenience of home, there is a lot to be said for getting out and about when playing poker. Whether you appreciate the chance to see other people or see new sights, travel is one of the better things about playing poker that people can really appreciate. Whether it is up and down the country or going abroad to play poker, having the chance to do new things is always going to be of benefit.

However, sometimes it can be difficult to arrange travel plans or to work out what the best option is. This is why it is good to see the major poker names in the UK providing travel opportunities for poker players. It should be remembered that these options will be more expensive than doing it all by yourself but you get a level of comfort and assurance when travelling with recognised travel partners. It may well be that you will be able to travel directly with these options whereas some of the travel plans you create yourself can see you going here, there and everywhere. If you value comfort and convenience, keeping things simple are well worth paying a bit extra for.

Let someone else take the strain of booking travel plans

Dusk Till Dawn have joined Genting Poker Series in announcing that they are working with Main Event Travel. This news sees Main Event Travel become the official partner of the Nottingham poker club and the two of them will work together to offer a range of travel options and benefits for all poker players looking to get around to the big poker events. Whether you are heading to Nottingham to play at DTD or you are looking to get on the road to Wembley for the International Stadiums Poker Tour, you will be able to get a helping hand along the way.

One of the factors involved with the partnership will see poker players that win seats for the many events that are put on live by DTD earn a voucher to get money off of accommodation.

The owner of the Dusk Till Dawn club, Rob Young, said in a press statement to announce the partnership;

Main Event Travel.com is specifically focussed on meeting the needs of poker players, who are notoriously last minute planners – me included MET are able to get better prices by leveraging their buying power and can give a more dedicated service to our players – it’s a no brainer to get them on board to help with travel and accommodation with our club events and our external projects such as the ISPT.

In less than a week’s time, poker players will be involved with the latest GUKPT event which is sure to bring more great poker action to the UK. There have been London and Didsbury events so far that have brought a lot of fun and heartache to the poker community and if these events are anything to go by, the Stockton event which starts on Sunday the 5th of May and carries all the way through Sunday the 12th of May is sure to be another one to keep in your diary.

Even though these events provide a week-long opportunity to enjoy poker, there is no getting away from the fact that many people only want to focus on the Main Event. This is the one with the big money and it is definitely the one that will have people paying attention to everything that is going on. By the time the action reaches the final table on Sunday, it will have the focus of thousands, if not more, poker players up and down the country. There is of course the opportunity to get involved with this event too which can see players playing for real cash in a live poker tournament.

Day 1A begins on Thursday

With respect to the Main Event, there is a guaranteed £50,000 on offer and the first day of action takes place on Thursday the 9th of May. Day 1A has a buy-in of £500 while there is a registration fee of £50. The action begins at midday but if Thursday is a little bit too soon for you, you’ll be glad to know that Friday is Day 1B of the event with the same set-up and start time. Players that manage to battle through from the Day 1 action will be involved with Day 2 on Saturday the 11th of May and anyone lucky enough to get through that stage will be involved with the Main Event final. This starts at 2pm and not only is there a big prize pot waiting for poker players, there is a big trophy to grab the attention too.

If the thought of the £500 buy-in is putting you off, you will be highly interested in the satellite events that are taking place for this event. These begin on Sunday the 5th of May and feature a £30 buy-in with a £5 registration fee. This is a much more affordable way to get involved with a poker tournament and you may well find that a lot of people are looking to this option to give them a chance of winning the trophy and big prize. With further re-entry and satellite games taking place throughout the week in the build-up to the Main Event and the Turbo and Bounty games to enjoy too, there is a lot of poker action taking place in the Grosvenor G Casino in Stockton, Stockton-On-Tees in the near future. If you’re looking for poker action from next weekend, and bear in mind that Monday is a Bank Holiday, you will want to have a look at what is on offer here.

When you go outside of London, you may feel as though you have to look around a bit further to find great poker options but perhaps you are looking in the wrong places. It is probably fair to say that most poker fans are not going to start by looking in Nottingham but in all honesty, there is definitely a great poker opportunity available for players in this part of the country. This is down to the fact that the Dusk Till Dawn club is found here and this is one of the most respected poker venues up and down the country.

However, it is not suitable for everyone to attend, especially with respect to midweek poker options so it is great to see that the company also puts a lot of focus into its online poker play. Anyone looking for the great poker style and experience of the DTD club but doesn’t fancy leaving their home will definitely be in luck in the week ahead. April may be turning into May but with the weather still being rather changeable, there is no great desire to leave the house so have some online poker fun instead.

Join the Deepstack fun online

There is an online Day 1A event for the £150 May Deepstack event which starts at 8.30pm on Thursday night. If you want the chance to play at the club on the weekend but want to guarantee your place before making the journey, this is the ideal way to do so. There are even satellite opportunities in the build-up to the event so you can reduce your expenditure even further if you have the spare time this week.

There are live Day 1B and Day 1C events taking place at the club on Friday and Saturday so if you much prefer to do all of your poker playing live and in person, you can do so. It is good to see that poker clubs are providing players with both options and this will hopefully help to boost the numbers of players playing and getting involved with the big event. No matter if you play online or at the club, you will be looking to gain entry into Day 2 which takes place on Sunday the 5th of May and the action starts at 2pm.

With a Bank Holiday Monday to follow, there could be a long night in store but most people will be able to live with that if it ensures that they remain in the competition and have a chance of bagging big money.

One of the best things about poker is that the great amount of poker events will let you travel around the world. Many poker players will decide that they do not get as many opportunities to play poker in their country as they would like and therefore decide to set up home in a different country. This move may be carried out for poker reasons or it may be carried out to get some other form of benefit but there is no doubt that the fluid nature of online poker and poker around the world means that you have a greater amount of freedom to be based where you want.

Robert Haigh is a German born poker player that is currently based in Brighton. The UK poker scene certainly wouldn’t claim Robert as one of their own but there are plenty of people who will look out for his results and see how he is doing. There would have been a couple of raised eyebrows at his most recent strong showing which took place back in his home country. After getting away from Germany to come and play a lot more poker, there is certainly a neat twist to the fact that Haigh returned home to Germany to nab a decent poker prize.

A change of leadership on the final day

Going into the final day, Haigh was the chip leader with 5,495,000 chips to his name. In second place was Daniel Pidun who held 5,250,000 chips and in third place was Lasse Frost who was a good bit further behind with 3,700,000 chips. There was to be a turnaround in the final day though because it was Pidun who managed to claim the top prize at the event. Pidun is another German poker player so the organisers of the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event would have been delighted at the fact that two German players were facing off to take the main prize. The Brits may try and claim Haigh at times but there is no doubt that the Germans still have the stronger claim on that player!

Of the final 8 players, Roman Korenev was the first one to drop out of the table and he managed to pick up €77,000. In 7th place was Julian Thomas who received €110,000 for his troubles. In 6th place was Roman Herold who man managed to pick up €155,000 and in 5th place was Alexander Helbig who received €202,200 for his strong showing. In fourth place was Pascal Vos who earned €255,000 and in third place was Lasse Frost who picked up €325,000. Robert Haigh came second and was able to bank an impressive €531,000 for his hard work and skill whereas Daniel Pidun managed to bag €880,000 for being the big winner.

It is the sort of cheque that befits the winner of the Main Event at such a prestigious poker event and it was well deserved after a great few days of poker play from Pidun.

It can be all too easy to let a Bank Holiday slip by without doing too much. A trip to a DIY store and then watching rubbish films on television is not a great way to spend your time away from work so you need to think in advance about how best to spend your time. The thought of playing online poker for most of the weekend will undoubtedly be a pleasant one for many people but there is a lot to be said for getting out of the house and perhaps seeing new sights. Of course, if you are able to do this while playing poker, it would be the best solution for everyone.

This is why the Irish Pub Poker Gathering is going to be one hell of a weekend. The event is taking place at the White Sands Hotel in Portmarnock which is in the north of Dublin. The event will be taking place between the 3rd of May and the 5th of May, so you still have time to get booked up and put yourself in line to have some craic over in Dublin!

Cheap buy-in is always an attraction for poker players

One of the great things about this event is that it is a bit more relaxed than some poker events and it will only cost you €120 to get involved. Once you pay this amount of money you will find that you start play with 30,000 chips and the blind structure for the event is 20/50. These blind levels for the first day will be 30 minutes and then on the following days will rise to 40 minutes.

There will be an opportunity to re-enter the tournament if you get knocked so if you despair at the thought of travelling all the way to Dublin and then getting knocked out early on in the tournament, you have the chance to stay in the mix. The fact that there is such a low buy-in level means that this should be more affordable for players and the re-entry availability will provide a better chance to cover the €15,000 guaranteed prize pool.

If you are taking part in Day 1A or Day 1B, which refers to Friday the 3rd of May and Saturday the 4th of May, respectively, you should note that the start time for both days is 3pm. However, if you manage to battle through to the Sunday play, the poker action begins at 2pm. You want to be aware of this because there would be nothing worse than battling through to the final day and then missing the start of the play.

Poker is undoubtedly going to be the main attraction of the weekend but the organisers of the Pub Poker Gathering have promised that there will be plenty of events to look out for. There is a proposed golf event and there will be a lot of entertainment on in the hotel over the course of the Bank Holiday weekend. There is a pub crawl planned for after the poker event on Sunday night and if you feel the need to party into the wee small hours of the morning, there is a nightclub in the hotel. A trip to Dublin could provide the perfect May Bank Holiday weekend.

While the Westernmania poker event was well received and a lot of players had a great time, the fact that the organisers had to pay a big overlay means that there has been a natural review and downsizing for the next event. This is no bad thing and most poker players realise that this is a tough time. It is also not as if the prize pool has hit rock bottom, it is just the fact that a more natural level has been placed on the forthcoming Westernmania 2 event being held at The Western Card Room in London.

Westernmania 2 will be here in May and this time there will be a prize pool guaranteed at £30,000. Of this, £10,000 is definitely going to the winner so there is still a decent incentive for poker players to get involved with this event. The buy-in for the event is going to be £163 and for this amount, poker players will receive 30,000 chips and the clock will play at 30 minutes. The blinds for the game will start at 50/100 and there will be ten levels played on the Day 1 events. The first day 1 is going to take place on Friday the 24th of May and then there will be two other day 1 sessions taking place on Saturday. The first one will be at 2pm with the second taking place at 8pm. Every poker player that makes it through will fight it out for the cash on Sunday the 26th of May.

There are satellite events available for Westernmania 2

If you are looking to play your way into this event by means of a satellite, the Western Club will be providing satellite events on Monday evenings and there will be a pair of seats at the event up for grabs. The buy-in for the satellite is £38 and each player will receive a starting stack of chips of 10,000. If you stay local to the club, this may just be an excellent excuse to justify getting out of the house on a Monday evening and enjoying some poker action.

However, if you are unable to make it to the club, there will be an online satellite event provided by the Full Tilt Poker site. There is a £163 seat up for grabs through the $15+$1.50 satellite events that are going to be played out on Monday evenings. This is a great move because there will be plenty of poker players that will be keen to head down to London for the big weekend event but will not fancy making the trip on a Monday night. With online satellites, you don’t need to leave your home to get involved. There will be some people disappointed about the drop in cash on offer with the next Westernmania event but the fact that there is a great prize to aim for should keep most people satisfied with what is going to be on offer.

One thing you can definitely say about the Western is that it is a poker room that has a sense of humour. If you are looking for some fun, you should make your way over to their Facebook page and check out the posters for all of their past and present events. There is something rather humorous about taking the Breaking Bad imagery and main cast members and turning it into the backdrop for a night of “Breaking Bad Beats”, which takes place on a Sunday evening if you are interested! With plenty of great films like Star Wars being referenced in their promotional campaigns too, this is clearly a poker room that knows how to have a laugh. Poker is and should be a serious business, there is clearly a lot of money at stake at important times but there is also a need to see the lighter side of life too!