Poker Blog

The fact that there are so many poker games, tournaments and even leagues taking place around the UK means that there are not too many events or occurrences which are shocking or worthy of note. There are so many poker hands being played that there is not too much to get excited about. Winners will always get big congratulations and losers will always feel as though they could have given more but by and large, once a game has been played, it is handshakes and on to the next one.

One local poker league in Alexandria in Scotland has been causing a bit of a stir of late and the local newspaper has been getting involved with the Dempsey’s Poker League. The big fuss has come about thanks to the fact that two players have recorded royal flushes in the past four weeks. Even though the royal flush is said to have odds of 650,000-1 in a poker game, Andy Parker and Tangy Kirilmaz have both played the hand in recent weeks.

Poker hand that can’t be beat

With the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and the 10 of a single suit being played, most of the other players and onlookers were shocked and delighted when Andy Parker played the hand in a heat for the league. You can then imagine the shock for the poker league when just two weeks later; the Royal Flush was emulated by Tangy. You probably feel a bit sorry for Tangy, some poker leagues and events will never get to see this sort of move but because he followed up on another player’s hand, he was probably met with a lower key response than what he may have been expected to receive for this rare hand!

The organiser of the league, Julie Ferguson, spoke to local press about the occurrence! Julie said;

It’s remarkable, absolutely amazing. You never hear of two royal flushes within a few weeks anywhere. It just feels like we’re unique. Both players were fine during the heats when they held the cards. They knew they just had to keep their cool. When a royal flush happens, the players leave the cards on the table to let the others see what it looks like. It’s been really busy, which adds to their achievement.

It may be a slow news day in the rest of Alexandria to allow a poker story to burst its way into the local newspaper but for poker players, this is definitely news that needs to be considered!

Many people thought it would never happen but Jakub Michalak has been crowned the ISPT Wembley 2013 champion after a great day’s poker play at Wembley Stadium. The final table was played out in a suite overlooking the pitch as opposed to on the hallowed turf but if there was one immediate benefit from this, it was the fact that the victor didn’t have to climb all of those stairs to collect the trophy and the all-important cheque. I suppose when you win you find an extra source of energy somewhere but some players must find those stairs a great strain at the end of the game! Not that this have been on the mind of Jakub Michalak although he will no doubt celebrate as though he won the FA Cup or Champions League final.

The second last day of the ISPT event at Wembley saw twenty hopefuls whittled down to the final six players, who would all return on Wednesday the 5th of June to see who the 1 million euro winner would be. Of course, the fact that deals are always likely to be made means that the actual winner may bag less than 1 million euros but getting a huge sum of money and winning a prestigious poker tournament at Wembley Stadium is likely to be all that a poker player really needs!

A lot of poker players went quickly

The tournament exits came thick and fast at the start of play on Tuesday with players like James Sullivan, Neil Bernadout, Giuseppe Stagno, Leon Louis, Leigh Wiltshire and even WSOP bracelet winner (two times) Praz Bansi were making the lonely walk from Wembley Stadium. They were quickly followed by Florian Hoeller, Freddy Deeb and Dave Ulliott, the man the poker world knows as “Devilfish”.

Bassam Elia was next to go and although there would have been disappointment in finishing in 11th place, the thought of grabbing €19,000 would certainly help to cheer him up! Jean Miguel Lacerda was out in 10th and the final table had been achieved. During the break, there were discussions about making a split of the cash at this point but this was shouted down and at the final 9, the money up for grabs was still along the lines of the original tournament layout. The players who crashed out before the end of the day were Julian Gardner, Jerome Brion and Ferhad Seyadi.

This left the final six players, and their chip count as Pete Linton (11,070,000), Alban Juen (7,615,000), Gwendoline Janot (6,230,000), Nick Hicks (6,230,000), Jakub Michalak (4,825,000) and Xavier el Fassy (4,555,000).

Into the final day and sadly, Gwendoline Janot, the final female player left in the tournament crashed out in 6th place. At least there was a prize of €73,000 (officially but indications about a deal being made would see Janot grab €243,000) to make her feel better. She was quickly followed by Alban Juen in 5th.

There was a bit of a shock in 4th place as Pete Linton crashed out, and he was the big favourite going into the final day. Yet again, sometimes the pressure gets to players and if you get misfortune running against you, the game can run against you. Pete did seem fairly relaxed in his post-tournament interview but he was able to take it in his stride. The fact that he usually plays PLO games and he bagged a great deal of money in the process (unofficially it seems as though Pete takes home €290,000) will definitely keep him satisfied for a good while yet.

Nick Hicks crashed out in third place and he was quite philosophical about his performance in the final day, which he felt was not up to scratch. Nick blamed this on a big lack of sleep in the past few days but even with that in mind, third place is not a bad finish. He got a third place medal as well as more than €200,000 so the Dusk Till Dawn player definitely had a lot to be proud of. This left Jakub Michalak and Xavier el Fassy for the head to head but there could only be one winner with Jakub Michalak grabbing the top prize after Xavier went all in and didn’t get the vital King he was looking for.

After last week’s fun with Charlotte Jackson, Sky Poker is keeping their name in the headlines with the fact that the next event in the 2013 tour is taking place in Birmingham this week. Saturday the 8th of June is the day when the action goes to the Broadway Casino Hall in Birmingham and there is still a great chance of getting involved. Not too many people would recommend that you take a trip to Birmingham at the best of times but when there is a big Sky Poker event on, it makes sense to have a look at what is on offer.

The buy-in direct option has been open for a considerable time and there is still time to do so. At a £110 buy-in deal, it isn’t too bad and many players will decide that this is a fair price to play for the £15,000 guaranteed amount. You have to make your choices in life and if guaranteeing your seat with some cash will help you to get underway in a tournament, it makes sense to do so.

However, there are still satellite events that are open in the run-up to this event so if you would rather keep your cash for yourself, there is still an opportunity to do so. You don’t need to spend a lot of money if you don’t want to and the sense of achievement that comes from making your way through a satellite qualifier to the main event is definitely something that will put an extra spring in the step of most poker players.

There have been four different satellite events running for this Sky Poker Tour event and they have all been running every day. This is definitely the sort of thing that pleases people and the best news is that there have been a variety of price ranges for players to choose from.

Grab the chance of a Birmingham seat

The Sky Poker Tour Birmingham Frenzy satellite may only have a 1 in 50 chance of a seat at the main event but when you are only paying £2.40 for a seat, this is not too bad a price! If you want to take part in the Sky Poker Tour Birmingham Direct satellite, you have a 1 in 10 chance of a seat at the main event and the price rises to £12.

There is the Sky Poker Birmingham Satellite event which has guaranteed seats for the nightly semi-final on offer and this costs £5.20. However, if you want the most effective route for the final, the Sky Poker Tour Birmingham Semi, where there is a 1 in 5 chance of getting a seat for the main event, at £24 is likely to be your best bet.

The last Sky Poker Tour event in Dublin was a roaring success and there is nothing to suggest that the upcoming Birmingham event will be anything but a great time too. The Sky Poker brand is definitely moving upwards in the UK poker community these days.

There may still be one or two mutterings about the overlay but the great thing about the ISPT at Wembley was that the focus eventually fell on the poker. This was always likely to be the case at some point but with even the final hours before the tournament commenced showing more of an interest in cash than chips, there was a concern that there was going to be an overshadowing of the poker play. Once the action got underway on that Wembley turf, like so many times before, everything that was discussed and concerned about in the build-up was forgotten as the excitement and passion of play took over.

There is no doubt that many of the poker players involved would have been honoured to grace the Wembley turf. There is no doubt that the famous old stadium holds a special place in the heart of English football fans but plenty of other great historical events have taken place in Wembley Stadium. The Live Aid concert in the 1980s was a perfect example of people coming together to raise funds, raise awareness and to have a brilliant time. The ISPT event wasn’t along the lines of Live Aid but there was no doubt that plenty of people had a brilliant time on the Wembley turf.

Sunday the 2nd of June was the final day that poker players were getting to play on the Wembley turf. On the Monday, the play was moving indoors to the Bobby Moore suite. Moore was of course the famous captain when England won the World Cup in 1966 but if you are Scottish or Mexican, you will always have doubts about the jewellery that was found in Moore’s belongings at the 1970 World Cup. Regardless of that, Bobby Moore is someone who is loved all over the footballing world and the mere mention of his name will see some English football fans stand to attention.

Poker players were wilting quickly at Wembley

At the start of Sunday’s play, there were 421 players involved but at the end of the day, the tournament was down to 99 players. The leading player at the end of the Sunday and the pitch sessions was Ole Schemion. At this point he had managed to build up a stack of 1,534,000 chips. There were four players in total to break into the million level for chips but Ole was the clear leader and this would have been no surprise to anyone. By the age of 20, Ole has already managed to clock up more than $3m in live tournament earnings so this is a player that knows his way around the poker table.

Every player that made it past the Sunday stage into the Monday knew that they were making some money from the tournament, which is always a relief. Some of the big name players that survived the Sunday session were Sam Trickett, Tony G, Toby Lewis, Neil Bernadout, Marcel Luske and Boris Becker. There were some concerns that Boris would be another German to triumph at the home of English football but with so many other great players left in the event, this wasn’t the biggest concern at this point.

Monday turned out to be a quick day at the ISPT with only 20 players remaining at the end of the day. The chip leader at the end of Day 4 of the event, as he had been at the end of Day 1 and Day 2 was Alban Juen. Alban came to the event as a qualifier but by the end of Monday’s play, he held over 5 million chips.

One of the early players to bust out was Sam Trickett. Upon his exit, he immediately donated his $3,000 to the dealers and made his way to the airport to take part in the WSOP! That was quite a classy move and hopefully Sam can bag some big cash at the big WSOP event on Las Vegas.

Other players that made the top 10 were Dave Ulliott, Jean Miguel Lacerda, Florian Hoeller, Leigh Wiltshire, Gwendoline Jant, Xavier el fassy, Jakub Michalak, Pete Linton and Nick Hicks, all of whom were hoping to overtake Alban Juen.

If there is one thing that Scottish sportspeople seem to do very well, it is glorious failure. Andy Murray finally managed to buck this trend with his Grand Slam win in 2013 but for so long in his career it looked as though he would be another Scottish person who promised big and then just fell short. There is something about Scotland that seems to revel in the glorious failure and coming so close and now there has been a poker hard luck story to add to the tales of national woe!

Not that David Vamplew has anything to be ashamed of or really upset over. Most poker players around the world would love to get the chance to play at the WSOP 2013 event so getting to the final table of Event #2 was a huge achievement. Vamplew went all the way to second place in the $5,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em Eight-Handed Tournament. This tournament proved to be a big success and there were a great number of poker players who were involved with the final table being a very competitive place. Vamplew has already grabbed a European Poker Tour title, so he knows what it takes to see out a victory but sadly in this case he was not able to complete his journey.

Only one poker player was destined to win at the final table

Going into the final table, 7 of the 8 players held chip stacks that were between 432,000 and 629,000. This meant that there could have been a huge level of competition at the final table but you have to take into consideration the chip stack of the 8th player, Trevor Pope. Pope was the chip leader on a phenomenal 3,420,000 chips which made him the runaway leader and although chip stacks can change hand quickly and largely at a final table, most players expected Pope to remain in charge throughout the final table.

So it proved and going into the final head to head, the chip stack stood up as Vamplew on 550,000 chips while Pope held 6,650,000. Vamplew put up a valiant effort but it was done and dusted within 10 hands of play as Pope proved that chip leaders can sometimes get home in style and comfort!
For the win, Pope gets the all-important bracelet but he also managed to bag $553,906 for the glory of winning. In second place though, Vamplew helped himself to $342,450 which is an awful lot of money for one poker tournament. This huge amount takes Vamplew to a total of $2,539,059 in his career which is an amount of cash that no would be upset at picking up in their poker career!

Yet another GUKPT event is over and another player has risen to the top. Like most other poker tournaments, there were a few twists and turns along the way and the early favourites for the final table managed to fall away. Any observers seemed to agree on the fact that there were two excellent poker players giving it their all when it came to the end of the game but of course, when you start off with a final table, it can take a long time to get there.

The first player to drop out of the final table was Morgan Sorfleet. Sorfleet was one of the early chip leaders in the Day 1 events but his 9th placed ensured that he would be taking home £1,510. It is not a bad return for a weekend’s work but when you hold such a good position at certain times in a tournament, it is only naturally to be let down by such a turn of events. Sorfleet was turned out of the tournament by Khalick Mohangee and he didn’t waste much time in taking another player out of the Main Event.

A great run of poker at the final table

The next player to fall was Dennis Omahoney who would have to settle for £2,010 for finishing in eighth place. The next player to be taken out was Trevor Bowers and this time it wasn’t Khalick to blame, it was Dom Mahoney. Trevor ended up in 7th spot which was enough to bag £2,680. The player who ended up in sixth position was also taken out by Mahoney, which meant that two poker players had taken out four players between them. The player going home in 6th position was Adam Boutwell. Boutwell would take home £3,350 for his efforts in coming 6th.

Mahoney then got his hat-trick of taking players out when Blair Hampton, who had been the chip leader, crashed out in 5th place for £4,360. At this point the game slowed down which was just as well. The first five exits from the final table had taken place in the first hour, which indicates how much of a breathless opening it was to this poker tournament’s final table. In fourth place was Khalick Mohangee who became the fourth victim of Dom Mahoney in the final table! Khalick took home £5,520 for his efforts.

Next to go was Simon Skinner and it was no surprise to see Dom being the man once again to take him out. Third place at this event raked in £8,800 for his efforts. This saw Dom Mahoney and Nick Humphris going head to head and the battle raged from end to end. Dom initially held a great lead which Nick would claw back only for Dom to quickly race away again only for Nick to pull himself back into contention. This pattern continued for a while until Nick got his chance and managed to power home, making his lead and dominance count.

Nick Humphris grabbed the title and £16,500 but thanks to the deal struck between the two players, Dom actually managed to take home £17,850 for coming second.

A big Saturday event is always going to be ensure that Wembley Stadium is buzzing with excitement and the Day 2b event at Wembley Stadium for the ISPT Main Event was such an occasion. The two live days prior to this had seen a total of 761 entries for the live events, which was a good thing but there was no doubt that on Saturday, the talk of the event was still about the money that was needed to ensure that the pre-tournament promises would be lived up to.

In the current economic situation, the prize of €1m to the winner was always going to be a big draw but the thing is, there was a lot of doubt about the event going ahead. That was until Dusk Till Dawn stepped in to guarantee the money. This brought a lot of stability to the event but there is no doubt that it placed a large financial element on the company. It is not as if there was a winner takes prize for the poker players, the money dished out to the winner was just 20% of the overall prize pool so there was a big lot of money needed to make everyone happy. At the time of calculating on Saturday morning, it was looking as though DTD needed to find close to €600,000 to ensure that the first prize winner got all the money that was promised to them.

UK poker players got behind the event

It would be fair to say that the UK poker community was fully behind the event. There are always other poker events and tournaments to look out for so it is not as if everyone was able to play in the event but there was definitely a great turnout from some well-known UK names. There was also a big turn out from France, which is not a surprise considering how easy the main transport links between London and France are. There is an element of surprise at the lack of representation from Ireland though. Perhaps the fact that the Irish football team played at Wembley Stadium in midweek meant that there wasn’t the same desire or need to travel back to Wembley so soon! There was also a limited amount of players from Scandinavia at the big Wembley event.

There is usually a strong turn-out from Scandinavian players for major poker events and London is usually a city that they find themselves in on a regular basis. There were some big name Scandinavian poker players like Ramsi Jelassi, Michael Tureniec and Peter Eastgate but there was hope for a lot more than just these players. Perhaps there was not enough international promotion to capture the imagination of players and it may be that Wembley doesn’t hold the same sort of appeal to non-English players as it does for English poker players.

In the Saturday action itself, there had been hopes for the ISPT ambassador, Michael Mizrachi. The player that is known as “The Grinder” got off to a good start, reaching 150,000 chips but this high level disappeared almost as quickly as it came along. Before too long, Mizrachi was struggling on just over 30,000 chips and he was eliminated from the event shortly afterwards.

There was slightly better success for another ambassador for the ISPT, Liz Lieu. She managed to end the day with 70,200 chips, a considerably better amount than renowned poker player James Akenhead. At one point, Akenhead had broken through the 100,000 chips barrier but by the end of the Day 2 action, he found himself back down to the 44,700 level.

Sunday was going to be the final day of the event where the poker action would be played out on the Wembley turn. On Monday, the poker action moves indoors with the Bobby Moore suite being the venue for the climax to the ISPT Wembley event.