Jake Cody seemed to bring his good form from Day 2 of the World Poker Tour World Championship into the third day of the event. The Rochdale born poker player knows that there are a lot of expectations being placed upon him for this event but all you can do is keep your head down and keep on playing poker in the right manner. There is still a long way to go in this tournament but Jake is certainly going about things in the correct fashion.

Poker players falling by the wayside

Day 3 may not have been as successful as Day 2 was but when the number of poker players fall, surviving the cut is all you can really look for. 67 poker players made it back to the Bellagio and by the end of the day; this had been chopped down to 24 poker players. The closing stack of 365,000 for Jake Cody may have seen him slip out of the top 10 with regards to chips but as we all know, this is a situation that can change very quickly.

The money bubble is at the 15th position so this is obviously the first target for Cody to aim for. You don’t only want to think about the money, you should always be able to look higher but sometimes getting to this level is the thing that can allow players to relax a little. Battling so far in a tournament only to get no financial return to show for it can be tough so at least knowing you have some money in your pocket can be of benefit.

Things may have got a little gloomier for Jake Cody on Day 3 of the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio but the fact that he remains hanging on in there is definitely something to be proud of. The money places are close by so he just needs to cling on in there for a little while longer.

Making it through to the start of day 3 is no great reason to be over excited but there is definitely a strong sense of pride in performing well in the first two days’ worth of play. The Rochdale player took to the event, which carried a $25,000 buy-in with great purpose and played strongly in the initial two days. At the end of the second day of play, Cody had amassed 453,000 chips. This was enough of a stack to place him into 5th place at the end of the second day of play.

Cody definitely in the mix for the third day of poker

Cody had barely stepped away from the table when he was accosted by the WPT media team for a quick interview. Such is the high profile nature of these events, players know that media activities are part and parcel of what they have to do and Jake was more than happy to give a quick sound bite of his tournament so far.

Cody spoke to Jeanine Deeb from WPT and said;

I just seem to keep on getting big hands and being called, and then my bluffs always seem to get through, so it seems to be going very well so far.

The success of Cody also added to the current woes that Phil Ivey is having with the British at the moment. The world famous poker player is in the news a fair bit due to the “cheating” scandal that he finds himself embroiled in with Crockfords casino. At this event, Ivey lost out a large stack of chips as he sent off to the rail as the same time as Cody was marching on building up his stack in an impressive fashion.

Although the stack of 453,000 chips held by Cody was impressive, the chip leader for the beginning of day 3 was Mike Linster. Mike was able to bring 744,000 chips in his stack and he is continuing to show a good run of form. Mike gained entry to this event by bagging the recent WPT Main Event in Jacksonville and he will no doubt be keen to pick up another WPT title.

Jake Cody is still a long way off of getting any money at this event and who knows, due to the vagrancies of time and when you read this, he may be suffering a turnaround in his fortunes at the event! Regardless of this, Cody definitely made a strong impact on the opening couple of days at the World Poker Tour World Championship.

Another massive incentive for getting involved with this tournament comes with the fact that it can begin a journey which will end with an October trip to Paris. This is because two players at the Freezeout event will gain a place at the WSOPE Satellite event which will be taking place in September at the Manchester 235 club. Not only will there by accommodation, travel and the all-important buy-in, playing well in Paris could see you bagging a poker tournament bracelet.

There will be big money involved for the top players

This shouldn’t overlook the action and excitement that is available at the Freezeout event though. The prize pool details have not been formally announced but at the last event the players played for a share of £2,300 and the top three players all managed to bag £500 each! The event is open for anyone over the age of 18 and to make sure that it is a really cool evening, the organisers promise to offer ice pops for every players! There will be a free drink given out to players when they arrive, the break-time sees a free buffet being provided and anyone that holds a Player Rewards Card will find that they are entitled to free paring at the event too. You won’t have to spend a lot of money to make the most of this Summer Freezeout event!

If this sounds like the sort of poker event that you want to get involved with, you will need to be quick as there are limited places up for grabs. There are only 110 places available for this tournament and the pre-register section is open now, so sign up if you wish to guarantee your place at this prestigious Manchester poker event.

The festival of poker actually begins this Sunday so the 26th of May is the day that you want to have in your diary. This is going to be the date that matters for some people but of course, there will be other poker players who are not getting excited until a lot later on in the week. This is one of the positive aspects about these poker tournaments. Depending on your cash, confidence and financial status, you can come into a tournament whenever you want.

Play poker for cheap

The first satellite events start this Sunday and with a buy-in fee of £30+£5; there is a very good reason to start early. Not every poker player has the bankroll to chip in a lot of money when they feel like it and playing your way to a tournament for a low entry fee is definitely something that many poker players love to do.

Of course, if your main focus is on the Main Event, you will need to wait until Thursday the 30th of May to get involved. The action starts at midday for the £500 + £50 buy-in and the Day 1 event spans Thursday and Friday. This means that on Saturday, Day 2 proper takes place and then the big final is going to be held on the 2nd of June. This is certainly a lot to look forward to and the 2pm start-time on Sunday will definitely give players a time and date to plan ahead to. Plenty of poker players will have fallen by the wayside by this point but those still in the mix will have high hopes of poker success.

Over 300 players were involved at the Genting Poker Series Sheffield Main Event and there was definitely a lot of action and excitement around. With £100,000 on offer as a guaranteed prize, this is definitely the sort of thing that people wanted to get involved with but anyone hoping for a local or English poker victory would have been sadly disappointed.

This is down to the fact that Mudasser Hussain came all the way down from Glasgow in Scotland to show the English poker players how to win a tournament. With the top prize being just short of £43,000 this was a smashing success for Mudasser and you can bet that he’ll be delighted at taking part in the event. He has already taken to Twitter to celebrate and he kept his followers up to date with how his tournament went.

Anyone looking for some solace in an English player finishing second will have been disappointed too because Yucel Eminoglu grabbed the second spot. However, his prize fund was at the same level as third placed player, Athir Ali who does hail from England with both second and third prize standing at £28,500. There were prizes over £10,000 for fourth and fifth place too with Wai Yu and Adam Chadwick picking up a sizable amount of cash too. With plenty of big money on offer, these poker events are always going to be of benefit to players who play well and have a little bit of luck on their side.

Everyone can get involved with this poker series

One of the most interesting things about the Genting Poker Series is that it has an entire leg online. It is always good to be able to travel around the country and play in different poker venues but this is not always suitable for every poker player. Being able to stay in the comfort of your own home and have the same opportunity as other poker players to reach the grand final is definitely something that will appeal. Online poker is something that is open to everyone and it is good to see that there is scope for every poker to be involved.

The online event is not scheduled until November so there is plenty of time to go until players get the chance to enter last chance saloon and make a play for the big final which is scheduled for the middle of December. If you are looking to play your way to success at the end of the year, this is definitely going to be something that will appeal to you.

You don’t have to wait until November to get a chance of grabbing some poker winnings and playing your way to poker success though. There is a slight break for the summer but the Genting Poker Series recommences in August with a trip to the Genting Club in Wescliff Southend. After this, the focus falls on the Genting Club in Stoke in the middle of September. In October there is a jaunt north of the border to the Genting Club in Edinburgh. The success of Mudasser Hussain indicates that there is no need think that cross-border relations will stop your chance of success. This could be another brilliant chance for a Scottish poker player to grab a big victory or there could be the chance for an English player to get revenge for Hussain grabbing the big win in Sheffield.

This is sure to be an exciting time and any poker player that wants to experience the feeling of playing poker in a place where you know sunshine awaits outside of the venue, this is definitely an event you should be looking at. There have been one or two complaints about the UKIPT event heading away from these shores for sunnier climes but the vast majority of poker players are just delighted to get the chance to try something a little bit different and certainly something out of the ordinary. Holiday makers and ex-pats agree that Marbella is a brilliant place to visit so why not see what is on offer.

Poker across the seas

A big reason for the jaunt across the water is the fact that UKIPT is teaming with the Estrellas Poker Tour. A little bit of local knowledge can go a long way and both of these poker event organisers are sure to make a brilliant splash in hosting the PokerStars Marbella Festival. With the Main Event carrying a guarantee of €500,000 there is definitely a lot to look out for.

The Casino Marbella is the place to be from the 12th of June and the Main Event will continue all the way through until the 16th, which is definitely something to mark in your diary. The Main Event is going to feature a €1,000 + €100 buy-in. This should be enough to grab the attention of plenty of poker players but there are going to be High Roller games, Turbo events and even satellites in the build-up to the more expensive tournaments. All in all, a trip to Marbella is always great news but the fact that there is going to be a chance to play poker and win money is definitely something of merit to poker players in this trip!

The idea and sentiment is great but of course, the legalities of it all are very different and there is no way that anyone should think this is a good idea. If it is drink talking, it can be a great conversation but you have to hope that when alcohol wears off and the hangover kicks in, the dream of owning a poker venue and gaming casino in your own home wears off. If not, and you go ahead with it, you may find yourself in a lot of trouble.

This is what happened in Peterborough recently and this tale should be a warning to all entrepreneurial sorts that think setting up an illegal poker den is going to be of merit or value. Bulent Bakir from Peterborough was sentenced to six weeks in jail this week after pleading guilty to allowing unauthorised use of his premises and to allowing a gaming machine to be used in his home.

Major poker play can be a crime

His home was raided back in January after the Gambling Commission tipped off police about suspicious gaming activities taking place in Alma Road which is in Millfield. Police found a number of electronic gaming machines and a table where there were a number of poker chips and around £2,000 in cash. There were six people inside the premises at the time, using the machines or playing cards!

Court records stated the defence said;

This was not a professional, commercial operation and the defendant did not make much profit out of it. He would open his house for his friends. They would play cards, he would provide food and hospitality. They might contribute money towards it but this was not a large scale operation. The defendant told me that he had a bit of a gambling problem but he now wants nothing more to do with gambling. He asked for counselling to help do this.

The football club in question was Leeds United and this is a club that knows all about a gamble. They were huge in the late 1960s and early 1970s but the club never seemed to have the luck or the vital killer instinct to get over the edge on too many questions. Sure they managed to pick up the league title and an FA Cup but when you think about how many near misses they had, it is clear that there was something not quite right about the club. Even at their highest moments in European football, they were shown to be out of their depth by the top teams of the time such as Celtic and Bayern Munich.

Poker can be fun against clueless opponents

In more recent times, the gambles taken at Elland Road have been in the boardroom with some stupid decisions being made to chase the Champions League dream. Even amateur poker players would have loved to have played poker against Peter Ridsdale, a clown of a business man who had no sense of his own value or limitations. Again, this is exactly the sort of poker opponent you would love to find yourself up against.

Sadly for Leeds United and their fans, there will be no official poker games at Elland Road. This is because their application to be the recipient of the large casino licence for Leeds. Only 8 of these licences have been granted around the country and Leeds United were keen to bring a casino and plenty of poker table to Elland Road.

Their application was rejected though with Global Gaming Ventures being handed a provisional statement, which is the pre-cursor to the firm being awarded a full licence. There are conditions attached to this, so it is not all cut and dried just yet but the Leeds United dream of being a poker, much like their dream of being mainstays in the Champions League have been destroyed. Global Gaming Ventures plan on placing their casino within the Victoria Gate development, which has so far cost over £130m. With over 200 jobs expected to be created for the city with this new poker venue, there is a lot to look forward to in Leeds, even if this doesn’t extend to the football team.

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!

The issue with this fact is that what one person can afford to lose will not be the same as other people. A couple of years back when the gambling debts run up by footballers such as Michael Owen or Wayne Rooney were made public, there was shock and outrage from people who are perpetually offended by everything in life. This was huge sums of money, more than the average yearly wage for most folk but of course, for the players committing the case to these games, it was the equivalent of a couple of hundred pound for the standard casino player. It was certainly an amount you would rather have than lose but you can handle losses like this every once in a while.

This is why it is important to bear in mind that while there has been consternation about the losses run up by a poker player from the UK at the EPT event in France, it is best to place it into context with respect to their annual income.

Poker losses are all relative

Talal Shakerchi managed to lose a sum of more than £850,000 in a single poker game being played at the EPT event. It was not an official event, it was an unofficial event being played around the grand final and there were 6 players who all paid more than £400,000 to sit down at the table together.

This is a huge sum of cash but the fact that Mr Shakerchi has managed set up his own hedge fund firm, Meditor, indicates that he is in a position to play these huge sums of money. There is also the fact that he has reportedly won more than £1m playing poker in recent times. It is right that certain people will be disgusted at the amount of losses run up by poker players but it is important to retain a perspective about what actually happened. Poker can still be a fun game to play at every level but it is important that UK poker players find the level that they are comfortable with.

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.

There is no doubt that the concept of winner stays on adds a little more competition and in some instances, it can be a fantastic way to get more people involved. There is a real sense of excitement and drama that comes along with beating the champion and the longer a champ stays in place, the bigger the excitement and drama will become. This is why Sky Poker are getting fully behind their King Of The Hill promotion which works along the concept of the winner stays on mind-set.

Affordable buy-in attracts players

At 9pm every evening, the King of the Hill event takes place and there hundreds of pounds on offer every single evening. There is a very affordable buy-in of £7.50, which should see plenty of poker players having the chance to get involved. From this money, a fiver is placed into the prize pool of the night, two pound goes to the 8.30pm heads up match which takes place the following evening and 50p is allocated to fees for the tournament.

The major difference of this event and many other events is the fact that the player who wins the tournament gets the opportunity to play the winner of the head to head match from the previous evening. This means a winner one night gets another chance to play for a big prize the following evening. If one player manages to get a strong winning run together, they could be picking up a considerable amount of money over their winning run. If you are the King of the Hill, you may need to clear some space in your evenings to make sure that you are perfectly placed to take advantage of what is on offer.

Anything which is a little bit different is going to grab the attention in the online poker community and this promotion definitely stands out from the crowd. If you love the idea of the winner getting to stay on and always playing for more cash, this is the promotion for you.

The East End Live poker event is not going to claim to be one of the most important poker events but there were many reasons why this event was being taken seriously. In total, there were 287 players involved at the event at the Aspers Casino, which tells you a lot about this poker promotion. Getting close to 300 players out for a major event is definitely something to take pride in and the organisers clearly pulled a lot of things together to make this event such a huge success.

Some big name poker players were involved

You can also look at some of the major names that were involved at the event to get a feel for how big this poker event was. James Dempsey, a player for Team Ivey was on hand, the Sky Poker expert Jen Mason was on hand, Joe Beever was involved and there were some big names from Blackbeltpoker.com in Richard Ashby and Jerome Bradpiece on hand too.

However, despite all of these big poker names being in attendance, it was Nik Stylianou who qualified via a satellite who rose to the top. This saw him clinch $9,000 and this was well deserved after defeating Dan Whittaker in the final showdown. Nik is a 40 year old poker player from the North side of London so if you think that the poker glamour and excitement has passed you by, don’t be too hasty, there could still be an opportunity for you to achieve poker success.

As you can imagine, Nik was very complimentary about the event and the organisation after his win! It is not as if he was going to start bad mouthing the event after he clinched victory but there did appear to be a high level of fun and excitement at this event. There is no doubt that Apers is fast becoming a very popular venue for poker players and this is going to see a lot more poker events in the near future.

As for Nik though, he told Blackbeltpoker.com that he may well give Las Vegas a shot after his triumph. With $9,000 to get him over there or to boost his bankroll, there is going to be a big chance for him to have some fun and see where his poker skills can take him. Playing in satellite events is no guarantee of success and the vast, vast majority of satellite qualifiers fail to make any real mark on the major events. However, we know that all it takes is one day to go in your favour and your life can be positively impacted in a serious way. If you have been thinking about playing satellite events but always decided against it, you may want to rethink your outlook.

While Nik picked up $9,000 for his win, second place went to Dan Whittaker who received $8,500. In third was Jim Parberry, who received $5,700. In fourth position was Mark England, who received $4,600 and fifth place earned $3,600 for Craig Connaughton. In 6th position was Carlo Hassan, who earned $2,750 and in 7th place was George Achillea, who picked up $2,000. Michael Brock was in 8th, earning $1,560 and in 9th spot was Lee Brooke- Pearce who picked up $1,200.

In saying that, it takes a lot of nerve to out your money where your mouth is in these events so there is a huge deal of excitement involved in these events. There is a chance for a life-changing amount of money to be won and of course, if you are paying a huge buy-in figure and continually miss out on any cash return, the time will come rather quickly when there is no real point in playing in the High Roller events.

A High Roller event in Monte Carlo is living the dream

This is not the outcome for one talented UK poker player who managed to grab fifth place at the recent High Roller event at the EPT Monte Carlo. The thought of playing in a High Roller event would be a big draw for some people whereas the notion of playing in Monte Carlo would be a huge draw for some other players. This is why any event that manages to bring them both together is definitely going to be something that poker players really love.

Toby Lewis was the lucky Brit who managed to take fifth position and for his trouble, he managed to earn €232,400. This is an amount of money that most of us would settle on for playing a few hands of poker! Toby may feel bad about only finishing fifth in the big poker event, especially when the fact that the tournament winner Steven Silverman picked up more than €775,000 but you can’t always judge yourself on what other people are doing. The top prize indicates the sort of money that was being played for and it is worth pointing out that there was an agreed split between the top three players. The players coming in second and third, Anthony Gregg and Fadar Kamar both earned €760,000 each!

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.

There were plenty of big name poker players at the event but there was an understandable amount of pressure on Julian Thew. This is because Thew is a Sky Poker player and you always want to do well in the events that are run by the company that is putting money behind you. A failure in these events may lead to your sponsors re-evaluating their promotion of you so Thew would have known that a big display was important for him. Things hardly got off to a great start on Day 1 of the event with Thew holding a short-stack together but by hook or by crook he made it to the second day of the big Dublin event and this is when things can start to come together.

Consistent poker play pays off

Little by little, Thew played a consistent game, which is not something he is always noted for and he managed to battle his way into the final nine poker players that made up the final table. This is where having class and experience can often make a big difference and there was a feeling that Thew had timed his event tremendously. Even with poker players the calibre of Austin Cheetham and Peter Stoneman against him, Thew played aggressively and powered his way to success in the Irish capital.

The Dublin victory gave Thew his second big win at a Sky Poker event. His last triumph for his sponsor came in the glamorous surroundings of Luton back in February 2012. That win saw Thew win £11,200 and you get the feeling he will be looking forward to next month’s big event, which takes place in Birmingham. Birmingham is another city where Thew has managed to triumph in the past, taking a Genting Poker Series Main Event title and he will likely fancy his chances of success again.

The final 9 players at the Sky Poker Dublin event were Rory Brown who grabbed £635 for finishing ninth and Joe Wilkinson who received £775 for coming in 8th. In 7th place was Mark Strachan who received £1,200 and in 6th place was Vera Duffy, who picked up £1,650. In fifth place was Frank Baillie, who managed to pick up £2,120 and in fourth spot was Stephen Freeman, who received £2,920. In third place was Austin Cheetham, who receive £3,550 and in second place was Peter Stoneman, who picked up £4,570. This left Thew out on his own and he picked up £6,600 for winning the Sky Poker Dublin event.

There is no doubt that Neil Raine will be delighted with the money that is on offer. The new GUKPT Stockton champion will hopefully be delighted with the trophy and all of the adulation he will receive for his triumph but you can bet that he will be delighted with picking up £17,690. This was the first prize for the event and this is certainly the sort of poker prize that many players will be interested in playing for. It may not be at the high end of poker prizes but when you think about the size and scope of the event, it is definitely a prize worth taking a look at!

Poker success is a big thrill

After claiming top spot, Neil Raine gave a quick interview to GUKPT where he said;

It was a tough final because we were so deep but I was really lucky with the table draw, Tom was on my table, but he couldn’t do anything because he couldn’t get past me. It was really enjoyable, a really good structure. Three handed was a nightmare it took so long, no one was getting coolered! I had a few hands where my opponent was in front ’til the river and I got there a few times.

Neil was head to head with Dave Collins and the 28 year old poke professional held his nerve to beat his opponent and take home all the glory and the big cheque! This was the first GUKPT title for Raine and it was quite a journey from him. Raine made his way to the final table all the way from a £55 online qualifier. This again should give confidence to players that taking part in satellite events and online qualifiers can provide the perfect starting point for big success at tournaments.

There were a number of major players involved in the GUKPT Stockton Main Event including a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner. Lawrence Gosney was the main trying to snap up more poker glory as was Martin Holmes, who is a GUKPT Leader board champion. Add in the fact that Ellie Biessek, a recent poker winner in Newcastle was involved too and you start to think that there were a lot of big poker names involved in Stockton. Martin Holmes fell by the wayside quite quickly but Lawrence and Ellie were well involved deep into the final day of the event. Ellie was the player that was the final table bubble, which was unfortunate but it allowed every other poker to breathe a sigh of relief.

If the excitement at this GUKPT event has whetted your appetite for the next event, you will be delighted to know that you don’t have to wait too long. This is because the fourth leg of the GUKPT 2013 schedule is heading to Portsmouth at the end of May and will run all the way through until the 2nd of June. The festival of poker in the G Casino will begin on the 26th of May and the Main Event, which is a guaranteed £50,000 Main Event will start on Thursday the 30th of May, which is a Thursday.

Money is definitely a sore point for many people in Ireland at the moment but this makes the notion of playing poker for big money such an appealing thing. You should never play poker to get out of a financial crisis and you should never play poker with money you can’t afford to lose. However, poker is a skill and talent and if you are able to make money through using your skills and talent, it is something that you should look into.

One major poker event that will definitely have people looking forward with great anticipation is the UKIPT Galway Main Event, which is taking place during the Full Tilt Poker Galway festival. This festival is taking place between the 29th of July and the 12th of August, so there is plenty of time to plan ahead for the big event. The UKIPT Main Event will run from the 8th of August and go all the though until the 12th and the action will be taking place in the specially built poker village that will be erected in the centre of Galway.

A whole lot of action and excitement will happen in Galway

There is going to be a big buzz around Galway at this time of year because the Galway Raceweek takes place between the 29th of July and the 4th of August, so you’ll find that there are plenty of people in town looking to take advantage of everything that is on offer. If you love poker, the fact that there will be 55 different poker tournaments spread out over the course of the festival means that there will be something for everyone. Even if the Main Event is out of your reach or a bit too pressured for your liking, there will be plenty of other great games. There will even be the Irish Bridge Masters if you have card skills in games apart from poker!

As you would expect, there are going to be plenty of satellites for this event but with a number of cheap entries available for some of the events, you will find that you can head to Galway and have a lot of fun, even if you aren’t taking part in the biggest events. With a million euros guaranteed in the Main Event, it is inevitable that this game will grab most of the focus but there will be plenty of other great poker games to look out for in Galway at the start of August.

If you like to follow the successes of UK poker players, you will be delighted to know that Jake Cody managed to get into the final table, which meant he was guaranteed some big cash. The lowest ranked player at the final table still managed to walk away with €103,000, which is certainly not a bad return for a few day of poker player. Finishing 8th in a tournament may not be the stuff that dreams are made of but when it brings a take-home amount of more than 100,000 euros, it should be enough to keep players happy.

UK poker is still in the hunt for big prizes

Thankfully, Jake Cody was not in 8th place, he managed to finish in fifth place, which is obviously a whole lot better. If you are the sort of person that likes to look on the glass half empty side of life, there were four players that finished higher than Jake but sometimes in life you have to take what you have been given. The vast majority of poker players in the world would be hugely delighted with a 5th placed finish at an EPT Grand Final and hopefully Jake is feeling rather fine today!

You would hope that the prize money of €251,000 will be enough to ensure that he has a smile on his face. This is a big step up from the 8th placed player so even battling on to get beyond that extra player or two can make a massive difference to the amount of cash that is taken away. Of course, while Jake will be delighted with the amount of money he bagged in Monte Carlo, how do you think Steve O’Dwyer is feeling?

Steve came out on top and he managed to bag himself €1,224,000 which is certainly a prize that would make you feel rather pleased with yourself! This is a huge amount of cash but this is what the top poker players are playing for. Winning a Grand Final at the EPT is going to be something that Dwyer will look back on happily for the rest of his life but picking up over a million euros is also going to be a very pleasant moment in his life!

Jake Cody, the Rochdale poker player is listed as a Triple Crown winner and he is no stranger to poker success. When you have a WSOP bracelet and you have triumphed in an EPT Main Event before, you know you have achieved something in the game but this is far from the only success that Cody can upon. Since 2009, he has been consistently cashing out on a big scale at major poker events and 2013 is no different. Sitting pretty with a lot of chips at the start of the final day is not a bad position to be in but of course, it means nothing until the final reckoning has taken place.

British hopes are still alive

However, it is good to have a UK entrant in the later stages of such a prestigious event. Victoria Coren was the most high profile poker player from the UK in the Main Event and her Twitter messages kept people amused and entertained. However, the TV presenter bombed out before she could venture too far in the tournament. Jake Cody has not been drawing attention to himself in the same manner that Victoria Coren manages to but in the grand scheme of things, he is the one who should have the spotlight thrust upon him now. Cody is currently sat in third place with 1,633,000 chips behind him. This is not a bad amount, the smallest amount of chips at the table is 786,000 but the largest amount of chips at the table is 4,452,000.

This is the amount held by chip leader Steve O’Dwyer, who will definitely consider himself in with a good chance on the final day. However, anything can happen. The fact that the final eight players have such a huge pedigree means that there may be one or two shocks and turnarounds to come. Between the final eight players, just under $40m has been picked up in live tournaments. This goes some way to showing the calibre and experience of players at the final table.

In addition to Cody and O’Dwyer, you will find Andrew Pantling, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier and Grant Levy. This means that poker fans tuning in on Sunday for the final table will be able to see some of their favourite players and some of the biggest names of the poker industry.

However, there will be plenty of Main Events that can take a while to get started. This is especially true for Main Events that have a first day during the week. With a growing tendency to offer more Day 1 poker events, the first day of major tournaments is moving further back into the week away from the weekend. It can be no real surprise when a Thursday Main Event day 1 receives a limited crowd when a Friday Day 1 event is taking place too. It stands to reason that a Friday is more attractive than a Thursday for many people.

A Level 42 of poker entrants

This is why some folk may smirk at the fact that there were only 42 entrants, which includes people who re-entered, for the Thursday Day 1 event. This will leave some people convinced that the GUKPT Stockton event is not going to be a huge success but everyone involved with the organisation of the event appears calm.

There are already 18 players booked through to Day 2 on Saturday and you won’t hear any of these players complaining or worrying about the turnout. Taking the lead in any poker event is a big challenge and regardless of the size of the event, Craig McDowell can take great heart from his performance. He grabbed an early lead and held his position to be the chip leader at the end of the night. McDowell is a familiar face in the poker community in the North East of England and there will be a few folk tipping him to go far in the Main Event. With a guaranteed prize of £50,000 on offer, he will be hoping he does rather well too!

The rest of the top 10 was made up by Mark Harding, Tom Hall, Stephen Sung, Richard Howe, Hamid Rowshanaei, Latif, Darren Knaggs, Nigel Ventre and George Brown. All of these players can look forward to the Day 2 event with confidence.

With Genting casinos up and down the country, the tournaments being put on by the company are certainly rather popular. Knowing the fact that there is a regular chance to play big money poker events outside of London is a great comfort and assurance for everyone. There will even be London based poker players who will appreciate the chance to get out from the capital and to explore what else is available around the country. Okay, the only real chance that people will have time to explore what other locations have is if they get knocked out of the poker event early but that aside, there is a genuine chance for people to have fun with other poker players.

The 2013 Sheffield leg of the Genting Poker Series has a lot to live up to as the 2012 version was a huge success. Well over 500 players took part in the Main Event, which was no mean feat when you consider the buy-in was £400+£40. When you have a lot of players and a strong buy-in amount, you are going to create a strong prize pool and that is exactly what was on offer at the 2012 event. There was £224,800 on offer, a sum of money that will definitely get people involved with a poker event.

A lot of money was played for in Sheffield

The biggest share of this cash made its way to Hasmukh Khodiyara, who came out on top in the Sheffield event. A grand total of £50,000 went to the winner, who defeated Stephen McGrath to claim the top prize and this is exactly what players will be looking to emulate this year. There are going to be plenty of opportunities to get involved with the Main Event and a lot of this is down to the fact that there are going to be 3 starting days for the Genting Poker Series Sheffield Main Event. The first of these will take place on Wednesday the 15th of May with a 1pm start-time. The remaining two first days will take place on Thursday the 16th of May and Friday the 17th of May. These additional first days will also have a 1pm start-time, so this is the time to remember if you are planning on getting involved.

In addition to the Main Event, there are going to be side events at the Genting Poker Series Sheffield festival too. On Tuesday the 14th of May there is a £30+£3 rebuy satellite event for the Main Event. With 10 seats guaranteed, this could be an affordable way to play your way to the big money. If you are more interested in the side-events that are not related to the Main Event, the action begins on Wednesday the 15th of May.

7pm on Wednesday sees the start of a £100+£10 game, which will be for Pot Limit Omaha specialists. There are plenty of UK poker players that consider themselves to be a PLO expert and this may be a great way to play. Each player in this game will start with a stack of 20,000 chips.

If you are more of a No Limit Hold ‘Em player, there are plenty of side-games for you to enjoy. Thursday the 16th of May sees a £100+£10 game where players can win the button! There is a NLHE £150+£15 event spread over Saturday and Sunday and on the final day, there will be a bounty game for players to enjoy too. This is a £50+£25(B)+£10 bounty game, which is kicking off at 3pm on Sunday the 19th of May.

However, with Lock Poker suffering a number of problems of a financial nature, it makes sense for Moorman to cut the links with the company. No doubt he will be in high demand and he should not find it hard to come across a new sponsor who is willing to be associated with him.

Twitter breaks the story yet again

Moorman announced his decision on Twitter, giving this medium a further recommendation and boost for poker players. Being able to keep up to date with the latest and breaking news from top poker players is definitely a great reason to keep up to date with Twitter.

I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and for the sake of online poker their situation is resolved.

The rumours surrounding the demise of Lock Poker have been building and growing stronger for a considerable period of time. There has been worrying talk that UK and European players have had to wait three months to receive their withdrawals. In the United States, the situation is said to be even worse with players having to wait more than five months. Most poker players are willing to show a bit of patience when it comes to receiving poker funds but this length of time is out of order.

It seems as though Moorman also suffered with the financial difficulties that Lock Poker were facing with respect to the benefits he was supposed to receive in his role. It is perfectly understandable that he is keen to look after himself properly and while the demise of Lock Poker is unfortunate, poker players should not feel as though they should put themselves at risk just to help the company out. This is as true for the professional poker stars as it is for the players that enjoy online poker.

Chris Moorman will be okay in breaking away from Lock Poker but the same cannot be said for all of the poker players who may have funds tied up in their account at the moment. It can only be hoped that the company can find a solution for their current cash problems and failing that, they can find a solution that will ensure ordinary poker players do not miss out.

This is why Twitter followers were the first to know the peaks and troughs that Victoria faced in the EPT Final. After having started with 30,000 chips she found herself losing ground and dropped to 11,000 chips! Poker players know that you can turn declines and slides around so there is no need to overly panic about these situations but it is also fair to say that these things can quickly run away from you. While you know that all it takes is a good hand and a bit of fortune to put you back on the right road, a bit of bad luck can also see you run the other way! However, the first update came when Victoria managed to bounce back to 27,000 chips which was quickly followed up an update at dinner. By this point, Coren had managed to reach the grand total of 34,000 chips, which was an improvement on her starting stack and a move in the right direction.

Twitter updates are great for poker fans

It’s clear that Victoria is not your average poker player, a point further emphasised when she came back to the table with a hot chocolate. That is itself is probably different from most players but the fact that she was using a parking ticket as a lid for her coffee definitely stood Coren out from the pack. At the end of the day, she had managed to reach 45,000 in chips and progress to day 2 of the final was assured.

After giving a rather descriptive run-down of her fellow poker players at the table, Coren got stuck in and there was Twitter silence until she was knocked out. There was no great drama or tension to her demise, just a standard win and lose situation in poker and with what, the hopes of taking the big prize or some big money were gone. The event started with 531 players and 268 made it through to day 2 but like so many others, Victoria Coren bust out before things got too interesting. She did sign off for the day with a resolution to go and win the High Rollers event but as always, this may have been laced with a sense of humour!

While following each and every individual poker star can be very time consuming, you can also choose to follow @maxpokerbonus to keep up with the most actual facts about prominent UK poker stars such as Victoria Coren and alike.

Most people have been touched by cancer in one form or another and this cause is one that many people are happy to support. Even if you are not fit enough to get involved with the race, there are plenty of other ways to support the case. PokerStars is getting involved in the event in a serious way this year and Liv will not be the only PokerStars representative running the big event.

Poker star is making a difference

Liv is going above and beyond though because on the same day she runs in the event, she is also taking part in an online poker event in the evening. This may be the best time to try and catch Liv and take her down because she will no doubt be feeling slightly tired after her exertions. The 1st of June is the day when Liv races at Clapham Common and then later on that evening she will be playing online.

The focus by PokerStars comes through Helping Hands, a program that the site has launched recently in order to provide support for communities. There are going to be various charity projects undertaken and the program aims to support many different fundraising activities close to the hearts of employees of PokerStars. It is no great surprise then to learn that the PokerStars Women group announced they would like to support Cancer Research UK and the Race For Life event is the perfect way to do so.

People are more than welcome to run the race under the PokerStars banner and raise even more funds. There is the option to donate to the cause on the PokerStars site and there will be a week of online tournaments, starting with Liv’s event, where proceeds will go towards supporting Cancer Research UK.

For UK and Irish poker players, it is understandable where most of the focus for the forthcoming EPT season will fall. The second event of the season is scheduled for London and this is the one that plenty of players will dream of getting to. There are plenty of European dates that are within easy reach for UK and Irish poker players but it is perfectly understandable that the London date will be the one that stands out from the rest. The festival of poker will begin on the 2nd of October and it will carry all the way through until the 12th of October. This provides plenty of opportunities to get involved with the event and there will be lots of poker players that take the opportunity to have some fun in the capital of England.

A London leg will be looked forward to

The main event of the London EPT event starts on the 6th of October. There is quite a gap between the English stop-off on the EPT and the remaining stops so there will definitely be a lot of players heading to London to help them to bridge the gap.

The season kicks off in Barcelona in late August, which is definitely a great time to be playing poker. Whether you love the sun or you think it is too warm to be outdoors in the Catalan capital at this time of year, hopefully you will be able to make the most of the poker playing opportunity. The first EPT festival of the season begins on the 28th of August and the event carries on until the 7th of September. The Main Event in Barcelona will begin on September the 1st.

After London, attention swings to Prague but this event is not beginning until the 8th of December. This is the date the festival begins but many players will be more interested to learn about the Main Event date, which begins on the 12th of December. The festival continues through until the 18th of December. This is the last event in 2013 with 5 poker events being crammed into the first four months of 2014. If you love poker, you are sure to find an exciting start to the New Year.

The first event gets underway on the 4th of January with the Caribbean Adventure getting the year underway. The Main Event begins on the 5th of January and the festival carries on until the 13th. Up next is the Deauville leg and the Main Event begins the same day as the festival begins, which is the 22nd of January. The tournament concludes on the 1st of February.

Next up is Berlin which begins on the 12th of March, with the Main Event beginning on March the 16th. The festival concludes on the 22nd of the month, leaving a short amount of time to prepare for the Sanremo leg. This festival begins on the 6th of April with the Main Event beginning on the 10th of April. The festival concludes on the 16th of April and there really is no time to draw breath before the Monaco Grand Final!

The Monaco festival kicks off on the 23rd of April with the Main Event starting on the 26th and the festival and the entire season will conclude on the 2nd of May!

However, it would be fair to say that most people would accept that Phil Ivey has a case to stand up for himself and his cash against a famous UK casino. The Crockfords Casino in London, which is owned by Genting is one of the most famous casinos in the country but they are about to become a lot more infamous now. This is down to the fact that Phil Ivey, the man with 9 WSOP bracelets to his name, has sued the casino to get winnings. Ivey believes that he is owed £7.8m from the casino but so far they have refused to pay up. This has seen Ivey and his legal team decide that the only action is to head to court and a suit was filed with the High Court on the 7th of May. The suit relates to winnings that Ivey earned while playing Punto Banco in the casino back in August of 2012.

Massive poker player takes on a big UK casino name

Ivey provided a £1m deposit to the casino before playing, a sum of money which has since been returned. It is believed that Crockfords have carried out a full investigation of the circumstances surrounding the win but have so far been unable to find untoward or suggestions that Ivey may have cheated to earn his money. There is no doubt that Phil Ivey is an immensely talented poker player with enough success behind him to back up his talent and he would be taking a huge risk to his reputation and future earnings if he was to indulge in any unsavoury poker activities. The fact that Punto Banco is a game based on luck as opposed to any skill makes the investigation carried out by Crockfords even stranger!

At one point, Ivey had run up losses of £500,000 but he managed to battle back and then set off on an extremely fortunate run. The fact that Ivey has such a huge bankroll at his disposal allowed him to play his way out of trouble in a way that very poker players would be able to.

In a statement released after the suit had been filed, Ivey indicated that he was very saddened at the decision made by Crockfords and that he felt that he had no choice but to do so. Like most poker players, he has earned money and lost money from Crockfords and indeed Gentings and Ivey pointed out that at any time he had losses, he honoured his commitments.

Whether Ivey is hoping that this move will cause a break from Crockfords which will see him earn money or whether he is hoping to go the full distance, there is a lot more of this story to run.

It is also a great tool to have to follow the top UK poker players and find out what they are up to. Some poker players will focus on their poker activities and will talk about the events they are playing in. Other poker players will give you an insight into life that you may not otherwise get, which is definitely something that is of interest to many people. With celebrity gossip being so important at the moment, having direct access to news about celebrities and famous people is definitely a service that many people would willingly sign up for.

It was Monte Carlo or Bust for Victoria Coren!

If you follow Victoria Coren on Twitter, you will know that she suffered a bit of trouble in her attempts to make it to Monte Carlo for the EPT Final. Thanks to an hour delay on the Eurostar, Victoria missed out on the connecting train to Nice, which was the last one of the day. Some people will say that this was her own fault not building in more lag time for her trip but there are times when people can only do so much to plan ahead.

This left Victoria and her travelling companion Nikhil Persaud, who also has a dislike of travelling, with a problem about how they would get to their destination on time. Staff on the Eurostar said that it was impossible to get to Monte Carlo and so Coren and Persaud found themselves in Toulon with no further trains and a lack of hire cars being available. This led Coren to glibly remark that she may just look for a poker game in Toulon.

Things went a bit quiet as she no doubt set about finding a proper solution as opposed to moaning on twitter and then some good news came through. Coren tweeted late on Monday night that she had made it to Monte Carlo! As she remarked herself, this may have used up all her luck before the tournament begins but every real poker player knows that sometimes you have to make your own luck.

This may have been the rationale behind the decision of Liam O’Brien to enter the Dusk Till Dawn £150 Deepstack event but whatever the reason for his involvement, he will be delighted. This is because O’Brien has become the latest poker player to add his name to the list of winners at this prestigious poker event. He may be a first year student studying philosophy but he had to overcome 363 other players to get to the top of the pack. His skill and talent, not to mention a lot of effort was well rewarded with the £12,435 that he picked up for the first price. That will certainly buy a lot of Jagerbombs when he gets back to the student union and Liam should find that he has a lot more friends on campus when he returns.

A big poker prize pool on offer

The overall prize pool was £54,600 which was higher than what was expected. Given the good weather and the Bank Holiday weekend, not everyone was confident of such a good turnout but it just goes to show that poker is big business these days. There were a number of big name poker players at the event including Colburn Tomlin, Ben Vinson, Maria Demetriou, Mark McCluskey, Mitchell Johnson and Julian Thew.

This success for O’Brien is his second major placing, with the previous big finish coming back in February 2011. This also happened at the Dusk Till Dawn club as O’Brien found his way into the money places at the UKIPT Nottingham Main Event. In an event with more than 1,000 players involved, O’Brien finished in 86th place. It wasn’t a huge cash prize but it gave him some money and no doubt boosted his confidence. This recent triumph will definitely go a long way to providing O’Brien with the chance to make some real money and develop his poker game.

This is because the ISPT have made a number of announcements about their big poker tournament that is bound for Wembley at the end of May.

The payout structure of the event is already announced and there are a number of alternatives available on site, allowing you to calculate how much you will earn for a specific finish depending on how many players sign up for the poker action. There are five separate payout structures listed on the official ISPT site, informing players of how much money they can receive if there are 1,000 players, involved, 1,250 players involved, 1,500 players involved, 1,750 players involved or 1,852 players involved. The more players involved, the more money there will be on offer, which makes perfect sense.

There is a guaranteed million up for grabs

If there is a limited turnout and there are only 1,000 players involved in the game, the winner should expect to receive £1m but this is down to the fact that there will be an added amount to the winner’s prize fund. The winner of the event should expect to see 20% of the pot and for 1,000 players, this would only amount to 540,000 euros. However, with the guaranteed 1 million prize being a major component of this event, it is no surprise to see that the winner gets a big boost to the amount of money that they will receive. This means that it doesn’t matter how many people turn out for the major ISPT event, the winner is going to be a very happy person indeed.

The great news is that half of the players who take part in the live event will receive some money for playing in the event. The thrill of being at Wembley should be more than enough to excite some players but the fact that there is a genuine chance of making some cash should go a long way to cheering some poker players up and providing a strong incentive to get involved with the fun and excitement that will be on offer at Wembley.

A prize of 540 euros may not seem like the biggest return but with 500 players from an original starting number of 1,000 bagging this prize, there is definitely a big incentive to get on with the poker action at Wembley Stadium. If over 1,800 players take part in the event, there will be 900 or more players earning this amount of money which goes a long way to making this huge poker event something that stands out from the crowd.

The make-up of the tournament is such that deals are going to be allowed at the final table so there may be a slight downscaling for the eventual winner but at least they know that they will be guaranteed a certain amount. While some poker players are unhappy at the thought of making a deal at the final table, there are plenty of players that appreciate the chance to have a guaranteed amount for finishing in the final few places.

By the event got underway, there were 14 players involved and with Willie Thorne and Barry Hearn being the only major name snooker representatives at the tables, you would have hoped for them to have lasted quite a while. After all, one of the big reasons for the event was to blend the world of snooker and poker together but sadly this was not to be the case. The first player out of the event was Willie Thorne. He may be a snooker legend with a lot of praise for his work in the game over the years but it seems as though Willie doesn’t have the poker skills to match up to his snooker talent. He took an early exit, leaving 13 players still in the hunt for the top prize.

Barry Hearn burst on the bubble

Hearn at least managed to battle his way into the final table though, being sat at seat number eight in the final table of 10. There was to be less fortune for him though because he was the player that bubbled. You can bet there would have been a few cheers at Barry exiting but the fact that his demise meant that all of the remaining players got to take home some cash was definitely a large part of the noise and excitement.

The player that managed to grab third place Paul Grice, had a great story to tell. Paul battled through the competition with an online qualifier which cost him £4.20. In the end he managed to take home with £1,350 which was more than enough to justify his taking part in the competition. In the end, the event was won by Tom Hall, who also had some success at the GUKPT event in Didsbury. He has a final table player at that event so he would have been delighted to go further and clinch success here. This will work wonders for a poker player’s confidence but there is also the fact that Hall managed to earn £3,300 for his efforts. The second placed prize was £2,020 and it went to Rob Cook.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that the main reason for the event was to raise funds and support for the Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and £1,125 was raised for the cause, which was the important aspect.

The ISPT Wembley event really gets underway on Friday the 31st of May and it continues all the way through until the 5th of June. This is the second stage of the event though with the first stage being underway already. Anyone looking to make money at the big event but doesn’t want to pay the big fees will know that there are satellite events already up and running, which can help to lower the cost of playing poker games. In addition to the online satellite events, there are also live satellite events at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker club so there is a genuine chance for lots of players to play their way through.

Day 2 action is important

This means that Day 1 players can make their way to Day 2 but there is also an opportunity for players to buy a direct buy-in to Day 2. This will be available at €2,700+€300 and all of these players will have an average poker stack of 50,000 chips. The two Day 2 events will take place on Friday the 31st of May and Saturday the 1st of June. Anyone that busts out on the Friday will have the chance to re-enter on Saturday, Day 2B where again, the buy-in stands at €2,700+€300 and will provide a chip stack of 50,000.

Day 3 gets underway at midday on Sunday the 2nd of June, Day 4 takes place on Monday the 3rd of June, it will come as no surprise to learn that Day 5 will be on Tuesday the 4th of June and then it rolls onto the 5th of June. This is the Wednesday and it will be the Grand Final where some poker player will win a minimum of €1m.

There isn’t even a Wembley spot up for grabs in the FA Cup final with Manchester City having a Champions League place sewn up and Wigan getting an automatic Europa League spot on the back of City’s league placing. This means if you want a Wembley event with a real Euro focus, you will need to look towards the Champions League final or the ISPT event where one lucky poker player will walk away with a million euros! That is certainly the sort of prize that will help to build a warm feeling to the European Union!

The latest move looks sets to hit UK online gamers and of course, this means that poker players will be in line for some changes. It is hard to be overly critical of the current UK gaming legislation because you only have to look at the problems poker players around the world face but that doesn’t mean that things are perfect in the UK. Things are okay, they could definitely be better but it seems as though things may be getting bit worse in the near future.

This is down to the fact that some major changes to the 2005 Gambling Act have been made by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee. This is a committee with a lot of influence so what they say is likely to have a big impact on what actually happens.

A controversial tax change is never going to be a popular move

A big change that could be on the cards, and it is certainly one that is controversial, is the fact that the location of online poker players will be the basis for the taxation of online gaming sites as opposed to where the sites are licenced. This will mean that poker sites which are currently viewed as being operated from off-shore will find themselves having to pay a rate of tax that is linked to UK players. This is going to cost many poker rooms, sites and companies a lot of money so you can see that not everyone is going to be too happy about this. The committee has already agreed with this legislation in principle which means that it will be going forward in the full process.

There may be some benefit though in the fact that there is a thought that the proposed 15% level on revenue from gross gaming is too high. While the Government needs to look to bring money in from online poker play, no one would argue too strongly with that, there is a need to ensure that sites can still generate a profit. If sites can’t make a profit, they will close, poker players will lose their favourite site and then less money will come. This always needs to borne out by the decision makers and there is hope that sense will be seen in this area.

Online poker sites, rooms and players will be watching on intently to see how they are affected by any possible changes.

This means that every poker player should have hopes and ambitions of being a big winner at this event. There is £1m guaranteed for the winner and with the backing and patronage of the Dusk Till Dawn group, there is a lot of confidence about this event. This was not always the case and people were right to be wary or cautious about the event going ahead but now it is full steam ahead for poker at Wembley Stadium.

Play early to reach Wembley

If you love the idea of being a Wembley winner but can’t justify the cost of getting involved, you should always be on the lookout for satellite events. These are a great way to play your way to a huge poker prize without spending too much and on Sunday the 5th of May, there is a genuine opportunity for poker players to book their trip to Wembley Stadium.

The Poker 770 site is running a number of satellite events where the top 10% of each day will make their way to Wembley. Sunday the 5th of May, at 6pm, sees Day 1D begin and time is starting to run out to play your way to Wembley via a satellite game. After Sunday, there will only be two satellite events, Sunday the 12th of May and Sunday theh 19th of May to book your spot so you may as well make plans this weekend.

Today in the football, you have Hull and Watford battling it out to win automatic promotion to the Premier League, sparing them from taking a trip to Wembley in the play-offs. However, on Sunday, poker players get the chance to battle it out to make that trip to Wembley!

However, if you do have a free pass this weekend and you want to make the most of your weekend, how about heading to Stockton on Sunday? This may not seem like the best way for you to spend your time this weekend, or any weekend but it may just be the start of the best few poker days of your life. You should know that the GUKPT has been serving up some fantastic poker tournaments and events of late and the next event is upon us, starting this Sunday.

Get ready to play for Main Event seats

The opening poker event of the GUKPT Stockton schedule will take place on Sunday, the 5th of May. The game is a £30+£5 NLHE re-buy satellite event. This seems like a casual start to the big poker action but the fact that there will be a minimum of 10 seats on offer of the Main Event of the GUKPT schedule has to make it worthwhile. There will be other satellite events taking place during the week but that may not fit with your schedule. Getting in early on Sunday may be the best for for your free time and there is also the fact that once you have booked your seat, you can sit back and relax while all the other players sweat it out in their attempts to join you. Taking the pressure off of qualification at an early stage can really help you to look forward to an event.

All of the satellite events that will be taking place during the week will be leading towards to the big GUKPT Stockton Main Event. This event is a £500+£50 event and will take place over three days. The guaranteed prize pool for the event is £50,000 but if it turns out to be a popular event, there could be more money to play for. However, there is no doubt that even if the guarantee stays as it is, it will be a big step on from last year when the guaranteed prize pool was £36,500. This is still a decent poker prize but you would always choose to play for £50,000 as opposed to play for £50,000.

Last year there were 73 entrants battling it out for that prize and this year you can be confident that this figure will be higher. There has been a great level of interest in the GUKPT event this season and more players are taking an interest. The players this season will be looking to emulate the success of Allan Peers. This is because it was Peers who triumphed in the final last year, taking home £11,000. The winner of the GUKPT Stockton Main Event 2013 can rest assured that they will pick up more than £11,000 for their efforts.

There are also going to be plenty of side events for players who get knocked out or who would rather focus on the other games. The Main Event may be too daunting for some players whereas others may not wish to spend the money required to get involved. Regardless, there will be something for everyone at the GUKPT Stockton event and the poker action starts on Sunday if you are keen to make a fast start.

The Hippodrome in London has been the venue for some cracking poker games and tournaments of late, welcoming the UKIPT, the EPT and even the UKIPT. This Bank Holiday weekend, it throws open its doors to the Spring Classic, which is sure to be another smashing event for London poker players. There will be 2 Day 1’s giving you more flexibility to look out for, and even a safety net if you fail to get through on your first attempt! The fact that there will be a £30,000 prize pool on offer at the Spring Classic is definitely going to be of interest to players.

Poker players love a big event

This is the sort of money that will surely see players flock to this venue in a massive tourist district of London. The buy-in for the event is £250+£25 which is hopefully going to be affordable for many poker players. However, if it is slightly out of your reach and budget, there is a satellite event taking place on Friday afternoon. This satellite event has a buy-in of £40+£2.50 which is much more affordable.

Day 1A takes place on Friday evening at 7pm while Day 1B takes place on Saturday at 2pm. As for the Sunday, the Spring Classic Day 2 starts at 2pm and goes all the way through until we have a winner. This is bound to be a cracking weekend of poker and will hopefully give you a chance to hone your skills, win some money and enjoy yourself.

However, you don’t have to go all the way to London to get the best of poker because the popular Dusk Till Dawn club in Nottingham has plenty on offer this weekend too. This is because the £150 Deepstack event is taking place and there will be a £50,000 guaranteed prize pool on offer. There was an online satellite event taking place on Thursday night, classed as Day 1A. Friday was Day 1B and Saturday will be Day 1C of the event. All of the action is just building until Sunday though where Day 2 of the DTD £150 Deepstack starts at 2pm.

The crime took place over 16 years ago when the pair were living in Colorado and there must have been times when Marcus felt he had gotten away with his act. There is always an opportunity for justice though and so it proved. Marcus who is currently 49 years old murdered his wife Sabrina, who was 31 years old at the time of her death but it wasn’t until a skull was discovered in a national park in the US back in 2004 that the case started to move forward. Even then, it wasn’t until 2009 that Bebb-Jones was arrested in England for the crime. The prosecutors in the US made the claim that after Bebb-ones killed his wife; he made his way to Las Vegas where he ran up huge debts on the credit cards which were in his wife’s name. In court some of his spending was detailed and it included the rental of a Ferrari, designer brand clothing and prostitutes.

Poker success is no mark of a man

There was an attempted suicide in a hotel room which failed and Bebb-Jones then decided to leave the US and he returned to the United Kingdom with his son. It was upon his return to the UK that he became a regular player on the poker circuit with a high profile triumph at the Grosvenor Grand Prix event which took place back in 2007. Bebb-Jones picked up £90,000 for this win.

In court, Bebb-Jones made a statement to the family of his wife, saying;

I didn’t intentionally kill Sabrina, but what I did do was wrong and I ask for your forgiveness.

The family of Sabrina was in no mood for leniency and they implored the judge to impose the maximum sentence possible. A statement written by Sabrina’s father was read out in court by her brother, Mike Dang.

This terrible man. He took her life; he took our grandson away and our daughter for no reason.

Real Madrid almost had a Super Tuesday this week but they just failed to overcome their first leg deficit and this means that Borussia Dortmund clinched their place at the big Wembley final later on this month. This is something that plenty of poker players will be looking to emulate with the Dusk Till Dawn backed International Stadium Poker Tour event heading for Wembley at the end of May. There was great success this week though and two British poker players managed to grab over $100,000 between them for their play on the Super Tuesday game.

Big poker success playing for big money

The $1,050 buy-in of the PokerStars Super Tuesday event is certainly eye-watering but it managed to draw 541 people to the game. This clearly means that there is a market for this sort of event and the fact that there was a prize pool of $541,000 on offer shows you that there was something special to play for. Whatever else you do with your time on a Tuesday night, it is not likely to be as exciting or as thrilling as this poker game!

Amongst the final 9 players were two UK players so they knew they were in the running to make big money. The smallest amount lined up for the final table was just under $9,000. This would be a big drop from what the winners would expect to get but it would still represent a healthy return for the initial investment and the time spent playing poker.

Going into the final table, the chips leader was David Emmons, who is known as "Betudontbet" online and he held 570,808 chips. In the third position at the table was one British player, "route666" who held 220,383 chips and in the fifth position around the table was Goldenboys, who held 320,280 chips.

For once, the chip leader going into the final table held on for victory and David Emmons grabbed a whopping $92,265 for his trouble. There was real UK success in second place though as "Goldenboys" found himself taking home $86,265 for a second place finish. The other UK player, route666 finished back in sixth place but this still earned a respectable $22,992.50. Both players grabbed the sort of financial return that most players could only dream of when playing poker and it remains to be seen how all their other Tuesdays this year rank against Super Tuesday.

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!

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.

Of course, Sunday online poker is boosted by the fact that there are so many great online poker events and tournaments to choose from. There is a wide range of online poker sites providing a fantastic range of poker events for players and many with big money up for grabs. This is definitely a huge incentive to make no other plans for your Sunday because you could be in line to win a sum of money that could see you start Monday with a massive smile on your face.

Go for the big money and you may just get lucky

You may be thinking that this is a little far-fetched but it happened to one UK player at the weekend so the bar has been raised once again. You have to remember that someone has to win these events and you have to be in it to win it. The odds may be stacked against you but sometimes that is the majesty of poker. This is definitely what David Vamplew will be thinking after his big weekend success. There were a number of Irish and UK success stories to come from Sunday but picking up $61,457 deserves to be the main story and Vamplew, or “david1213” as he is known as online is clearly smiling now! The event was the PokerStars $225,000 Guaranteed Sunday Rebuy event.

One of the interesting things about the win was the fact that there was no agreement made at the final table to split the cash. There were some big step ups in money so the fact that no agreement could be reached meant that Vamplew was a huge winner. This could have worked against him but sometimes fortune favours the brave and this was definitely a daring and deserved success. Vamplew has had some notable success in his poker career, including a EPT London win and this was also his second biggest online cash success, meaning he has achieved even more than what he earned on Sunday.

If you think you have the poker skills to pay the bills, it is time to step up to the plate and show that you can mix it with the big boys. You just never know, you could earn a huge sum of money for doing so when it comes around to poker time on Sunday.

This is definitely something that many poker players will live by which makes you think just how good an idea this is. It may be that one or two drinks will loosen you up, helping you to make bolder decisions, which can often be the key to poker success. However, there is a very thin line between playing boldly and playing recklessly and it can be difficult to know exactly when to stop in this regard. It is even more difficult because on different days, there will be different limits for a person. One weekend you may be completely confident but still in control after three drinks but on another weekend, it may be that your second drink is the one that cause you to drop your inhibitions which can lead to bad decision making.

Keep a clear head for poker

If you think that this is something that just affects the millions of home poker players around the world, think again. One of the best UK poker players Sam Trickett has been going on about the exact same situation on his twitter account and it seems as though Sam has the same problems as many of us. You know what it is like on a Friday or Saturday night when you’ve had a couple of drinks and you’ve staggered home.

It can be all too easy to fire up your computer or laptop and play a few rounds of online poker. The next thing you know you have fallen asleep and when you wake you find that you have lost an awful lot of money by playing drunk! Sam admitted that he was going out for a few drinks at the weekend and he made sure that one of the last things he did before heading out the house was to cash out from his account to ensure he never lost the money had spent a lot of time building up.

This came on the back of a previous night out when the decision to play drunk backfired on Sam! We all have different tolerance levels to alcohol but when one of the best poker players in the UK at the moment is admitting that alcohol is not a good thing for his play, it should be something that plenty of other poker players should consider. The message of “don’t drink and drive” is an important one but perhaps “don’t drink and play poker” should be another message to live by too!

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.

It is no doubt annoying to go out at this stage when the action is really starting to heat up but for UK poker player James Mitchell, there was a lot to be grateful for in his 9th placed finish at the EPT Berlin High Roller game. When you play in a high roller event, you know that there is big money on the table and for his ninth placed finish, James received €54,900. This is not a bad return for playing some poker hands and any disappointment felt by James for not pushing on further would have been tempered by the big cash amount he heads home with.

To the victor the spoils

Of course, the real financial prize goes to the winner and the EPT Berlin High Roller 2013 champion was Griffin Benger from Canada. Benger is a Team Ivey poker player and he received €429,000 for winning the event. This is definitely a prize that is well worth celebrating but there is no doubt that James Mitchell can take a lot of confidence and cash from his cracking Berlin performance.

This latest triumph continues the fine run of form that James has been in since 2012 where he has managed to clock up a great run of cash wins and high prizes. It is not always possible to win big poker events but finishing strongly and consistently is always going to be the mark of a good player. The first success James achieved in 2012 came at the EPT Deauville event in February.

It was the €2,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em game and a 19th position saw a prize of over $8,000 making its way to the UK. This was followed by two money finishes at the 43rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) event in Las Vegas. A 283rd finish in a $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em game may only have brought about a prize of $1,942 but a lower finish garnered a much higher prize in the $10,000 World Championship No Limit event. James may have finished in 508th place but this saw him bag $24,808. The last big money win for 2012 for James came at the Fox Poker Club in their October Main Event where a 9th placed finish in the £400 No Limit Hold ‘Em game saw James pick up $1,052.

The first success in 2013 came once again at the EPT Deauville event where a 12th placed finish in the €5,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em game saw a prize of $53,193 picked up. On the 1st of April 2013, there was no fooling James as he finished 4th at the Genting Poker Big Game and this saw him bag $12,987. Earlier this month, the bwin WPT National event in Marbella saw James finish 21st in the € 1,500 No Limit Hold ‘Em game where grabbed $4,629 for his troubles.

With millions of poker players all over the world desperate to take part in an event like this one, let alone reach the final table, there is a lot for James Mitchell to be proud of. Hopefully the UK poker player can continue his fine run of form and his money winning abilities for the rest of the year.

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.

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.

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.

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!

With so many players out of the running for the huge €880,000 that was up for grabs in the Main Event, there was a lot of time to kill and plenty of others looking to kill it. In fact, there were 237 players who got around to taking part in a €2,000 turbo side event. The huge numbers in the event ensured that there would be a prize pool of €450,000 on offer and the winning poker player would be able to pick up €131,000. As second prizes go, this is definitely one that most players would be able to console themselves with.

There is no shame in second place

With so many players involved, getting to the final table wasn’t as turbo charged as some of the players would have liked but there were some big names through to the final table and as the table progressed, UK player Chris Moorman was looking good although Rhys Jones, another UK poker player was in contention. Sadly Jones was bounced out in fourth place but this finish saw him pick up €32,000 for his troubles.

At this point, Moorman was the leading poker player left in the event and in the heads up many would have felt that he was in with a brilliant shout but sadly he was facing a poker player who didn’t know the meaning of the word defeat and was winning every all-in. This meant that Moorman finished second once again although hopefully the prize of €70,000 was enough to make sure that he was still in a great mood for the time he spent at the side event.

Can poker match the excitement of the other events?

Players are now on the lookout to find ways to get to Wembley without spending too much money. This is fairly understandable and with the FA Cup finalists known and surely the two German sides heading to Wembley, poker players want to get their names booked in as early as possible. Manchester City and Wigan got the job done in their respective semi-finals and you have to say that the demolition job carried out by Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund over two of the biggest names in the football world in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final should suggest that it will be an all German final at Wembley. Stranger things have happened in football and Real Madrid have got an away goal to their name but it looks as though all the football spots for the Wembley days are filled.

If you fancy getting involved at Wembley, you will be delighted to hear that Dusk Till Dawn are running a number of freerolls to get players to the event. There will be a special event on Monday the 6th of May where there will be 10 day one seats for the International Stadiums Poker Tour event up for grabs. You have to be in it to win it as they say and having the chance to even play poker at the famous old stadium is definitely something that is worth looking out for. You just never know where some luck and skill may take you and with a €1m prize on offer at the end of the Wembley event, it is definitely something that is well worth having a go for.