The GUKPT leg 4 heads for Manchester

Saturday 18th April sees the start of over a week of poker at the G Casino in Manchester,  as leg 4 of the GUKPT gets underway.

A £100 2 day event will kick off the week, with the £1000 buy-in main event starting on St Georges day thursday April 23rd. Various tournaments will be going on this week with the £250 PLO scheduled for wednesday 22nd at 20.00 and other events ranging from £100 up to £300 will be on offer all week .

2 of the big Britsh players may not be in attendance, as John Tabatabai thinks that it may clash with other commitments, and Neil Channings hectic schedule may force him out of this one also.

Building a Poker Bankroll – 3% per day

Building a bankroll in poker, or any of form of gambling, can be a daunting task. Just how did these super high stakes players make their millions? Have they been incredibly lucky? Is it all down to skill or playing 16 tables at once? Well, the answer might be “yes” to some of the questions. However, some players are “grinders” who have built their bankroll up slowly and steadily each day over a long period of time.

Variance plays a huge part in poker. We’ll all suffer losing days no matter how well we play. However, things do average out over time and if we assume we can increase our poker bankroll by just 3% each day then things will be looking pretty impressive after only a year!

Glynn takes the Grosvenor £100 freeze-out

Just 35 players turned out on sunday 12th April for the Grosvenor £100 freeze-out, including 2 of the top 4 from last weeks £100 game at the Circus. Sindhu, last weeks 4th place, and Andy Higginson last weeks winner both turned up trying to repeat the performance that netted each of them over £2000  the previous week.  Johnny (texas) houston and other midlands players also made the journey up the M6 to take part in the Grosvenor easter game in Stoke-On-Trent, With the added prize money in the pot,  £4500 was there for the taking.

   A 15k starting stack with blinds at 25-50 made for a great game, with plenty of play. Early on we saw Nathan Hulme going all in on a flop of A-10-A, to get just 1 caller, Nathan turned over A-8 for the set, his opponent shows 10-10 for the boat and Nathan sailed to the rail. Dale (bunny) Leighton, soon joined him after a 2-5-6 flop had everyone checking, a 9 on the turn and a 9 on the river had Leighton pushing all in ,to be called by the big blind who had 3-4 and slow played the straight to perfection. The final table was called at 01.40am and by 02.10 we had just 7 players left. A deal was struck so that each player was rewarded well for their efforts, which was just as well because the very next hand had Richie Duka pushing all in, a call from Chris Lowe, and the cards were flipped over . Duka had A-A, Lowe had Qs-4s a flop of 10s-6s-2h had them both sweating, the turn was the Jd, and the river  3S giving Lowe the flush , and Duka a place on the rail. Lowe continued his one man assault on the table, taking blinds at every opportunity. It came to a conclusion with lowe and Rees heads up, they had already done a deal to split the remaining funds, but played it out to a finsh with rees finding the extra gear at just the right time, to take the winners spot and the 1st prize of £1200.

1st Glynn Rees

2nd Chris Lowe

3rd J Austin

4th Kim Jagger

5th Sean Perry

6th Craig Wildman

7th Richie Duka

Christer Johansson wins €600,000 first prize at the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open.

Christer Johansson today won the paddypowerpoker.com Irish Open, winning a first prize of €600,000. The 39-year old Swede is a well-known online cash game specialist who plays under the handle ‘sendmemore’. Johansson triumphed over a professional-heavy field of 700 players, including such stars as Dan Harrington, Jamie Gold, Phil Laak, Marty Smyth, Ciaran O’Leary and Neil Channing.

TV presenter and former model Kara Scott finished in second place, taking home €312,600, with Andrew Pantling receiving €205,200 for third place and Antanas Gueorguiev winning €163,300 for finishing fourth. Lee Brooke-Pearce (€130,600), William Kassouf (€100,800), Bradley Verburg (€74,600), Andy Bradley (€56,000) and Irishman Philip Baker (€37,400) finished in fifth through ninth places respectively.

Sixteenth place finisher Marcel Koch became paddypowerpoker.com’s €100,000 Sole Survivor by outlasting more than one hundred other paddypower.com online qualifiers, winning a prize package worth €100,000.

The tournament began on Friday, April 10th and featured a total prizepool of €2,240,000. The buy-in for the tournament was €3,500 and 72 players made the money. A live webcast and comprehensive updates were available throughout the weekend on the official Irish Open blog, with the tournament scheduled for broadcast on TG4 (Ireland) and ITV4 (UK) during May and June.

Final Table in the Irish Open

We are down to the final 8 players in the Irish open, play stopped at 23.00 last night with the  remaining 8 due to return at 14.00 today. Sky Poker presenter Kara Scott is still well in with a shout, and has been the only lady left in the tournament for some time.

( seats and chips )

Seat 1. Lee Brooke-Pearce 998,000

Seat 2. Andrew Pantling 2,286,000

Seat 3. Andrew Bradshaw 351,000

Seat 4. Kara Scott  701,000

Seat 5. William Kassouf  569,000

Seat 6. Bradley Verberg 217,000

Seat 7. Christer Johansson 906,000

Seat 8. Atanas Gueorguiv 990,000.

Although the main event had concluded for the day, the €1,500 side event was well under way with the top prize of €98,000, the likes of  (Mad ) Marty Wilson, Julian Thew, Dave Colclough and Neil Channing were all there trying to get 1 of the top 24 places being paid.

64 left at the end of Day 2 of the Irish Open

Just 64 players remain at the end of day 2, and it couldnt be closer. The 3 players at the top of the leader board have just 1400 chips between them with the top 2 locked on 283500. Andy Bradshaw and Lee Brooke-Pearce share the lead with Andrew pantling so close , he is just 1400 behind! All now in the cash, after an intense hand for hand session at 22.45 any one of a number of players could have gone out on the bubble, alas that honour fell to the unlucky Ronald O`Hara. As O`Hara left the playing area he couldnt help but hear the cheers of  jubilation, and the sight of hugs and backslapping of the remaining 72 players.

Hand of the day saw Keith McDonald push all in on a flop of 2c-9s-7d with pocket jacks only to find a caller in Graham Masters with pocket 9s, Masters had flopped a set and as the dealer burnt the card before the turn Masters fear stricken voice bellowed ” no jack” the 6h fell to the table, another burn card and again ” no jack” as the all important river was turned over Ks, a roar of  approval from Masters, and a sigh of “sick” from McDonald and Masters had taken a mammoth pot of just over 100k.

€2.2 Million prizepool for the Irish Open

As the Irish Open got underway today, a staggering €2.2 Million was in the prize pool, with prizes ranging from €3,200 for 72nd place, to a massive €600,000 for the winner. 700 players sat down to play what is to be the finest field ever to grace the Irish poker scene. Lots of UK interest including  John Tabatabai, Neil Channing, Dave Colclough and Julian Thew to name but a few, all of which are above average at this stage. Early on in the competition we saw Dan Harrington push all in on a flop of  Qh-Jh-2h to find a caller in Donnacha O`Dea, Harrington turns over Q-Q for a set of Qs, O`Dea shows J-J for a set of Js.  3d on the turn and 2s on the river and and Harrington takes a double up in the 74th hand.Littlewoods sponsored  Michael Greco was having fun with Liam Flood , Greco had raised on 2 separate occasions, only to see  Flood re-raise, on the 3rd occasion Greco says ” you re-raise me this time and i`m going nowhere” Flood giggles as he passes his cards and says ” i only do it with kings!”  So a bit of banter going on and  at the 11pm  break we have 473 players left, and a quick chip count sees Phil Laak on 40k along with Jamie Gold, Juha Helppi 34k Dave Colclough 35k  Neil Channing 23k and Julian Thew on 23k also. Rolande de Wolfe is finding things tough with a stack of just over 4k. As we head towards the final stages of day 1, Michael Greco bows out of the competition, an all in from Greco with 9-10 Diamonds was quickly called by A-J spades 2 spades came on the flop and with the 6 of spades on the turn Greco`s Dublin dream was over. So just 5 minutes of day 1 left and just over 400 runners, 60% of the original field will be back for the 2nd day to try and edge a little closer to that €600,000 1st prize.

Phil Black Belt and Boots

He may be renowned for his eccentric personality and impromptu press-ups, but this May, Phil ‘Unabomber’ Laak will be deadly serious as he swaps hoodie and sunglasses for camouflage attire and braces himself for a weekend of hardcore poker drills.

Taking place on Saturday May 16 and Sunday, May 17, 2009 at the Loose Cannon Sports Club in London, Black Belt Poker are proud to announce their  first ever live boot camp in  which US superstar Phil Laak will be sharing his pearls of poker wisdom and revealing some of those secrets that have helped him become a titan of the green baize.

With almost $1.5 million in tournament winnings including a WPT invitational title, multiple WSOP final tables and a £150,000 win in the 2005 William Hill Grand Prix, Laak is regarded as one of the game’s most talented players, and has even enjoyed a spell on the highly acclaimed cash game show, High Stakes Poker.

Joining Laak at the Boot Camp will be Black Belt Poker founders and established poker pros Neil Channing and Nik Persaud, as well as Nick Wealthall who will be on hand to deal out his trademark witty banter as prestigious host of the weekend.

Tickets for the Boot Camp are selling at £700 and will include food, drink and two night’s accommodation. What’s more, a tournament will be staged on the Saturday evening in which participating players will fight it out for a $5,000 Vegas package including flight, accommodation and entry into a $1,500 WSOP event of their choosing.

There will be limited space on the Boot Camp, so for your chance to work closely with some of the game’s leading pros, be sure to register your interest at bootcamp@blackbeltpoker.com.

For more information regarding Black Belt Poker, please visit the review page at blackbeltpoker.com and be sure to check out the site when it launches on Monday, April 27,

New Welsh APAT Champion

The APAT tour hit Cardiff last weekend, with a staggering 160 lucky players taking their seats. All the seats for the event sold out in the first few minutes of going on sale. The eventual spoils landed in the lap of Solihull raider Simon Auckland, who`s record breaking 4th final table ended in victory over local lad James Davenport. A very tough final began with some great play and ended when Auckland snatched the title from Davenport. In the final hand Davenport flopped middle pair and all the chips found their way into the middle. Davenport was outdrawn on the river, though, where Auckland hit a flush.