Manchester’s £500 Main Event was won by Lee Atherton for £9,080 with Pravin Khilosia as runner-up and Ash Hussain third, while the bumper buy-in in London (£750) may have contributed to its 134 runner field – one of the best at any Summer Series.

Coming out on top at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino was Michalis Andreas Michael who took the top prize of £27,500 out of the £100,500 total prize pool, while Robert Angood received £20,250 for 2nd and David Lloyd £15,360 for third.  Fourth spot Jamil Ogunmakinwa, too, received an even five figures (£10,000), the final table on Bank Holiday Monday bringing the Summer Series as a whole to a thrilling conclusion.

Side events in Manchester began with a £200 NL Hold’em freezeout on the 26th August, Pravin Khilosia beating a pretty respectable 75 other players to win nearly £5,000, a warm-up for his Main Event run to heads up.  The buy-in grew and the field shrank for the following event, the £300 freezeout, but the top prize of £4,280 gave winner Alli Mallu a decent return on investment and yet another injection of GUKPT ranking points, settling him even more comfortably in the top position.  Manchester’s players came back in force for the £100 NL Bounty freezeout at the end of the week, and Christopher Nicol took 1st place and £1,780, just pipping the seemingly unstoppable Mallu to yet another top spot.

Rewind a few days to Monday 23rd August, when London hosted its first Summer Series event: 123 players took a shot at the £300 NL Hold’em freezeout generating a prizepool just shy of £40k.  £9,000 of it went to Pratik Ghatge who was the first winner at the Vic.  He was followed by Patryk Slusarek who won the £200 NL Hold’em rebuy, and Peter Huggard who won the £200 NL Hold’em freezeout version.  London also featured a £500 NL Hold’em side event, which ordinarily would be the price tag on the main, and which brought 100 players to the felt.  Chun Law topped the results list on this one, chopping up the top spots with Matthew Moss (the monetary winner), Arkady Kielman and Martin Davis.

The final warm-up event in London was a £300 Pot Limit Omaha Double-chance freezeout, which brought in 50 players and gave winner Jonas Ovestad a prize of £4,960, with Ian Grier coming in second and Alan Vinson third.  After the dust settled on the Main Event’s second day, again a £100 Bounty freezeout concluded the Series, and 119 players went after each other’s scalps until only Ergun Macit remained (the final bounty being that of Nicolas Ekkesies).

You can find results from this and all other GUKPT events at www.gukpt.com, as well as check out the standings for the Leaderboard and view the qualifiers for the Champion of Champions Event (all Summer Series event winners join this exalted selection).

Next up on the GUKPT calendar, a gently repositioned Brighton GUKPT (Leg 7) to be held at the Grosvenor Casino from the 4th-10th October.  More side action than you can shake a stick at ( GUKPT Brighton Schedule ), plus the £1,000 Main Event with two flights on the same day (Friday 8th October) at 12pm and 6:30pm.

Remember that this leg still has its Early Bird Bonus – be one of the first 20 players to register on the cardroom and the £70 registration fee is free!

Take advantage of this offer by signing up now at https://www.gcasino.com/poker – the Brighton Main Event is found in the lobby under ‘Land Based’>GUKPT>Brighton M/E 1A/1B.

229 players won seats online, found last minute tickets in Luton super-satellites or paid £1,000 the old fashioned way to take their chances at the felt this weekend, and just ten were still there at the start of play on Sunday.  Chip leader Neil Channing had a couple of players hot on his heels stackwise – George White, Keith Johnson and Ricky Mackintosh, but the table divide between the haves and the have-nots became apparent quickly.  With just 10% of Channing’s starting chips, Victor Ilyukhin had to move early and unfortunately for him it was to the rail in 10th place (although with £4,000).

There were two players making their impressive fifth GUKPT final table here, but neither of them made it much further, Jeff Kimber falling 9th and Joe Grech 8th – both of them running into different opponents’ pocket Aces to leave the final more open.  Neil Channing was not to be left with a stagnant stack, however, and busted Les Fenton in 7th after flopping a set of Fives.

Helping to drive the action was the unmistakeable voice of Adebayo Odetoyinbo, alternately jousting with Channing, badgering his opponents and apologising to the audience.  He doubled through Carlo Citrone after Ricky Mackintosh’s exit in 6th place, changing the dynamic at the table after being short-stacked all day, and it was Citrone who had to accept 5th and £12,600 for making it this far.  Another double for Ade courtesy of George White followed, and despite having picked up pocket Aces no fewer than four times during the final, White busted in 4th place, winning £16,000.

Despite holding the solid chip advantage between them (1.5 million or so apiece), Keith Johnson and Neil Channing found it tough to eliminate Odetoyinbo.  He made his way back from just 400k to eventually find himself heads up with the only player remaining who could possibly give his table talk a run for its money.  Keith Johnson lost a crucial race with pocket Sevens to Channing’s AK, which left him first short, and then shortly out.  £28,050 for third place must be some consolation, however.  For a glimpse of the final as it played out, complete with in-action pictures, visit http://blog.grosvenorukpokertour.com/?cat=1398 for the live blog.

Heads up play lasted mere minutes, with the same hand which busted Johnson taking down Odetoyinbo (who won £43,500).   Channing, with more big slicks than BP was the last player standing, and gave him the GUKPT Luton 2010 title, the trophy, the seat in the Champion of Champions event and £64,050.  Channing, the face of Black Belt Poker, eschewed the judo suit in which he’s previously appeared to play, and has proven with just three Main Events left on the calendar that he could beat his record (2nd in the London leg), building a stack early which carried him right through to the end.

Plentiful Side Event Action

Leading up to the Main Event’s dual flights, the side events were peppered liberally with familiar names from the GUKPT circuit, including previous previous GUKPT winner (and Luton Main Event finalist) Jeff Kimber, who won the biggest of the sides, the 94-runner £500 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout, taking down £14,570.  He also placed in the £300 Pot Limit Omaha Double Chance event the following day, but the top spot there fell to David Lloyd who beat a field of 65 to claim his £6,250 first prize, with Carol Everton finishing 2nd and James Sullivan 3rd.  Prior to that, the week began with a very popular £150 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout which was won by Kishani Mithani who collected £5,170 along with the opening event’s first place.

The Luton menu featured not one but two sides of £100 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout; the first was won by Brijesh Das who beat a slightly smaller field of 91 compared to the second, which saw Gabriel Chrysanthou come out on top having bested 126 opponents.

There was another £100 event at the start of the week which generated a prizepool of £6,600 despite the field size for this one being smaller than its freezout neighbours.  The only rebuy event in the festival, Sunday’s event saw the top prize of £2,440 go to Avraham Darvish, with Brijesh Das making another final table appearance and coming in as runner up.

Meanwhile Martin Holmes captured the £300 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout, winning just under £10k for his outlasting exactly 100 opponents, and the final event of the week, the £250 NL Bounty tournament was won by Tony Housden for £3,060 (plus whatever he received for his knockouts).

Also featuring in the side event winners’ list from this leg is the present leader in the 2010 race for GUKPT Ranking Points, the dangerous Alli Mallu, who took down the £200 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout bumping his lead to 318 points (ahead of new second place Neil Channing who’s shot up to 245).

The race is far from over, however, with the final Summer Series London and Manchester at the end of August next up on the schedule; for more details please visit http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/summerseries_2010_5ab.shtml.  Full results and updated ranking information are also available at www.gukpt.com.

You can win your seat exclusively online at www.GCasino.com/Poker and take on the big guns for your very own huge payday and title.

The London Victoria Casino is probably the UK’s best known venue for poker, known throughout the World and home to some of the best cash game and tournament players, these changes can only help to improve the already excellent offerings available.

Rake Reductions:
The cap on the rake in the £1/£2 cash games  has been reduced from £15 to £10. This will take effect from 12pm on Monday 1st February. The decision is a most welcome one and came about due to feedback received from players in the first open forum, more are planned which allows players to discuss issues relating to the poker room with members of the management team. A massive plus and well done!!

Omaha Cash Games return:
In 2009 the £5/£10 Omaha cash table was a regular fixture at the Vic, since October 2009 it has been available less and less. From Monday 8th February, a table will now be reserved for this game starting at 7pm, Monday-Friday.

Bigger Cash Games
Just about every day there is a £5/£10 or £10/£20 cash game running around the clock, some of the players have been hinting towards playing something a bit high, the London Victoria have again listened and took action. A £25/£50 table is reserved for this game on Mondays from 2pm.

GUKPT The Vic In March 2010
The GUKPT heads to the Vic for 18th to the 28th March 2010. Some excellent satellite tournaments have been put in place to allow players to qualify. Satellites begin in the first week of March. These include the all new Freedom Package Satellites and Main Event Super Satellites.

Freedom Packages: One Freedom Package will be awarded for every £750 collected in the prize pool. Rather than winning a seat into a specific event, Freedom Package winners will get a credit of £750 to use to buy in to any GUKPT tournament at Leg 3.

Freedom Satellite Dates are on the following days at 7.45pm

* Monday 1st March – £50 + £12 NLH Rebuy Satellite
* Wednesday 3rd March – £100 + £12 NLH Freezeout Satellite
* Monday 8th March – £50 + £12 NLH Rebuy Satellite
* Wednesday 10th March – £100 + £12 NLH Freezeout Satellite
* Monday 15th March – £50 + £12 NLH Rebuy Satellite

GUKPT Main Event Super Satellites at the Vic:

Super satellites, including a 10-seat guaranteed one for the £1500 + £90 main event will take place on the following days:

* Tuesday 16th March – £80 + £12 NLH Rebuy Super Satellite with 10-seats guaranteed. 7.45pm start.
* Monday 22nd March – £50 + £12 Rebuy Super satellite. 2pm start.
* Tuesday 23rd March – £50 + £12 Rebuy Super satellite. 2pm start.
* Wednesday 24th March – £50 + £12 Rebuy Super satellite. 2pm start.

All in all an excellent move by the team and players at the infamous London Victoria Casino, it’s always nice to see the management listening to players but more importantly actually doing something about it and bringing change!

Grosvenor Victoria
150-162 Edgware Road
London
W2 2DT
T: 0207 262 7777

Isildur1 who’s real identity is still a mystery had been a phenomenon this week taking Tom Dwan for a few Million and holding his own against Ivey and Patrik, for a while anyway.

Isildur1’s best game seems to be No Limit Hold’em but he seems to be playing the big boys at heads up pot limit omaha with blinds at $500/$1000 and not doing that well. When watching it all seems very strange how $700,000+ pots are won with dubious looking 2 pair and i don’t think isuldur1 has much clue about omaha where as Ivey and Antonius are masters at it.

I’ll get the video of the hand up as soon as possible but for now here’s what happened!

Isuldur1 posts small blind $500
Antonius post bb $1000
Isuldur1 raises to $3000
Antonius Re-raises to $9000
Isuldur1 makes it $27000
Antonius makes it $81,000
Isuldur1 calls

Flop comes 4s – 5c – 2h

Pot is now $162,000
Antonius bets $91,000
Isuldur1 raises to $435,000
Antonius move over the top and Isuldur1 calls for his remaining $162,473

Here’s the screen shot after the turn and river making a nice pot for Patrik Antonius!

1.3 Million Online Pot

After i’ve wrote this it looks like Isildur1 is in tilt mode and throwing chips at Antonius over 3 tables, Patrik has over $3.5 milion and Isildur1 is trying to raise every hand and getting called, a big bluff with basically nothing saw Antonius make a great call for a further pot of over $500,000.

Download and see for yourself at Full Tilt Poker

To prove once and for all that Blackpool really is our equivelent of Fabulous Las Vegas here are a few pictures as proof.

Welcome to Fabulous Blackpool!

Comparing Casinos:

In Las Vegas you can see the Casino’s in the bright blue clear skies, lets compare the Mirage Casino in Vegas against the G Casino in Blackpool.

Mirage Casino In Las Vegas

G casino in blackpool

As you can see not that much difference, less clouds in the Blackpool skies even though it was taken in November!

Comparing Golf Courses.

Vegas has a host of golf courses as does Blackpool, we didn’t have time to visit the better courses in Blackpool so chose to photograph the one closest to the casino.

Note how the Blackpool Golf sign resembles the infamous Vegas sign!

Blackpool Golf Sign

Welcome To Las Vegas Sign

Blackpool Crazy Golf Course

Golf Course Just Off The Strip

By now you may be thinking that Blackpool and Vegas are exactly the same, you may be already booking your next break!! But Wait… This is just too spooky for word’s really. It’s time to compare famous landmarks and they don’t come any more famous than the amazing Bellagio Hotel and stunning fountain show.

So what can Blackpool do to top the fountains of the Bellagio?

Famous Bellagio Fountains and Stunning Hotel Behind

Blackpool Fountains With Travelodge Behind!

Blackpool fountains designed by Laurnce LLewelyn BowenThis surely is too much of a coincidence? The fountains as you can see from the sign they were designed by none other than Laurence llewelyn Bowen the tacky designer from changing rooms. Do you think he got his misdirected idea from somewhere?

In all seriousness Blackpool is a great place for poker, there’s always plenty of action and to be found. We recommend the End of Month £100 deep stack in the G Casino for a high quality game which is now attracting around 200 runners.

Blackpool was a front runner for the Super Casino which was shockingly awarded to Manchester, the super casino project has since been cancelled by the UK government after wasting millions in research and studies.

Thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Firstly there is much more choice available for players, live games often clash such as the GUKPT with some Dusk Till dawn events or the summer series with the World Series, player numbers in these events are going to be lower but that doesn’t mean the players aren’t still playing.

Secondly don’t forget the online side of things, with such value and convenience many players have found playing from home via a pc much more appealing than having to pay for travel costs not to mention hotels and all the other expenses we occur when playing circuit events.

Thirdly pub and club poker is very active and does not as many thing stop players from visiting card rooms and casino’s, these smaller games are the breeding ground for the future of the whole industry. Not only do players get to learn the game and experience the atmosphere they don’t feel the pressure some do when playing the “bigger game” on a bigger stage.

We are lucky enough to have a wide choice of large tournaments to pick and choose from, the gukpt, the coral British master, the Ept London, the World Series of Poker Europe, the Irish Open and now the new Pokerstars Uk Tour. This small list doesn’t include events held regularly across the Country which feature deepstacks and buyins of £100 and upwards.

So is poker in the UK and Ireland under threat? No, we very much doubt it, put together the above points and the so called credit crunch which must have hit a few peoples pockets and the fact is that the number of poker players in the UK id more than likely still on the increase.

Poker is an excellent game no matter where you play, how you play or what you play!