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Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Schedule
The first year of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) is drawing to a close. So far there have been ten ?1,000 ($2,000) events in ten different Grosvenor casinos throughout the UK. Every leg has been recorded for television and over ?3 million ($6 million) in prize money has been won.
The majority of the event winners were British professional players but there was one North American victor in the shape of Canadian chef Leo Kam, from Ottawa. Having won ?130,000 for taking down the London leg of the tour, he went on to make it two final tables in a row when he finished in ninth place at the most recent event, held in the seaside town of Blackpool in the northwest of England.
The regular season of the tour is now over and all that is left is the Grand Final, with a ?3,000 ($6,000) buy in, which takes place in London November 29-December 2. Britain’s top pros, including Roland De Wolfe, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, John Gale, and Ben Roberts are all expected to play.
The support events are also rather tasty, including a rare ?1,500 heads up tournament, which also benefits from significant added prize money. The most successful player on the tour is Chesterfield’s Dave Smith, who will finish the year as the highest ranked player on the tour leaderboard, unless one of his closest rivals can finish in one of the top five places during the Grand Final.
While all good things do eventually come to an end, the end will be short lived because sponsor Blue Square and host Grosvenor casinos have recently announced that they will be doing it all over again in 2008. Added value will also continue with around ?200,000 from Blue Square augmenting the prize pools.
Next year a special new Champion of Champions event will be created with a ?100,000 prize pool. Entry to this showpiece will be restricted to winners of tour events? side events as well as main events, effectively adding value to every singe tournament on the GUKPT. The tour will have its own player ranking system and additional cash prizes will also be given to the top finishing players at the end of the year. For regular players at each of the hosting casinos there will also be freerolls with seats into each of the events as prizes.
While the GUKPT is the UK’s biggest poker tour, rival operator Gala has also run a successful series of events this year as part of their Great Britain Poker Tour (GBPT). Their competitions all featured a smaller buy-in at ?500 and fields were considerably smaller at around 120 per event, but nevertheless, it was well received and will also be returning in 2008. Gala has not yet released their new schedule, but it is sure to feature bigger and better tournaments than in 2007.
The GUKPT 2008 schedule follows: Each of these is a deep-stacked event with an hour clock and a very slow blinds structure.
While there have only been a handful of North Americans who have made the journey across the pond to take part in the GUKPT during 2007, it is hoped that more of you will choose to venture over here in 2008.
Filed under: Poker News