Interview with Craig Thompson, who won the PokerinthePub Championship in Vegas. The same opportunity is available next year to the PokerintheHome qualifiers
Craig Thompson has been crowned Poker in the Pub champion for Season V after a stunning performance out in Las Vegas.
Having made it to the heads up stage, Craig was down 3:1 against Plymouth’s Frazer Bolt but managed to claw it back and overturn a huge deficit to take the stunning, engraved silver bracelet on offer.
Craig, from York, was blown away by the trip and his win, telling us: “It (Las Vegas) is an incredible place, massive, one of the most impressive places I’ve ever been!
“I won’t stay in a nicer hotel than The Palazzo – it had three TVs in our room! I’ve never quite been anywhere like it. I was so happy to win it (Poker in the Pub) and can’t believe I actually did. It was such an amazing experience.”
Asked if it was the trip of a lifetime as it is often branded, the 24-year-old, without hesitation, replied: “Definitely!”
As the conversation drifted towards that memorable final table battle on the ESPN TV Table at the World Series of Poker in the Rio, Craig was lost for words at times.
Trying to justify the experience he’d enjoyed, he said: “Unbelievable experience. It’s the equivalent of an amateur tennis player playing at Wimbledon or an amateur footballer playing at Wembley. We were picked up by limo which we weren’t expecting, we got to walk down the red carpet into the biggest poker room you’ll see and then play on that table. We got a behind the scenes look at how a televised poker event works. Just unbelievable.”
Craig’s journey should give all Poker in the Pub players hope for this coming season. Having started in his local pub, the Puss ‘n’ Boots, two minutes from his house, the Yorkshireman then reached the Regional Finals where he performed brilliantly and earned his shot at the Nationals.
“I was so lucky to get through the Nationals,” Craig, who will train to be an accountant from September, admitted. “I was playing short all day but managed to hang in and survive.
“When I got back at the weekend, it was incredible to think that it had all happened from going to my local and playing poker with some mates.”
And Craig was keen to encourage others to go along to their local Poker in the Pub venue and join in. He added: “Everyone should give it a go. It’s free for the players so you’ve got nothing to lose and it’s really social.
“Poker in the Pub is the best league I’ve played in. I’ve been involved with others but the prizes are better with
Poker in the Pub and there are more chances for the players to win. I’ve played with Poker in the Pub for two years now and I qualified for Las Vegas from the first National Finals I had played in so it shows it’s possible.”
Craig’s story highlights exactly what Poker in the Pub is about and shows that you don’t have to necessarily be the best player in the world to play in the best arenas.
For more information on Poker in the pub please visit www.pokerinthepub.com or www.facebook.com/pokerinthepub.
Craig Thompson has been crowned Poker in the Pub champion for Season V after a stunning performance out in Las Vegas.
Having made it to the heads up stage, Craig was down 3:1 against Plymouth’s Frazer Bolt but managed to claw it back and overturn a huge deficit to take the stunning, engraved silver bracelet on offer.
Craig, from York, was blown away by the trip and his win, telling us: “It (Las Vegas) is an incredible place, massive, one of the most impressive places I’ve ever been!
“I won’t stay in a nicer hotel than The Palazzo – it had three TVs in our room! I’ve never quite been anywhere like it. I was so happy to win it (Poker in the Pub) and can’t believe I actually did. It was such an amazing experience.”
Asked if it was the trip of a lifetime as it is often branded, the 24-year-old, without hesitation, replied: “Definitely!”
As the conversation drifted towards that memorable final table battle on the ESPN TV Table at the World Series of Poker in the Rio, Craig was lost for words at times.
Trying to justify the experience he’d enjoyed, he said: “Unbelievable experience. It’s the equivalent of an amateur tennis player playing at Wimbledon or an amateur footballer playing at Wembley. We were picked up by limo which we weren’t expecting, we got to walk down the red carpet into the biggest poker room you’ll see and then play on that table. We got a behind the scenes look at how a televised poker event works. Just unbelievable.”
Craig’s journey should give all Poker in the Pub players hope for this coming season. Having started in his local pub, the Puss ‘n’ Boots, two minutes from his house, the Yorkshireman then reached the Regional Finals where he performed brilliantly and earned his shot at the Nationals.
“I was so lucky to get through the Nationals,” Craig, who will train to be an accountant from September, admitted. “I was playing short all day but managed to hang in and survive.
“When I got back at the weekend, it was incredible to think that it had all happened from going to my local and playing poker with some mates.”
And Craig was keen to encourage others to go along to their local Poker in the Pub venue and join in. He added: “Everyone should give it a go. It’s free for the players so you’ve got nothing to lose and it’s really social.
“Poker in the Pub is the best league I’ve played in. I’ve been involved with others but the prizes are better with
Poker in the Pub and there are more chances for the players to win. I’ve played with Poker in the Pub for two years now and I qualified for Las Vegas from the first National Finals I had played in so it shows it’s possible.”
Craig’s story highlights exactly what Poker in the Pub is about and shows that you don’t have to necessarily be the best player in the world to play in the best arenas.
For more information on Poker in the pub please visit www.pokerinthepub.com or www.facebook.com/pokerinthepub.
