Hot off the press day at the Vic, replete with snacks, three types of dessert and champagne, I bring cheerful tidings of a full new poker tour which brings together ten different venues in a series of £1,000 Main Events. There's money added, televisation, online qualification, and one near you sometime in 2007...
Kind of like the EPT, but touring the British Isles rather than, er, Europe, the Tour will take you to such exotic climes as those of Bolton, Cardiff and Plymouth, ending at this time next year with the Grand Final £3k event back at the Vic. The full lineup is as follows:
January - Bolton - 12th-14th
February - Walsall - 15th-18th
March - Cardiff - 23rd-25th
April - Manchester - 20th-22nd
May - Brighton - 18th-20th
July - Newcastle - 20th-22nd
August - Luton - 9th-12th
September - Plymouth - 7th-9th
October - London - 18th-21st
November - Blackpool - 15th-18th
November/December - Grand Final: London - 29th Nov-2nd Dec
Here's what Martin Belsham, Managing Director of BlueSquare said about it: "The popularity of poker continues to grow and Blue Square hope to maximise on the synergy between us and our sister company Grosvenor Casinos. We aim to give people an opportunity to cross the threshold from playing poker online to playing live at high profile tournaments throughout the UK."
Here's what I take that to mean: 'You can qualify online.' There are even, we are told, freeroll satellites which could bring some new players into a nice juicy tournament, made juicier because no less than £10,000 will be added to each leg of the Tour, with £50,000 added to the Grand Final.
So pleasing was this added money that one question to the panel of managing directors (who looked like they were on the set of Dr. Strangelove in these great high-backed leather thrones) involved merely clearing up that they were in fact going to add this tidy sum. They are. I was keen to know whether they were going to have standardisation of rules throughout the tour, or if managers of individual cardrooms were going to have the last word. "We can offer consistency," the Tour T.D. replied, and he'll be present at every event which could make Russell Tamplin kind of like our own Thomas Kremser, given time.
So does this spell the end of the 'regular' festivals? Not necessarily; the eager press were assured that mini-festivals would still run, and that the Tour sort of consolidated the larger buy-in events into one package, with the addition of competitive incentives like a leaderboard and prizes for the best overall player after the year is over. Blondepoker will in all probability be bringing you live updates from these events, and you can even watch it on Channel 4 (no less) afterwards.
Although I have had a brief hunt for the structure of these events, I've so far failed to come up with it (and my little press pack USB device was mysteriously missing), so have a look for yourselves on http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com. I'm sure it will appear eventually.