blonde poker forum

Evening all,

Tikay has asked me to share the ups and downs and ins and outs with everyone as we try to piece together this years William Hill Poker Grand Prix so here is a quick update of where we are at the moment.

The event takes place between Oct 16th and Oct 24th and the show will once again be filmed in Cardiff by Presentable. Thomas Kremser and team will officiate and the direct buy in will be £6,000. No fixed deal has been agreed but Sky TV want to take the next series as the figures were very good for the first one.

As with a project this big there are loads of ends that need tidying up but here are some things that are confirmed at the moment.

William Hill poker are adding £164,000 to the prize pool, this is an increase of 50k from last year. The plan is to have a field of 56 again with 44 invited pro's, 8 online qualifiers and this year we are hoping to run 4 land based qualifiers around Europe. The provisional destinations are England, Ireland,France and Sweden but at the moment we are still researching venues and agreeing costs. This is a pretty slow process as all the compliance officers and legal guys are checking out what we are allowed to do re advertising and promoting these as the gambling comission are really clamping down on on the age old law of enticement.

The four land based comps will be £100 rebuys, I know this wont suit everyones pocket but the event needs to cover a 6k seat and hopefully decent prize money for the places. The winners of these seats will have all their travel and accomodation expenses covered too. When we agree venues I will let you all know.

There will be 4 online finals running fortnightly with full sats into tem. The top 2 in each final qualify for the TV stage. These will be restricted to 149(?) runners due to certain software restrictions that mean a seat would be generated for every 50 player and we only need 2 seats we can only have less than 150 runners, not ideal but we are where we are. The good news is that this year there should also be good prizes for the placed players too with the 3rd position paying over £1500 if the finals are full.

The buy in to the final qualifier will be £120 plus £10 but there will be daily MTTs for around £13 and £26 with 1 qualifier to the final per 10 and 5 runners respectively.These will also have sats running into them from as little as £1.75 and £3.50 so we hope we have provided enough options to suit everyones pocket. 

We will also have £30 6 man sng's 24/7 with the winner qualifting for the final and the runner up getting £50. 

These are the dates for the online qualifiers and all sats will run for 2 weeks prior to each one.
Sundays at 19:00 on 13th August, 27th August, 10th September and 24th September.

So thats were we are at the moment, I am busy finalising a player list that we can send out invites from and I am hoping for a field every bit as strong as last year, time will tell if we can achieve that but one very very important change from last year is that Willaim Hill will pay all travel expenses and accomodation for the invited pro's. I hope this will enable us to attract some great players from the states aswell as Europe.

Fingers crossed guys.

Good luck with it Phil, if it's anything like last years it will be fantastic!

Make sure you let us know when those satellites are, I would love to have crack at this.

PS, If you want me as an invited pro, I'll have to check my diary

This was one of the best televised events since LNP.

Good luck.

I'll just be happy with an invite to the filming :)

Wel if you are all very nuce to bobby, well, you never know, we may be able to twist his arn for a few invited to Cardiff to watch the heats.

But you have to be nice to me too.

Great stuff, anyone know where i can get copys from last years event? I didn't see a single heat!

you know I've always admired both you and Mr Q from afar.   :-*

Well when they're in Cardiff, you can admire them from Birmingham!

admiring as we speak.

As one of the internet muppets who fluked their way in last year I'm delighted bobby1 is pulling the strings this year. It was an utterly fantastic event, if only because it enabled me to prop up the bar with Vicky Coren for a couple of hours one rainy Tuesday Cardiff night.

Also kudos to William Hill for stumping up travel and accomodation for *all* pros.

I will certainly be in the qualifiers for these (provided I don't win enough at the WSOP to buy my way in).

Can't wait! - this was THE TV tourney of 2006. - should be just as good in 2007.

Absolutely right Greg. It was brilliant.

Yes Junior it was, and I hope I get the same odds on you heads up as I did when you beat Barney last year, great stuff

it sounds great phil, good luck with it mate. i will also be having a go at the sats because it did look great last year

For those of you who haven't noticed already, Phil 'bobby1' Quayle's second entry in the William Hill poker Grand Prix Diary is now available to read on the main site.

You can either read the news item by clicking:

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3140 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3140)

or, alternatively, you can view his diary as a whole by browsing this section.

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/1004 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/1004)

Of course, all of this is available from the drop down menu at the top of this screen.

thx

snoops snoopy

Phil latest entry on this topic is.
 
Make sure you read it by clicking the link below:

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3268 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3268)

If you have any questions for Phil, the please feel free to post them here.

I note Phil forget to mention that he paid TWO Chinese Gentlemen in TWO toilets within half an hour. We could not keep him out of the Gents.

My lips are sealed.

???

come again?

Well I left a number of avenues open to misinterpretation there. I think "we could not keep him out of the Gents" should have the word "toilet" appended.

I have been thinking if anyones bank roll is a bit low, just dress smart and hang around a toilet and offer to to turn taps on etc must be good for a few quid each night. After all we assume that these guys are supposed to be there, but for all we know they have just walked in off the street.  :D

No, no, not at sall. These guys are qualified, highly-trained Toilet Attendants.

"Good Evening Sir, anything I can do for you?" when you arrive.Then they shake it for you, turn on the tap, squirt some liquid soap on your hands, followed by a proferred towel, & they turn off the tap, taking care to rattle the tips saucer as they proceed. Top quality toilet attending.

I dare not attempt a number 2.

....two chinese gentleman....damm, for a minute I thought it was the Sportsman.. I usually
 seem to find a man downstairs, but a lovely chinese lady upstairs ;D

I now understand why you had a spring in your step if thats the kind of service you get........and I paid for it..........I feel dirty!!!

Phil's latest blog entry is now up...

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3510 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3510)

has anybody got a clue how or where you enter the landbased quals

 :hello: welcome to blonde.

Normally have to contact the casino direct.....I'm off to Sportsman later today to register, as I think it will be oversubscribed.

NB...already.43 runners out of 149 for the first online sat on Sunday, as of now.

Phil Quayle (bobby1) is on holiday for a few days, & I am helping the William Hill guys out on this, so for the William Hill Grand Prix 2 Land-Based Qualifiers, you can enter at the casinos in the usual way. The current schedule is......

Aspers Newcastle, 29th August (Tuesday)

The Sportsman, London,  5th September (Tuesday)

Fitzwilliam, Dublin, 8th September (Friday)

The Broadway, Birmingham, 27th September, (Wednesday).

The Broadway is NOT confirmed yet, but is 95% certain.

I hope to see you at all or any of these!

How much is the entry to the land-based qualifiers ?

£100 rebuy according to the artical on the front page

yes £100 rebuys....please see Snoopy's link for the Payout structure's in the land based tourneys

I am not sure if this is true, but a few Newcastle Boys were in Luton & they told me that Aspers have sold 60 seats already. Not confirmed though, & if it's wrong, blame the lads who told me, I think it was Eric Barker & John Stapapalousapalousapolousalopopopopopopalos. He's Greek, by the way.

News just in - Poker 425 will be at each of the 4 Land-Based Qualifiers.

Best bibs & tucker, please.

Phil latest diary entry outlines the structures of the land based qualifiers.

For more information and to read this entry, please click the link below:

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3576 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3576)

If you wish to catch up on the rest of his diary and read his previous entries, the please click the link below:

http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3136 (http://www.blondepoker.com/index.php?q=node/3136)

As always, feel free to leave your comments, thoughts and questions on this thread.

....went to the Sportsman to register last friday....didn't want to miss the boat....and found out they didn't know what i was talking about  :o......anyway, after a while of searching they found some memo, and I was first on the list!!....only 79 more fish to go ;D

Hi Ripple, sorry about that bit of confusion but you are in now, I will see you down there on the 5th.

Thanks

 No probs at all Phil.......looking forward to it!