blonde poker forum

February 2005, I pitch up at the Grosvenor Casino in Walsall for the Midlands Medley to attend my first Grosvenor poker festival in the official capacity of Blue Square Poker Manager. The Blue Square online poker room has recently launched and is sponsoring all GUKPT festivals by adding a bit of prize money to each (£30,000 across the whole year if I remember correctly). We decided to do a bubble promotion, so that the players who bubbled in all of the festival events had a chance to play an online STT with a $2,000 prize pool as a consolation. I was however a little worried about approaching the bubblers to tell them of what they had just 'won.' So I kept a safe distance for a good 20-mins or so before going to speak to each to let them know.

The first loser of the week was this ancient, gnarled old fella who chain-smoked and who I later found out, seemingly had an allergic reaction to any food other than full fried breakfasts. I nervously approached him, shook his hand, explained who I was and told him about the prize. He reacted better than I had thought, thanking me, but also mentioning that this Internets thing was still a difficult concept for him to grasp. Even though he had just set up a website with a new business partner, he admitted to only just mastering turning on his computer. His name was Tony.

I stayed for the whole week and during this time I witnessed JP Kelly win his first ranking event. A remarkable achievement, considering that he was the lowest stacked player going into day two with only a few big blinds. He came back to defeat Alli Mallu heads up after going into the tete a tete with a huge chip disadvantage. Also winning events  during the week were Joe Koumi, Chris Bruce and Dave Colclough, who took down the £1,500 main event, beating Greg Hill heads up. I also witnessed an epic final in the £500 event in which the last four were Trevor Reardon, Willie Tann, Pete Evans and eventual winner Bengt Sonnert. In fact they chopped it, but it was a memorable game. I also met Mickey Wernick for the first time and when he asked me what it would take for him to land a sponsorship deal with Blue Square, I told him he would get one if he could win the European rankings.

In the months that followed I visited Luton for their Springfest event, where I famously dropped the trophy when presenting it to JP Kelly, who had just won his second ranking event, beating Dave Colclough heads up. I also visited the Vic in London, Blackpool, Southampton and Swansea during this first year on the circuit, getting to know most of the regulars on the live poker circuit. I had a great time and enjoyed listening to what poker players had to say about how their lot could be improved.

Later in 2005 I devised a competition called 'The Unusual Suspects' in which a group of players would compete in several live events in the UK and Europe, with the end prize being a seat in the €10,000 EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Each player would effectively be sponsored by Blue Square into several live and online events, with the worst performing players being eliminated after each round. The Unusual Suspects were Joe Grech, Stuart Nash, John Falconer, James Dempsey, Simon Nowab, Ian Bradley, Jen Mason, Mickey Wernick and JP Kelly. We started off in London, then Brighton after which Mickey Wernick was eliminated. After events in Blackpool and Sheffield Joe Grech, Ian Bradley, Stuart Nash and Simon Nowab were amongst the next to go. They were joined for a few events by an online qualifier from Scotland called Ricky McElroy. By the time we went to Finland for the Helsinki Freezeout the remaining four players were John Falconer, James Dempsey, JP Kelly and Jen Mason. During this trip JP was eliminated from the competition and as this was happening the news came through from Luton that Mickey Wernick had won the main event at the Christmas Cracker festival and in doing so had secured the top spot in the 2005 European Rankings. A few weeks later, his sponsorship deal with Blue Square was announced. JP Kelly would later join him as a sponsored player, as would Praz Bansi, Karl Mahrenholz and Kevin O'Leary. The three remaining Unusual Suspects moved on to Deauville for the EPT, where Jen Mason was unfortunate enough to bubble and a few weeks later back in Walsall the whole competition was determined with a series of heads up matches between the remaining three players. Jen Mason emerged victorious and went on to very nearly cash in the EPT Grand Final.

For two years I went to every festival on the Grosvenor calendar, almost 30 in total. I also attended lots of events in Europe and the WSOP in Vegas during this time, persuading my bosses at Blue Square to pay for me to go using the flimsy excuse that our sponsored players needed someone to carry their bags. Having seen how poker events were being run all overt the world, I had loads of ideas about how Grosvenor could take their poker offering in a new direction and from that the idea of the GUKPT was born. In January 2007 it became a reality and with a 22-part TV series to record it all for Channel 4, poker in the UK had finally come of age. Over the next three years I devoted most of my time to the GUKPT and in 2008 I also became based at the Vic in London as a host.

I could go on and on about my experiences over the last few years, especially regarding the GUKPT, but that can wait for another time. But I guess at this point I had better cut to the chase. Why am I posting all this guff now? Well, the time has come for me to move on and after next week I am leaving the company to start a new job elsewhere. The Summer Series festival in Walsall will be my last GUKPT event. I'm pleased that Walsall is the last one I will attend as it will nicely bookend a fantastic five and half years I have spent on the UK poker circuit. I hope to see many of you at the Walsall event, but also look forward to catching up with you in the future. I will still be working in the poker industry, so you haven't seen the last of me yet, but my new job will require me to spend most of my time outside the UK. Thanks for all the good times everyone.

Good luck Jon.

Pure genius ;tightend;

Good luck with your next venture.  One of the good guys :)up

GLGL Jon. Xx

Genuinely one of the finest tour managers/card room managers/tournament directors/staff members/poker managers/press liason people/harry hill lookalikes/poker industry blokes in the business, congrats on a job well done and good luck in the future.

Go on, spill the beans, whats the new gig?

Best of luck Jon.

I was lucky enough to witness the dropped trophy moment (which you've never managed to live down) and since then you've been an ever-present face at the (few) live events that I've played.

It's safe to say that you've brought a great deal of 'added value' to the UK scene in recent years.

Good luck in your new role.

Curtis

gl in your new job jon

this

very best of luck Jon

+1. Best of luck Jon, you were an asset to the GUKPT tour.

All the very best of luck in your new venture Jonathan, I hope to run into you along the way sometime.

+1..........as well as one of the good guys!

Best of luck in the new job Jon.

Pob lwc Jon & thanks

http://www.entertonement.com/clips/kkfbdkgprf--Rolling-up-a-Stake-and-Going-to-VegasRounders-John-Turturro-Joey-Knish-

gl!

My new job is at PokerStars in a business development role for live events/tours in Europe

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

stars buying in the best

gr8 work Jon

Pretty perfect partnership imo, nice one

like the time you cheated old ladies in tournament blackjack................

how many chips did you have in your pocket?

;whistle;

good luck in new job :)up

lol, funnily enough I am playing in another blackjack tournament next month. The inaugural European Masters of Blackjack tournament in Bulgaria. There are just six of us playing for a prize pool of €15,000.

glglgl dude

GL in your new role Jon

+1 !!!

All the best with the new job Jon.  :)up

Will see you on Sat.

Thanks James.

Memories...

I think it was in either 2005 or 2006 when a new player on BSQ poker signed up with the screen name mcepitome and within a few weeks had built up a massive roll playing mainly heads up sit n go's. At that time it was on the Tribeca network and he moved up from playing $100 to $2,000 ones pretty quickly, including whipping Mike Caro's ass in six out of seven games they played in one session. After a few weeks of watching him tear it up online I called him up and suggested he try playing live, telling thim that the next live festival was in Walsall and that he should give it a go. He came to the festival and finished 3rd in back-to-back tournaments there. He also very nearly went into day two of the main event as a maassive chip leader, but busted against the other big stack just at the end of day 1.

This.

Good luck Jon, all the best at Stars

Who was that then?

I thought you were talking about MC for a while but then you mentioned the words chip leader.

Good luck in your new role.

good luck!

I was on the same table as him in the ME for a couple of hours as I went quite deep too, noisy bugger he was then  ;cupcake;

Good luck with stars jon... they have a smart move there... mostly though a huge thankyou for your (huge) part in transforming the british poker scene. keep up the good work.

Hi Jon,

I didn't used to like playing at the Vic much as I found most of the floor staff in the card room pretty horrible to interact with. You've helped change that and implemented some great changes including the ridiculous underraising heads up rule.

Thanks for the good work - pokerstars landed a pretty good coup and I'm sure you'll do great!

Best of luck for the future

congrats and good luck in the new job mr raab, always accessible and helpful with all matters regarding the gukpt and blue square, a great addition for pokerstars imo

gl Jon!

GL Jon,
only met you 3 or 4 times, but remember you well.  Still using my Card guard that I scrounged off you in Blackpool.

Cheers
Carl.

It's gonna be weird watching a GUKPT without you there Jon, but good luck with your new venture, it can only be for the good of the game.

Always a pleasure to attend your tournaments.

And they were the best, but maybe now you are gone I can run good in one.

Best of luck

Doobs

You've done a tremendous job Jon and good luck with the next one.

+1

All the best in whatever you're moving onto Jon

Fair play to a guy who put a lot of time and effort into the Uk poker scene
allways aproachable
good job done.,.,.. now for bigger and better things gl jon

GL Jon, when your back in Edinburgh, give me a bell and we can grab a pint.


Cheers

Jambo

GL Jonathan top bloke and a credit to the GUKPT tour. You will be sorely missed by many but hopefully will see you on another Poker tour in the future!

It's good to know that you'll still be around in future at events.

Good luck and all the best!

I do really fear for the GUKPT without you though.

gl in your new job jon, i predict a downward spiral with the gukpt without your enthusiasm and determination, the uk circuit was lucky to get 100 runners before you arrived on the scene.
   i remember my second main event in walsall in 2006 when i made the f/t u bribed me with $200 in my blue sq acc if i wore a blue sq hoodie for the photo's lol. i think that photo is my avatar on here :)
   pokerstars uk and ireland tour will benefit hugely with you on board.  i look forward to see what develops

well done john in everything you have achieved for the poker comunity in the UK .
i hope you are as successfull in your new job .
it has been a pleasure being part of the game when you was there ,all the fun times we have had .

once again gl .

Well done and good luck Jon.

The GUKPT's loss is UKIPT's gain.

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Agree with all the comments. Jon virtually transformed the UK Live poker scene via the introduction of "series" poker. Will be a big miss.

Never met you but you've done a great deal for UK poker,glgl and have fun at Stars. 

Good Luck Jon! Last of the old school BSQ guys, place won't be the same...

all the best Jon and many thanks for all your hard work in establishing the GUKPT!

just one last favour mate - when you get to stars can you find the "switch" room and turn mine back on please!!!!


atb mate

Tim

Thanks for all the messages everyone.

I certainly hope that the GUKPT continues to be strong after I leave. The plans for the 2011 GUKPT are already being made and one of the last things I have to do before I leave next week is attend an all day meeting on Monday to discuss the tour and the plans for next year.

I know I get a lot of the credit for the GUKPT and it was originally conceived and proposed by me, but there are a lot of other people who also deserve recognition for it as well. Firstly, it would never have happened if it were not for the then Commercial Director or Blue Square Ben Warm, who believed in the project enough to sign off a seven figure budget to launch the tour and produce the Channel 4 shows. Conor Grant, my immediate boss at the time was also a great driving force in making sure the tour was resourced well during the first year it ran. But the current team are the real stars, the ones who I attended all the meetings with, made decisions about how the tour would evolve with and put in all the hard work to run the tournaments: Russell Tamplin, Ian Bryan, Zak Miller, Janis Mojaves and Dena Hassan. They all deserve a lot of credit and recognition for their hard work and effort. Peter Leeper has also worked tirelessly at almost every event since the start doing our blogging and a big shout also goes out to Mike Butlin, Jamie Reeve and Mike Clark, all of whom worked hard and were heavily involved but have already left the company.

I certainly hope the GUKPT continues and perhaps one day I may even play in one of the events. I hope those of you who have been regular players on the tour continue to give it your support. There is still plenty of life left in it. In fact, there is some exciting news that will no doubt be announced in a few weeks time regarding something that will happen at the Grand Final later this year.

Good Luck Sir!

 Th Td

Jon, hard to believe its five years since that all happened and we first shook hands after my HU defeat to Dave and I guess not understanding the game that well you offered me what you thought to be some consilation by the way of a free bluesq hoodie... which I still wear.... to do the garden in!

all the best mate with your new venture, you've served the poker community well.

Thanks Greg. Actually I first started playing poker in 1999, so I understood it fairly well at that point - I simply had loads of hoodies I had to offload back then. I perhaps should have given you a bit more time to recover from not winning though before I offloaded. Glad to see it still gets some wear though.

goodluck in your new job jonathon!

Best of Luck from me too. :)

Mike Butlin tells me it was all him  ;)

nevertheless good luck Jon and see you around

hi jon,
good luck with the move, i'm sure you'll make your mark!

Good luck, Jon.

Was always a pleasure to work with you.

good luck to you Jon.  sure itl all go well for you.

now gtfo ;)

Good luck with the new venture Jon.

All the best

Chris

Gl Jon. you're a Star (pun intended).

Well played Stars, wp.

Good luck Jon, what you did for the UK poker scene in such a small amount of time is remarkable, i will be watching with interest to see what changes you bring about with the stars tours!

Well, my last day at Grosvenor is now over. A few days off and then on Monday I start the new job. My new role is concentrating on developing existing tours in Europe and launching new ones. Within a few days of starting I'm heading off to Madrid, where the Estrellas Poker Tour is taking place. After that I begin working on launching a new tour later this year.

mbn gl Jon