blonde poker forum

"On December 8, PokerStars announced the first leg of Season 5 of the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) and revealed a couple of destinations that the popular tour will head to in the coming year.

The first stop of the UKIPT Season 5 sees players head to London, with the £700+£70 buy-in Main Event running from January 20 through January 25."

http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2014/12/pokerstars-announce-first-stop-on-ukipt-season-5-calendar-15948.htm

I note there is a 3 day main event at last.  Much more rec friendly than 4 days.  Might have to try and play a few this year. 

I see they're still creaming 3% extra off the prize pool though, boo.

Is it going to continue to be attended? People aren't going to start boycotting Stars events en masse are they? I can't see it happening personally, but, given this is a tour for poker's "squeezed middle", who might most sharply feel the pinch of the recent changes.

Stars continues to crush their live events.  Eureka Prague 1800 runners for a 1.1k.  Compare that to the WPT that got barely over 200 for a 2k 2 days before down the road.

Biggest hurdle here will be the venue as it has room for about 30 tables and even then thats really, really tight.  But they have really good people in charge there so I'm 500+ will be pretty easy to achieve.

Cant really compare that Eureka to the WPT in Prague as the WPT was a really late announcement. But yeah agree, Stars crushes it, people love em. But the satellites might die a bit when they start raking the rebuys, so that might mean less seat winners and smaller fields? Plus dunno if they are doing extra promos like a satty winner leaderboard this year.

Personally I'd rather play GUKPT at the Vic the week after.

Yep, me too.

While I'm not going to boycott Stars events, they haven't shown any loyalty to their players, so I feel zero brand loyalty to them.

GUKPT and GPS mainly for me in 2015.

Wal

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7PPyn5CIAM1KLZ.jpg)

is there a guarantee on this? seems destined to overlay if so

No gtee but 3day 1's weds, thurs and friday

130 qualifiers as of a couple of days ago according to

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/tournaments/ukipt/2015/season-5-of-the-ukipt-to-kick-off-in-london-this-month-153394.shtml

£700+70 main

last year's October UKIPT London had 1089 entries

this year its in the spare week between the PCA and EPT Deauville


whats a good guess for numbers?

why might it fall short this year relative to last?

numbers will surely fall with no gtd?  people getting sick of the 3% extra rake on top of 10% rake anyway for a big buy in comp then aggresively expected to tip after cashing at the cash desk as well on top of london exs?

haven't once been "aggressively expected to tip" with any pokerstars event fwiw. had a number of terrible experiences with other tours tho

The ball-ache & restrictive process of regging...

Yeah, ballache to reg now that people can't reg directly from their stars accounts. I think loads of people are less likely to travel to it since they made it 3 days and have completely brutalized the structure compared to similar buyins elsewhere. Also the fact that it's in London and its joke expensive there for accommodation.

Expect ukipts to take a decent hit on numbers this year

Actually they have changed the schedule to make it much more friendly to non professionals. Now you only need to take day one off work. You don't need to worry what will happen if you final on the Monday. Also I believe day ones are finishing at about 8:30pm so actually if you live in the south or Midlands then you don't need to stay the night in London, you can drive or train home and then come back for day two.

Finally I don't think you can compare numbers to the UKIPT that was in October, numbers are bound to be way lower for this as this one was part of the EPT festival. Personally I am disappointed if there is no guarantee.

Will still be a great tourney with loads up top. Gl to everyone who is playing.

EPT Copenhagen and EPT Berlin, think it's to do with the casino staff tho and was under Kremser or w/e his name was

Well just for balance - for EPT Berlin, up until the last year they didn't take the 3% out for staff. So the main was just 5000 plus 300

I think Stars usually goes about it in a better way compared for example to eastern europe where they usually pick the most attractive dealer, make her wear the tightest dress possible and then ask for you to tip which is in a big pot on the table in front of you.

Season 5 of the UKIPT is under way

"the total number of entries in the £3,000 + £250 UKIPT5 High Roller is 49, with 46 of those being unique entries.

When you total that all up in means a prize pool of £142,590 will be split seven ways. The winner will take home £44,900 whilst a min-cash in this event is worth £7,480. The full payout structure is below:

1st. £44,900
2nd. £32,420
3rd. £20,700
4th. £15,700
5th. £12,100
6th. £9,290
7th. £7,480."

top chip counts

Victor Ilyukhin - 69,700
Elior Diun - 69,000
Alberto Gomez - 55,000
Christopher Kyriacou - 49,000
Vasile Stancu - 48,000
Gareth Teatum - 46,200
Charles Carrel - 45,000
Jon Carsten - 40,000
Sergio Aido - 35,000
Viktor Katzenberger - 34,400


1a of the main today

twelve 40 min levels, 25k stack, full coverage on PokerStarsBlog:

http://psta.rs/158CXcA

Bayley Tops Day 1a Field in UKIPT London Main Event

Lawrence Bayley Leads Opening Starting Flight in First Main Event of UKIPT5

London, UK - 21 January, 2015

The first £700 + £70 UK and Ireland Poker Tour Main Event of Season 5 is off to an action-packed start after a busy Day 1a at The Hippodrome Casino in central London. A total of 143 players took their seats in this first of three start days, and after playing through twelve 40-minute levels, just 30 remain. They avoided the bust-out fate of tough opponents such as Pablo Gordillo, John Eames and Team Pro Online’s Mickey Petersen, bagging up chips that will next see the light of day on Saturday for Day 2.

Click here for the full list of Day 1a survivors in chip count order. http://uk.pokerstars.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-end-of-day-1a-chip-counts.shtml

Out in front lies 26 year old pro player (and SuperNova Elite 'bigstealer' on PokerStars) Lawrence Bayley, who, taking a rare break from turbo and hyper-turbo online sit and gos, has built a 25k starting stack into 265,000 today. Just behind him lie Miguel Seoane (241,100) and David Clarkson (234,500) while Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody turned around a long-ground short stack at the eleventh hour to bag up 78,500.

The UKIPT5 London £3,000 + £250 High Roller event came to a conclusion today, Owain Carey beating Victor Ilyukhin heads up to secure the £44,550 first prize. This two-day tournament, which saw 49 entries, began the week’s side events which continue alongside the Main Event until its conclusion on Sunday. Visit www.ukipt.com for full schedule information.

Full High Roller payouts:

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B75SnmAIAAAbdVS.jpg:large)

1st. Owain Carey, £44,550
2nd. Victor Ilyukhin, £32,070
3rd. Christos Kyprianou, £20,350
4th. Morten Klein, £15,350
5th. Gareth Teatum, £11,750
6th. Sergio Marti Aguilar, £8,940
7th. Vasile Stancu, £7,130.
8th. Jonathan Wong, £2,450.

The Main Event’s trio of starting flights continues today with Day 1b.

The High Roller winner seems to have had quite the last year. Seems a bit of a breakthrough for him. I remember seeing him on p5's UK timeline early last year, he was regularly winning mtt's on onGame/iPoker iirc, but he switched to stars and snowballed from there.

He had one other great score in Prague, as well as winning sunday 500.

His SN is SngWonder if people recognise him.

Pole Position for Piotr Tuczynski as UKIPT5 London’s Main Event Day 1b Ends

London, UK - 22 January, 2015

Day 1b saw a further 244 players swell the ranks of those vying for the first UK and Ireland Poker Tour title of 2015 at The Hippodrome Casino, London.

After just 30/143 survived Day 1a of the £770 Main Event yesterday, 73 remained tonight to bag and tag their chips after twelve busy levels.

The player bagging for longest at the final whistle was Polish qualifier Piotr Tuczynski, whose giant 332,100 stack puts him in the overall lead, overtaking yesterday’s chip leader Lawrence Bayley (265,000). Hot on his heels for much of the evening was James Dorrance, who finished with 247,000, while Gabriel Carter takes 206,100 into Saturday’s Day 2.

While Pratik Ghatge, Angelo Milioto, Vincent Meli and brothers Kevin and Richie Allen all remain in the running, the field lost several previous winners including UKIPT3 London champion Sergio Aido, PokerStars Marbella Festival winner Ludovic Geilich, and serial UKIPT casher Thomas Ward.

Click here for the list of all Day 1b survivors, with chip counts. http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-end-of-day-1b-chip-counts.shtml

Today marks another, final, chance to join the fun and competition of the Main Event with Day 1c (or take part in some post bust-out side events or cash games at PokerStars LIVE at The Hippodrome Casino).

Join the PokerStars Blog from 11am for continuing live updates

Day 1c Lead for Boatman as Bumper Field Swells Main Event Prizepool over £500,000

London, UK - 23 January, 2015

Day 1c of the £700 + £70 UK and Ireland Poker Tour’s London Main Event is done, and with a huge surge of final-flight entrants, the prizepool has been announced as £503,818, with £95,100 set aside for the winner. The total field ended up a healthy 742 players, and 216 will return tomorrow for Day 2.

At The Hippodrome Casino, the Matcham Room, PokerStars LIVE Poker Deck and a large lounge designated “Tournament Room B” for this event were all full to capacity within moments of the 11am start, and alternates joined the fray until 6pm. Among those taking part today were John Duthie, Fintan Gavin, PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo, Team PokerStars Pro Mattias De Meulder and Season 4’s Leaderboard Winner Dara Davey. Davey’s point (and cash) accumulation skills over the last UKIPT Season won him buy-ins plus accommodation to all UKIPT Season 5 stops, but he won’t be earning points in this event as he busted before the end of play.

The biggest Day 1c stack belongs to UK poker stalwart (and original Hendon Mobster) Ross Boatman, who with 190,100 chips now lies in 9th overall. Nik Persaud, Juan Riera Roig and Diego Gomez are close behind him with over 170,000 each, while Willie Tann – despite being one of the last alternates to enter the tournament (as was Boatman) – bagged up 169,300.

Click here for the list of Day 1c survivors. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxrimFRPN3ZPb1RYM1dQMC1HRTg/view?pli=1

Click here for all 216 Day 2 players in chip count order.  http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-start-of-day-2-chip-counts.shtml

Click here for the Day 2 seat draw. http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-start-of-day-2-seat-draw.shtml

Today’s turnout for the Main Event bodes well for the two-day £300 + £30 London Cup which plays out both of its starting flights tomorrow (at 1pm and 7pm), while more side events take place around Sunday’s final table, including a £150 + £15 Women’s Event starting at 3pm.

Join the PokerStars Blog for more live Main Event coverage as the Day 1 survivors play down to the money (a min-cash of £1,260 is guaranteed for 111th). Click here for full prizepool and payout information.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxrimFRPN3ZPUEtXSXhjTEQ1YW8/view?pli=1

UKIPT Lon 2015 55794
Mytton leads the race to the final table

Crunch Time in the UKIPT5 London £700 + £70 Main Event: Andrew Mytton Leads Last 26

London, UK - 24 January, 2015

The Hippodrome Casino, London has played host to 742 UK and Ireland Poker Tour Main Event entrants over the last four days (216 of them making Day 2), and tomorrow it will welcome back just 26. One of them will take home the top prize of £95,100 from the £503,818 total prizepool, while the first out on Day 3 has secured himself at least £2,730.

The overnight chip leader is self-employed builder Andrew Mytton. His stack received a crucial boost from a big pot in which his AK vs. QQ looked to be a disaster (with a queen arriving on the flop) only for it to river a flush, and he heads into Day two with the pleasing thought that, "It's my first day in poker I haven't lost a flip!"

The blind levels rose to 50 minutes today, the 25% extra time seeming to make little difference to the speed at which early eliminations occurred. Around half of the Day 2 field left empty-handed before four levels played out, including Gary Clarke, Ben Vinson, Dave Shallow, and Philippe Souki. The bubble burst with a final flip for Charlie Combes (his sixes no good against Guðmundur Gunnarsson’s A-J by the river) leaving 111 players to breathe a sigh of relief at having cashed for at least £1,260. Gunnarson himself finished 54th for £1,815, in the same payout bracket as Kevin Allen, Nik Persaud and Akshay Reddy. Both Team PokerStars Pros in the Day 2 field, Jake Cody and Matti De Meulder, min-cashed.

Click here to view the payouts thus far.

Of course, it’s the UKIPT5 London title that all Day 2 survivors will be aiming for, and the players at the top of the overnight chip counts will be feeling the excitement – and the pressure – of the final table’s approach. Mytton has 1,842,000 chips, Fernando Marin lies in second (1,376,000), while Christopher Nazer, Lawrence Bayley and Jamie O’Connor all topped the million chip mark too.

Still in contention with a more modest 377,000 chips is once-prolific player and actor Ross Boatman, who admitted that this was his first tournament since March 2014, as his appearance in the satirical comedy ‘Great Britain’ has kept him busy at the National Theatre. Another UKIPT rarity in the form of Andy Black returns tomorrow with 868,000, while Alex Bounsall, Hak-Man Lee and Rapinder Cheema all kept hold of sizeable stacks through the latter stages of Day 2.

Click here for the list of Day 3 players, in chip count order. http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-start-of-day-3-chip-counts.shtml

Click here for the Day 3 seat draw. http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/en/blog/ukipt5-london-start-of-day-3-seat-draw.shtml

The UKIPT5 London side event schedule goes into overdrive tomorrow (Sunday), with no fewer than three tournaments starting between noon and 3pm. The first side event is a £200 + £20 PLO Double Chance (12pm), followed by a £250 + £25 Turbo Super Deepstack (2pm) and finally a £150 + £15 Women’s Event (3pm). Visit ukipt.com for full schedule and structure information. Meanwhile the London Cup, which attracted over 300 entrants today, will play down to a winner starting at 12:15pm.

Join the PokerStars Blog for more live Main Event coverage from 11am,

Rapinder Cheema Wins £78,825 Along With the First Title of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour Season 5

London, UK - 25 January, 2015

The Hippodrome Casino has played host to UKIPT5 London since Tuesday, running satellites, side events and cash games while a bumper £700 + £70 Main Event field of 742 slowly dwindled to one. The last man standing was Rapinder Cheema who claimed first prize (£78,825) out of the £503,818 total prizepool after a heads up deal with London-based Spaniard Fernando Marin which bumped the runner-up prize up to £74,275.

The final day brought more than the final eight back to the felt, however, with 26 Day 3 hopefuls all guaranteed £2,730 but hoping for a good deal more. Andy Black, Chaz Chattha, Angelo Milioto and earlier big stacks Ross Boatman and Christopher Nazer were among those heading to the cash desk before start of day chip leader Andrew Mytton burst the final table bubble, falling in 9th place (£7,200).

Most of the chips at the start of the final table (click here for short player profiles) were fairly evenly split between Christopher Yong, Rapinder Cheema and Fernando Marin, and with a few bumps along the way, the latter two sailed into heads up play where eventually Cheema got the better of his opponent after a structure-flattening deal was struck.

Swedish pro Joakim Sorensen and UKIPT4 London winner Brett Angell were shortest-stacked, and busted first and second after finding spots (and hands) to shove and running into better ones. Sorensen’s 8th place finish was worth £9,138 and Angell’s 7th £13,300 – a good result but not what he’d have been hoping for when he’d had a chance to make UKIPT history with back to back London wins.

With the table quickly down a quarter of its players, online pro Lawrence Bayley - better known on PokerStars as SuperNova Elite 'bigstealer' - stepped it up a gear, busting taxi driver Paul Simmons in 6th (£18,600) and even Showing the Bluff after a big preflop five-bet against Yong, who didn’t seem to get off the starting block chip-wise on the final table. Yong’s stack took several hits (and occasionally gained some ground back) from active player Fernando Marin, until finally the last 14 big blinds of it went all-in preflop with A-9 – unfortunately against the pocket kings of Cheema.

As trainee solicitor Yong – playing his fifth ever live event - collected his £24,600 for 5th place, the all-in fortune pendulum was swinging Martin Hanham’s way. He doubled through Cheema for the second time on the final table, although Cheema’s healthy towers were soon restored when he first dented Bayley’s stack then eliminated him in 4th place (£31,000).

Three-handed play saw the larger battles rage between Cheema and Marin (the latter edging away) until Hanham, a tube driver with over ten years’ poker experience, lost his final race (eights failing to hold against the A-9 suited of Marin), finishing 3rd for £41,000.

Marin, after the deal which saw them leave £15,000 to play for, spent a whole level trying to turn chip advantage into victory. In the end, however, it was Cheema who first doubled through his opponent, and then busted him when a crucial A-2 suited (Cheema) vs. A-7 offsuit (Marin) got both stacks in preflop.

Delighted but exhausted, family man Cheema eschewed drinks at the bar after his first ever live poker tournament win to rush home and see his five year old child and family, saying, "I do it all for them anyway."

Final Table Payouts:

1st. Rapinder Cheema, United Kingdom, £78,825
2nd. Fernando Marin, Spain, PokerStars Qualifier, £74,275
3rd. Martin Hanham United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £41,000
4th. Lawrence Bayley United Kingdom £31,000
5th. Christopher Yong United Kingdom PokerStars Qualifier £24,600
6th. Paul Simmons, United Kingdom, PokerStars Qualifier, £18,600
7th. Brett Angell, United Kingdom, £13,300
8th. Joakim Sorensen, Sweden, £9,138