Beside the Sea in Brighton and Barca
The Brighton leg of the
GUKPT saw Dave Smith, a finalist in the earlier Cardiff event, take the top spot and become fifth in the European rankings while pretty much locking up that tour's leader board for the summer. Dave, with characteristic tweed trilby on throughout the tournament, beat Neil Carr heads up after besting a final table made up of a mixture of previous big winners and regulars around the circuit, with the odd newcomer thrown in to make it interesting. Belonging to the first category were Barny Boatman (who made a quick exit in ninth place) and Rajesh Modha, the soft-spoken winner of the 2006
Poker Million, while the louder-spoken Roberto Romanello, Maz Nawab, and John Exley have been seen once or twice at the final tables of festival events. James "Flushy" Dempsey apparently moved to Brighton to be within walking distance of the Rendezvous Casino, and Albert Sapiano is a regular cash-game player back in London. The dark horse newcomer, by process of elimination, was runner-up Neil Carr, whose brother had bought him into the event, his first live tournament, as a birthday present.
Incredibly, that gift ended up being worth £50,300, and Carr showed a calm at the televised final table that was unexpected in a first-time main-event player, to say the least. A chess champion, he's presumably used to focusing under pressure, and the unavoidable luck element of poker (in contrast to his specialty game) didn't seem to faze him, either. He might have stacked his chips in piles of between eight and 13 for three days, and used unwieldy multitudes of the lowest-value chip to place his blinds (generally signs of those unaccustomed to live poker), but he'd clearly played before, and probably will be seen at other events after his debut success.
Dave Smith, in contrast, pops up at many a UK festival, although with the exception of his fifth-place finish at that previous
GUKPT event, his biggest cash so far had been £7,000 after he won a £300 event in Luton in 2006. Clearly on a roll, the idiosyncratically dressed Nottingham resident has had the year of his poker life, and undoubtedly will be delighted with his first prize of more than £100,000. He wasn't among those who made the next trip to Barcelona, however, for the
World Heads-Up Poker Championship, held in a city bathed in sunshine, containing more than enough distraction for those eliminated in the early rounds - like Brighton on a particularly good day, but more consistently pleasant outside.
The
WHUPC attracted a good number of other British players this year, including Dave Colclough, Marc Goodwin, Paul Zimbler, Paul Jackson, Ash Hussain, Barny Boatman, and Jac Arama (the latter two actually drew each other in the first round - and Arama was the victor). It's a popular destination due to the novelty of a €2,500 heads-up tournament, and the provision of decent side events, all being hosted at the Gran Casino Barcelona, in one of the most culturally interesting and beautiful cities of Europe.
One of those to make the short hop was Dan Carter, aka "the Kid" or "lucky scrote," an unknown to most of the European crowd, but who has nevertheless had an impressive year, displaying a calmly proficient manner at the table that belies his youthful appearance (although he's also been known to display a penchant for poisonous-looking blue cocktails after his working day is done). After coming in fourth in the
GUKPT £1,000 event in Walsall and second in a £250 event the following month, he is already proving sponsor Matt Dale of poker.co.uk right in tipping him for big things on the circuit. At only 19 years old, he's sitting Vegas out this year, but after the midsummer hiatus, the autumn tournaments within easy travel reach of England kick off again, with the
EPT, WPT, and
World Series of Poker Europe all lined up for those who are yet to be legally allowed to show their Internet-honed skills at the table in the US.
Back in Barcelona, Dan found himself lined up to play the Devil Fish in the quarterfinals, and the expected banter that has bullied much more experienced players over the years came from the Fish, while the Kid started off down but slowly evened the stacks and then overtook and knocked out Dave, the best-known of the UK's entrants to the competition. In a parallel match, Jeff "Jaffacake" Kimber beat Oscar Blanco Carrasco, meaning that two English players had a shot at the top spot. When they did eventually meet in the final (having left Mikko Lehtonen and Carlos Ilado Fabregas the semifinal losers), it was Jeff who dominated the match, taking the
WHUPC title. The two finalists had been enjoying the early summer in Barcelona, hanging out with other side-event-frequenting British players like James Dempsey, Rob Sherwood, and James Atkin, and it was a good-natured match between two successful online players who have every intention of attending live tournaments with increasing regularity.
Jen Mason is part of www.blondepoker.com. She is responsible for its live tournament coverage in the UK and abroad.
