UK News

Finales and Openings
Young pro Dan Carter, at the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour end-of-year party, said that he was heading for a bit of a rest after "what must have been the busiest month of poker in the world." He was one of many players having to pick and choose their events in November, with several excellently structured grand-final events putting an extra strain on bankrolls, but offering what turned out to be a great selection of no-limit hold'em tournaments.

No autumnal tournament came close, however, to the crowded feel of the Amsterdam Master Classics, which sold out almost a day before the event and left this year's players without the startling sound of €500 one-hand-turnovers being announced minutes before the ruthlessly punctual start. Holland's brightest poker stars wedged in next to players from around Europe and the odd American, one of whom, Michael Martin, rose out of day three into a commanding chip lead that propelled him to an eventual second-place finish, behind young Norwegian Trond Eidsvig, fresh from his European Poker Tour final table just weeks prior.

The Master Classics is a unique yearly tournament that boasted a fantastic structure before it was de rigueur in a main event, and it attracts those players who pick and choose just a few events a year to sink their poker teeth into. One such player was amateur Tristan McDonald, the UK's dark-horse finalist who got to enjoy the treatment received at one of Holland Casino's finals - a special entrance complete with personalised music between a parted sea of enthusiastic spectators crowding the venue. The atmosphere this year was exciting all the way through, as Dutch supporters cheered on Noah Boeken and Joris Jaspers, while Christian Grundtvig, Tony Bloom, Mikael Norinder, and Eric Larcheveque made up the full complement of finalists. Four days were nearly not enough to wrap up this large tournament, and Eidsvig and Martin found themselves playing the last stages of their heads-up match as the crowds permanently thronging this popular casino were thronging the coat-check, instead.

Back in the UK, Blackpool saw the penultimate leg of the GUKPT, won by Paul Bracken at a final table dominated by Paul Gardener and Paul Murrell, finishing second and fourth, respectively, while Leo Kam, Neil Channing, and Ben Vinson made reappearances. Those who preferred a €500 price tag on a similarly structured event made their way to Waterford, where Michael Trimby battled through some idiosyncratic play and 275 runners to take the Blondepoker Winter Tournament title. It seems that, increasingly, it is clashes with other local festivals that give the biggest headaches to organisers of established festivals and new tours and events alike. It is the hope of many players who would teleport between tournaments if they could that in 2008, a better level of communication in the forward planning of events will lead to fewer decisions having to be made and more poker played.

Adding to the wealth of choice that UK players will find before them next year is the Dusk Till Dawn club, which finally opened in Nottingham in November. Within two weeks, the brand spanking new club had hosted a gala press opening and a £500 event that was won by Steve Read. Many of those who had kept themselves up to date on the long struggle for the club's legitimate right to open as a poker-only venue through owner Rob Yong's honest (sometimes brutally so) diary went to have a look. Without exception, they came back satisfied that the behind-the-scenes team had done a great job of preparing for the opening, and provided a spacious new venue with plenty of potential.

One set of dates on the cards, as it were, for a long time was the GUKPT grand final at London's Victoria Casino, which attracted nearly 200 players, including the winners from the previous £1,000 events, a £3,000 seat being one of the extras added to the top spots by Blue Square; they'd also received watches and, more excitingly, £10,000. Although the field was led through much of the event by Van Hoang, Stuart Fox, Maz Nawab, and Mark Friedman, it was Michael Ellis who eventually emerged victorious after a hard-fought final table that also featured Simon Zach, Sami Yusef, Dave Barnes, Paul Moss, Carlos Barrera, Owen Lock, and Ben Vinson, a young English player with an impressive set of results for 2007 who eventually finished in fourth place. With no deal being made for the hefty prize money - nearly £200,000 for first and £100,000 for second alone - it was one of the cagiest and most intense finals in the UK this year, decided eventually on one huge Q-Q versus A-K coin flip that saw Yusef finally eliminated by Ellis.

Neither Vinson's performance at the grand final nor Leo Kam's ninth-place finish in Blackpool were quite enough to knock Dave Smith from his GUKPT Player of the Year position (the points accumulated over the year going toward this extra award), and his prize and trophy were duly awarded at the party at the beginning of December. Vinson won Young Player of the Year, which surely must have gone some way to alleviating his potential disappointment, along with the free bar. Also nominated for awards were Paul Parker - in both Best and Worst Dressed Player of the Year categories (he won the former) - and James Dempsey, who won the latter.

The success of the Grosvenor Tour was toasted with such dignified pursuits as the vodka luge, and while some established local festivals like the Walsall Midlands Masters might have seen numbers suffer recently due to the emphasis placed on the televised GUKPT, the overall impression of its first-year run is one of continued tweaking to provide a series of tournaments desired by and geared to players from all backgrounds.

Jen Mason is a part of www.blondepoker.com. She is responsible for its live tournament coverage in the UK and abroad.