Genting Stanley National Poker Championships

Circus Casino Manchester, Mint Casino Southend, and Circus Casino Nottingham were the venues hosting the first-ever Genting Stanley National Poker Championships, over five days, with £150,000 in prize money guaranteed.

The £500 main event saw 187 players take part in Manchester, split over two days. With an £83,500 prize pool, this was serious business.

Day one seemed to be favouring the up-and-coming players rather than the professionals, as Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach, and Marc Goodwin all bowed out at the first hurdle. It was an online qualifier, Jack Powell, who was leading the field at the start of day two with a chip count of 77,150.

On day two, large stacks emerged from the field as we neared the prize money. The Betfred Ladies Tour Champion Lynne Beaumont was the bubble finisher, and received a chip set signed by the World Series of Poker bracelet record holder, Phil "Poker Brat" Hellmuth Jr.

The final-table placings were reached at the same time British Summer Time arrived, with five players leaving within two hours. Fifth place went to Graham Clarkson, who walked away with £5,840. IT consultant Richard Wong finished fourth, for £7,520.

This left Sanntu Leinonen and Hannu Korva from Finland, along with Omar Khan. Korva was the short stack, but a double-up and some more strong play meant that as the players left for the break, the stacks were fairly even. With £52,850 left in the prize pool, the players agreed to take £15,000 each and play for the remaining £7,850 and the trophy. Khan eventually took third when his A-10 ran into the queens of Leinonen, leaving the two Scandinavians heads up. Predictably, they split the remaining prize money, leaving the trophy and the bragging rights to play for. They both decided to go all in blind on the first hand. Korva was the winner, as his A-7 offsuit held up against 9-5 offsuit to take the title.

It was a thrilling end to a great festival.



Minted in Southend
The Southend event was hosted at the Mint Casino, with players travelling from London and surrounding areas, as well as a good contingent of online qualifiers from Scandinavia and Poland.

The main event at Southend attracted some well-known names, such as Paul Parker, Dave Barnes, and Scott O'Reilly, who were among the 160 runners playing for the £80,000 prize pool. Joining them were Poker in the Pub qualifiers Jim Weekes, Sue Norsworthy, Andy Corcoram, and Frank Jones, as well as England rugby players Chris Sheasby and Dan Scarbrough.

Day one ended with 63 players remaining, with Hassan Mustapha leading the way with 72,200 in chips. Other notable contenders included Kevin O'Leary in third place and Frank Jones, the Poker in the Pub player, in seventh place.

Day two saw notable casualties, such as O'Leary and the remaining Poker in the Pub representative Jones, who departed 30th. Scott O'Reilly was very successful as a hit man, claiming multiple scalps without ever really building a big stack. However, he was still in when play finished on day two with 13 players remaining.

Day three started with Ian Brennan holding the chip lead with 200,500. The final table was soon reached and Mike Cummings began a remarkable run. After going all in with 9-3 and getting the dreaded call by Darryl Reed, it looked like his tournament might be over when Reed showed Q-10. His future looked even more in doubt when the flop came A-K-5. However, a 5 on both the turn and river meant a split pot, and Mike survived. An hour later, after going all in, Mike was called by Stephen Newstead. The flop offered no help to either player, but then the board was paired on the turn, and the river gave Mike another split pot.

With five players remaining, a deal was reached, giving each competitor £11,500. They then proceeded to play for the trophy, with Tony Chapman coming out on top.

Circus Maximus
The main event at Nottingham (held at the Circus Casino) started with 89 players and a prize pool of £44,500 that was topped up to £50,000 by Genting Stanley. There were six Poker in the Pub representatives taking part against some very experienced players.

By day two, we were left with 50 players looking to survive and build their stacks for the final table on the following day. The chip leader was Thomas Lind with 77,750 in chips, followed closely by Pete Linton, who was looking to build on the success of his 11th-place finish at the Irish Open a few days previously.

As the final table neared, we still had one Poker in the Pub player left, Gary Figg. He had been a short stack throughout the tournament, but as the final table was reached, he found himself in fifth place with 62,800 in chips. The £100 freezeout winner Nichiei Hicks was also at the table with 81,300.

Soon after the break, Figg finally departed in sixth place after showing that he can cope under the pressure of a big tournament.

Nichiei Hicks was still at the table and became the chip leader when he knocked out Pete Linton, who was trying to steal a pot. Twenty minutes later, Adam Gerhart went out in fourth place when his K-Q failed to improve against the A-Q of Thomas Lind. With the departure of Amar soon thereafter, Hicks and Lind were left heads up for the title. They played for more than an hour before deciding to evenly split the prize money, with Hicks being crowned the champion on a chip count. It was a fantastic effort by Hicks, who became one of the few players to win a main event and a side event at a major festival.



Overall, it was five fantastic days of poker. The Manchester and Southend events went superbly well, and although the Nottingham main event was short on numbers, it was still an enjoyable tournament for all concerned. The players appreciated that Genting Stanley topped up the prize pool at Nottingham to reach £50,000. In all, just under £250,000 in prize money was paid out.

Thanks go to the entire staff at Genting Stanley Casinos, who worked behind the scenes to ensure that the tournaments went off without a hitch. We will be looking forward with relish to future events, where we can build on the success of the first-ever GSNP Championships.