The new year saw the first of the
£1,000 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour events sell out quickly in Bolton, the crowds attracted by the added money, play-favouring structure, and the fact that the tour is being televised on Channel 4. Even dinosaur televisions with no added extras will be receiving poker when the new one-hour shows start to air in the second half of 2007. Each three- or four-day event gets two shows, enabling the final table to be covered in a more thorough way than viewers may be used to - up to 30 hands, making the program more than the exits-over-substance type of coverage like that of the early
WPT, although stopping short of the no-gaps live filming pioneered at the
Paddy Power Irish Open last March.
The inaugural event gathered a bunch of the top UK players, along with those who'd been organised enough to secure a seat earlier in one of the online or land-based qualifiers. The winner was London-based
WSOP bracelet-winner Praz Bansi, who took the healthy top prize of £75,000 (£10,000 of which was added; no deals for that part of first place allowed). The structure provided a competitive final, and although Praz ended up heads up with his "Hit Squad" teammate Karl Mahrenholz, there was no question that the trophy and £3,000 entry to the
Grand Final event at the Victoria Casino at the end of the year were hotly contested. Third place fell to Ian Nelson, while New Zealander Greg Howard came fourth, the only gap in an otherwise UK final table - the other members of which were Damon D'Cruz, Alan Henson, Ray Wyre, Simon Nowab, and Joe Grech (in descending order of place finish).
It is possible that the profile of this tour will encourage entrants from further afield; it would be interesting to see how the British circuit players would react to a hundred aggressive Scandinavians descending on Plymouth, for example. But even if it remains comparatively local, the combination of main events into one cohesive package has spread this country's high-buy-in events evenly throughout the year and full fields look to be the standard.
For more Happenings in Europe, visit
CardPlayerEurope.com.
