Colin McTaggart Wins GUKPT Walsall

The GUKPT headed to Walsall last weekend with 207 players finding the £1,000 buy-in for their seats. In a notably tough field, it was Belfast born player Colin McTaggart that took the honours. Colin faced 7 former GUKPT champions with only 23 players remaining but managed to steamroll his opponents on the way to a memorable victory.

A £57,700 first prize, the trophy and a seat in the £150,000 Champion of Champions tournament were McTaggart’s rewards alongside the satisfaction of beating some of the toughest players the UK has to offer.

Priyan de Mel Wins GUKPT Bolton

Priyan de Mel is becoming somewhat of a GUKPT expert right now. The UK pro’ has just taken down his second GUKPT title after beating a field of 146 players in Bolton. Priyan’s victory earned him a chunky £44,000 prize for his £1000 buy-in.

It wasn’t long ago that de Mel won his first GUKPT, also in the north west of England, at the Blackpool leg of the GUKPT in December 2009.

de Mel’s victory, from last weekend, meant he is now only the third player to hold two GUKPT titles. It wasn’t an walk in the park for de Mel either with the likes of Jeff Kimber on the final table.

GUKPT Gets a New Sponsor and Pro’

The Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) this week announced it was dropping their long term sponsors, BlueSq, in favour of their sister company GCasino.com. BlueSq, G Casinos and Grosvenor are all part of the Rank Group Plc company so the names might be different but the high standards of professionalism we’ve all come to expect from the GUKPT look sure to remain.

GCasino.com are set to launch their online poker room next month. That poker room and the BlueSq poker room will run satellite events to all GUKPT festivals.

Meanwhile, the GUKPT has announced one of it’s regular players is to become their ambassador for 2010…

Sky Poker begins the search for Total Player

Sky Poker have begun their search for a Total Player where the winner will be entered into three tournaments; a £100 Sky Poker Tour event, a £1,000 professional tournament and the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

The TV contest, similar to The X Factor, will have three mentors; Sky Poker analyst and author of ‘How to Play and Win at Poker’ Matt Broughton, former professional cricketer Ed Giddens and new Sky Poker analyst David Tuckman. They will be choosing the most creative players from the top 50 performing players in cash, sit & go and multi-table tournaments every week.

Tony Cascarino wins GUKPT Grand Final

Football legend, Tony Cascarino, has won the 2009 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London taking away £168,800 prize money. This is the retired footballer’s second GUKPT title, last year he won the GUKPT main event in Bolton.

Cascarino outlasted a field of 183 players in the 4-day £3,000 NL Hold’em main event. History repeated itself when Cascarino was joined on the final table by Stuart Rutter, both players were making their second appearance at the final table of this event. World Heads Up Champion Bambos Xanthos and high stakes cash pro Albert Iversen also made it to the final.

2009 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final

The Grand Final of the 2009 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) began yesterday at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London. The poker tour has visited many locations throughout the year and attracted some of the best poker players in the UK including Richard Gryko who won the 6th leg of the tour in Luton and Karl Mahrenholz who won the 7th leg in Cardiff.

As well as winning the Luton main event Richard Gryko won the £5,000 GUKPT Heads Up Championship on Wednesday after defeating Martin Silke earning himself £20,000. Earlier this week he took down the £1,000 NL side event for £23,600 which, alongside his heads up win, has put him at the top of the Player of the Year leaderboard which means that he could win the £20,000 Player of the Year prize.

Kara Scott confirmed as new presenter on High Stakes Poker

We recently reported that Kara Scott was rumoured to be joining High Stakes Poker as Gabe Kaplan’s new co-host. The UK/Canadian poker player and TV presenter has now been confirmed as AJ Benza’s replacement on the show.

Scott, who hosted the EPT in 2007 and 2008, will be acting as an on-screen hostess conducting interviews about strategy and table dynamics leaving Gabe Kaplan to commentate on his own. The sixth season of High Stakes Poker will follow the same format as Poker After Dark, which is produced by the same company.

GSN’s High Stakes Poker will feature a minimum cash buy-in of $200,000. It will showcase some of the best poker players in the world including Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Sammy George, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Andreas Hoivold, Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, Allan Meltzer, Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, Lex Veldhuis and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

The show is due to air in February 2010.

PokerStars announce UK and Ireland Poker Tour

The world’s largest poker site, PokerStars, have announced the launch of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). The tour, which starts in December, will be going to Ireland, Scotland and England throughout 2010.

This is excellent news for the UK as PokerStars are likely to attract huge numbers to the events. This new and exciting poker tour for both amateur and professional poker players will provide a first-class poker experience at an affordable level, so is bound to be a massive success.

The first UKIPT event will be held at the Radisson Hotel in Galway, Ireland between December 11th and 14th. This event will be part of the Irish Poker Championships. Qualifiers for the Galway event are now running exclusively on PokerStars. The first UKIPT event to be held in the UK will be hosted by the G Casino in Manchester between February 11th and 14th.

Broadway Casino Poker Festival Starts Today

The Broadway Casino Poker Festival begins this evening at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham. The week-long festival kicks off tonight with a £50 super satellite to the main event, for which there are 10 seats guaranteed.

The £100,000 guaranteed main event, which has two starting days on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th of November, is a £1,000 + £60 No Limit Hold’em tournament which will end on Sunday 8th of November.

A range of side events will also be taking place throughout the week. Here is a full list of events scheduled for this week at the Broadway casino: