UK & Ireland PokerNews Round-Up: New Champions, Career Highs & the Irish Poker Open
It’s been another busy week over at our UK & Ireland PokerNews site where new champions were crowned, players reached career highs in the rankings, and the return of the Irish Open confirmed. Keep reading to discover more.
The first of two newly crowned champions is Adam Bone, who was victorious in the inaugural partypoker UK Team Challenge. Bone outlasted a field of 349 in the individual element of the event and claimed the £2,250 first-place prize, while the team "Nits&Natter" scooped the team element and shared a prize of some £12,000.
A similar-sized crowd turned out for the Genting Luton Anniversary Cup, 339-players to be exact. As is the case in tournament poker, there can only be one winner and that was none other than Tom Kugelstadt, who was the recipient of £15,130 and a £440 Genting Poker Series seat. It’s been a good year for Kugelstadt, not least because he won a WPT500 Las Vegas package for free in a random draw at Dusk Till Dawn earlier in the year.
Keeping with live poker and the news that the Irish Open is set to return in 2016. Rumurs had been circulating that Europe’s longest-running tournament was going to be no more, but Paul O’Reilly and JP McCann have taken it over from Paddy Power and promise to give the tournament back to the people.
The 2016 Irish Open runs in March with its €1,150 buy-in €500,000 guaranteed Main Event being the showpiece of the festival.
Running right now are a couple of live events that look like great value. The PokerStars sponsored UKIPT Super Series is in full swing at The Hippodrome Casino in London, while the first leg of the newly formed Grand Prix Poker Tour, sponsored by partypoker, heads to Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.
Lastly for the live poker news, we took a look at who the biggest live poker winners from the UK & Ireland are. Unsurprisingly, Sam Trickett is way out in front, but the top 20 has some names in it that you might now expect.
Into the online arena now where one of Ireland’s most popular grinders helped himself to a career-best online score when he won the 888poker Whale tournament on Sunday. Kevin Killeen, playing as "SusanBoyle1," walked away with $34,547.49 after coming out on top of the 316-strong field. During the same night both Stephen Woodhead and Patrick Leonard enjoyed five-figure scores, while Rupert Elder reached two final tables.
There was good news for London’s Billy Chattaway after the latest online poker rankings were updated. Once the points were tallied, Chattaway saw his worldwide rank improve to 14th, which happens to be the highest that he’s ever been in the world standings. He has had a great 2015 and has a realistic chance of breaking into the top 10 before the year is out.
Lastly for this week’s Round-Up is the news that PKR is altering its business strategy and that strategy no longer has room for a Team PKR Pro roster. Both Eleanor Gudger and Dan O’Callaghan have been released from their roles as sponsored pros.
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