Sky Poker Gears Up for Its £1.275 Million UK Poker Championships
Anyone who has competed at a previous edition of the Sky Poker UK Poker Championships can attest to it being a fantastic poker festival, one that has an eclectic mix of recreational and professional poker players sharing one common goal: to win a coveted UKPC trophy.
Leigh Wiltshire triumphed in the inaugural UKPC Main Event back in August 2014, returning home with a comedy-sized check for £110,000. Wiltshire’s story was one that caught the imagination of the poker community thanks to him having qualified for the UKPC £1,100 Main Event for a single cent.
The UKPC returned to Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham during February 2015. Its Main Event trophy and £200,000 first-place prize headed up the M1 Motorway to Sheffield with the now reigning champion, Fraser Bellamy.
This week, the eagerly anticipated 2016 edition of the Sky Poker UKPC heads to Dusk Till Dawn for a six-day festival where at least £1.275 million has to be won across five tournaments.
2016 Sky Poker UK Poker Championships Schedule
| Date | Time | Tourmament | Format | Buy-in | Guarantee | Chips | Clock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 24 Feb | 7:00pm | UKPC High Roller Day 1 | One re-entry per day | £2,000+£200 | £100,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Thu 25 Feb | 12:00pm | UKPC Main Event Day 1a | Freezeout (re-entry next day) | £1,000+£100 | £1,000,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Thu 25 Feb | 1:00pm | UKPC High Roller Day 2 | One re-entry per day | £2,000+£200 | £100,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Fri 26 Feb | 12:00pm | UKPC Main Event Day 1b | Freezeout (re-entry next day) | £1,000+£100 | £1,000,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Sat 27 Feb | 12:00pm | UKPC Main Event Day 1c | Freezeout (re-entry next day) | £1,000+£100 | £1,000,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Sat 27 Feb | 5:00pm | UKPC 8-Max Day 1 | One re-entry per day | £500+£50 | £100,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Sun 28 Feb | 12:00pm | UKPC Main Event Day 2 | 50-mins | ||||
| Sun 28 Feb | 1:00pm | UKPC 8-Max Day 2 | One re-entry per day | £500+£50 | £100,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Sun 28 Feb | 5:00pm | UKPC 6-Max Day 1 | One re-entry per day | £500+£50 | £50,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Mon 29 Feb | 12:00pm | UKPC Main Event Final Day | 60-mins | ||||
| Mon 29 Feb | 1:00pm | UKPC 6-Max Day 2 | One re-entry per day | £500+£50 | £50,000 | 50,000 | 40-mins |
| Mon 29 Feb | 3:00pm | UKPC 8-Max Turbo | One re-entry per day | £500+£50 | £25,000 | 50,000 | 20-mins |
Kicking off the 2016 UKPC in style on Wednesday 24 February is the £2,000+£200 buy-in UKPC High Roller event, a tournament that attracted 43 entries in 2015, all of whom were outlasted by the talented Lithuanian Matas Cimbolas, who added £60,000 to his already impressive lifetime winnings tally.
Other side events include a £550 buy-in £100,000 guaranteed 8-Max event, a £550 buy-in £50,000 guaranteed 6-Max tournament, and a £550 buy-in £25,000 guaranteed 8-Max Turbo to round things off nicely.
While all of those tournaments are sure to be well attended, it is the UKPC Main Event that is garnering the most attention, which is what you’d expect from a £1,100 buy-in tournament that features a huge £1 million guaranteed prize pool.
Cheap satellites for the £1 million guaranteed 2016 UKPC Main Event have been running at Sky Poker for several weeks, and more recently at partypoker (due to its relationship with Dusk Till Dawn), so the standard of competition is likely to be softer than one would expect from a similarly prized tournament.
As is usually the case with live poker tournaments, the final starting flight, Day 1c on Saturday 27 February, is going to be the busiest day by some margin, which means if you want to play in this flight it would be best to buy in sooner rather than later.
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