Whether you are a fan of poker, a poker player or just a degenerate action junkie; then you could be making worse decisions that to be heading to the smoke right now. The London Poker Festival is surging forward courtesy of PokerStars and the European Poker Tour (EPT) with the action bisected between the Grosvenor Victoria Casino and The PokerStars LIVE poker room at the iconic Hippodrome.
The London Poker Festival is designed to include cake that anyone can take a bite out without getting too fat. It doesn’t matter if you are a working class man, like me, or win and lose millions on the stock market, like Dan Shak, the festival has something for everyone.
It started out with the United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Main Event: a modestly priced £700+70 buy-in that often sees just the right blend of amateurs and professionals. Rising Spanish star, Sergio Aido, showing Luke Schwartz that the Spaniards can play poker by picking up the title and £144,555 in prize money, just a few months after taking down the World Poker Tour (WPT) National Series in Barcelona for $115,20. I mention Schwartz, as I was lucky enough to watch him losing a hand against Adria Balaguer in the EPT Day 1A Main Event. After losing the hand Schwartz launched a blistering tirade onto the little Spaniard.
“You’re the luckiest f**king fish in the world…You have zero table presence…Even my sister is harder than you…I bet you don’t even make the money, I’ll bet you your net worth…You’re just a shy little Spanish guy…There’s never been a good Spanish player… You only had two outs…I’ve seen 15 year-old girls with more table presence…”
Let it all out Luke…let it all out.
With the UKIPT Main Event in the bag, it was time for the UKIPT High Roller to take center stage – or ‘The £2k’ as it was more affectionately known amongst The Vic residents. 246-players entered and it was the relatively inexperienced Marc Daubach who took the first prize of £101,950 after successfully navigated his way through a tough final table that contained the likes of Byron Kaverman, Joao Barbosa and former EPT Champion Zimnan Ziyard.
The EPT Main Event has rolled into its second day of action at the time of writing and the chip leader is that little Spanish starlet Sergio Aido, with his countryman Adria Balaguer sitting in third place. But don’t worry; they won’t be there for long, just ask Luke Schwartz.
