A round-up of live tournament news including new festival stops for PokerStars, and news of the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour Main Event in London, and World Poker Tour Borgata Winter Poker Open.
PokerStars have added to their live tournament roster.
The largest online poker room in the galaxy has announced plans to host five more 2017 PokerStars Festivals in South America, Europe and Asia.
We will begin South America.
PokerStars will hop on a jet plane heading for Chile May 20-27. The Festival will make camp at the Vina del Mar Hotel & Casino, a traditional home of the recent Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT) that last year attracted 565 entrants to its Main Event.
There will be 21 events with the highlights being a $1,650 buy-in PokerStars Festival Main Event and $3,300 PokerStars Festival High Roller. Players with smaller bankrolls will be interested in the $220 buy-in PokerStars Open and the $440 buy-in PokerStars Cup.
The other new South American stop is Uruguay. The Conrad Hotel & Casino in Punta del Este will act as host Sep 16-23, and the structure used in Chile will mirror the visit to Uruguay.
Europeans will be happy to hear that the Festival will be making a stop in Marbella. The popular United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) stop returns to Casino Marbella June 19-25. There are 17 events in the Marbella line up including a €1,100 Main Event and €2,200 High Roller.
And PokerStars will also venture into Asia with events in South Korea and Manila. PokerStars Festival Korea takes place July 14-24 from Paradise City, Incheon. PokerStars LIVE at City of Dreams Manila hosts the Manila Festival. The schedules for the two events are still under wraps.
The PokerStars Festival has already added one notch to the headboard with an appearance in London. Rehman Kassam defeated 944 entrants to take the first prize of £89,320 after beating in-form Daniel Harwood in heads-up action. Joe Johnson beat a field of 178 competitors in the High Roller to capture the first prize of £59,912.
There are also plans to hold PokerStars Festivals in King’s Casino, Rozvadov (March 2 – 13) and New Jersey (Oct 29 – Nov 6).
Daniel Weinman Wins The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open
Daniel Weinman has won the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Poker Open after he was crowned the last man with a seat out of 1,312 entrants.
Weinman, who won the competition on his 29th birthday, defeated a final table that included Bryn Kenney’s brother Tyler who fell in third place. Weinman went on to beat Nathan Bjenro in heads-up action to take the $892,433 first prize that included a seat into the $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions.
Final Table Results
- Daniel Weinman $892,433
- Nathan Bjerno – $524,964
- Tyler Kenney – $327,578
- Jia Liu – $275,081
- Richard Foster – $228,884
- Nicholas Immekus – $184,787
Weinman has now won over $2.2m in live tournaments. His previous best score was $280,260 when he won a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold ring in Dec 2015.
Other notables to run deep in the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open were Blake Bohn (8th), Tony Gregg (14th), and Asher Conniff (21st).
Michael Zhang Wins GUKPT London
Michael Zhang has won the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) London Main Event banking £113,000 for the largest prize ever handed out for a £1,100 buy-in event in the tour’s history.
It was Zhang’s third appearance at the final table of a major UK event. In 2015, he finished third at the UKIPT in Bristol for £26,500, and later that year finished sixth at the WPT UK Main Event in Nottingham for £40,000.
The event attracted 435 entrants including an appearance from Freddy Deeb.
GUKPT London Results
- Michael Zhang – £113,000
- Javier Zapatero – £74,000
- Fahd Bennanismires – £48,900
- Carl Pickles – £29,400
- Paul Siddle – £22,200
- Sam Meuse – £18,200
- Alexios Zervos – £14,400
- Muskan Sethi – £10,400
- Khoa Le – £7,800
- Daniel Barriocanal – £6,200
Former GUKPT Main Event winner Pryan de Mel finished 12th, Paul Romain was 16th, and Aditya Agarwal was 22nd.
