The WSOP main event is just about to enter day 3 with 2,176 players remaining out of the 6,737 that entered! No sooner does the seven week WSOP festival start than the main event creeps up and then it seems all over for another year. My first trip was back in 1995 and I just worked out that I have spent over a whole year of my life playing tournaments and cash games at the WSOP.
I didn’t make the pilgrimage this year. Grosvenor were hosting some online qualifiers for the Colossus having run online satellites to Vegas for the first time in a few years. This followed their move from the sad state of online poker that is the iPoker network to the much improved and fast growing Microgaming network. I was due to be there on June 4th with fellow Grosvenor pro Jeff Kimber but sadly one of my best friends from university was getting married and the dates clashed. Vegas will still be there next year and hopefully this will be his last wedding. The ideas for Vegas next year are amazing with plans to take a much bigger contingent over and I’m really looking forward to that.
I considered going over just for the main event but I left it too late so good luck to all the Brits and all our friends that are playing – especially those that are still in! You can see the up to date chip counts and coverage here
One thing that people always tell me amazes them is the first time they go, the first time they walk into the Rio Pavillion and all they can see are poker tables, poker tables and more poker tables. All they can hear are poker chips being riffled and all the poker chatter. It is an amazing place to be. It is very different to many of the card rooms in the UK and around Europe that we have become accustomed to…except for…
The Goliath in Coventry. The Grosvenor Casino in Coventry is part of the Ricoh Arena and although the casino is pretty big with a decent card room it can’t compete with the Rio for numbers. It does have it’s own palm trees and waterfalls just like the Mirage though! However during Goliath week the casino and the Ricoh conference area become one. There would be no other way to try and host nearly 5,000 players for one live event in the UK. As you walk through the casino into the Goliath area it is as close as you are ever going to get as to walking into the Rio; the poker tables, the cards, the chips being riffled, it’s a sight for a poker players senses to take in and enjoy.
Last year the Goliath got 4,120 entries – a record outside of Vegas! Hopefully this year it could beat the magic number of 5,000!
The Goliath is an amateur deepstack poker tournament, now in its sixth consecutive year, designed to give new and experienced players a taste of what it’s like to play in a ‘Las Vegas’ style event. This year the guarantee is £250,000 for a buyin of just £100.
There are great cash games throughout the week (28th July – 7th August 2016) and many other tournaments including a 25/50 that I will also be playing the first weekend.
On Thursday 4th August there is a Joker’s Wild tournament (played with a 53 card deck and one joker). It is just a £25 buy-in event but has some great promotions. There will be 5 bounties (including Jeff and yours truly) and the ‘mystery’ bounties include added prizes of a £500 GUKPT seat, a 25/25 seat and a bar of chocolate. Grosvenor are also giving away a total of £1000 in high hand bonuses to 20 lucky players and every finalist will get extra online cash. It will be capped at 250 entrants and is sure to be popular. You have to register online and you can do that here.
Full schedule: Goliath 2016
For the Goliath there are loads of online sats with 350 satellite seats guaranteed and there are some big overlays expected. Open your Grosvenor account here and join us (all 5,000 of us) at the Goliath this year!
