With summer just around the corner, and all eyes on the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, this is the time of the year when the poker world is put firmly in the spotlight. But it’s not all about the celebrities and superstars tossing chips in the city of sin, we have plenty to get excited about here in the UK.
For many years the UK poker scene was on a gradual incline, but over the last few years, following a general world-wide increase in the popularity of poker tournaments both online and offline, the UK poker scene has exploded.
The UK hosts some of the biggest and richest poker players in the world, including Sam Trickett, Jake Cody, Dave Ulliott and Roland de Wolfe. It also plays host to a stop on the European Poker tour and most of the rounds of the United Kingdom Poker Tour. The UK is the second biggest country when it comes to poker and a handful of its players have achieved worldwide acclaim following victories and final table finishes in the EPT and WPT, along with a number of other high-profile events.
Sam Trickett has proved to be one of the most consistent poker players in the world, with reported casino earnings of over $20 million and WSOP earnings of over $11 million — $10 million of which came during a single cash in the 2012 Main Event. Trickett, nicknamed “Tricky”, began playing poker when an injury ended his promising sporting career, and he is currently rated as one of the richest players in the world, whilst Hull local Dave Ulliot’s winnings include cashes in WPT, EPT, WSOP and UKPT events.
The online players are also up there with the best of them, with Toby Lewis topping the bill as the highest ranked UK player. Lewis, from Hampshire, has an EPT title under his belt and as well as leading the way in the online rankings, he has also clocked up over $2.6 million in live tournament earnings. Lewis recently added another notch to his belt when he picked up a huge win in the Spring Championship of Online Poker, which is also known as the “SCOOP”.
The SCOOP, hosted by the huge online poker company Pokerstars, attracts millions of players all over the world. Magnus Martin and Phil Shaw, two more British players, also picked up big wins in SCOOP Omaha events, whilst YaAaRnY, Chelsea77 and floebbi, all from the UK, netted over $200k between them.
These are exciting times for the UK poker scene, and although many of its biggest stars are currently pitting themselves against the best of the best across the pond, a throng of amateurs and stars in the making remain on these green and pleasant shores to slug it out at grassroots level. At the time of writing, the Grosvenor Poker tour is in full swing in Walsall, with an army of emerging poker players hoping to climb to the top of the pile and make it as the next British superstar.
The United Kingdom Poker Tour continues to gather momentum and is now in its fourth year. The most recent winner was Duncan McLellan, who topped a pool of 1.223 players in Nottingham to scoop an impressive pot of £1.2 million. Duncan, and other top amateurs, will no doubt be looking forward to upcoming events in London and the Isle of Man, both of which have a cap of just 600 players and a waiting list of many more.
Despite Duncan’s huge win — the biggest UKPT win of the year to date — Max Silver leads the way in the tour’s rankings, thanks to his blistering performance in Dublin and his consistency on other stops of the tour.
The female players have also been flying the flag for the UK in recent tournaments. Liv Boeree, who has amassed over $2.5 million in career earnings, has been picking up cashes in Pokerstars sponsored events whilst Victoria Coren Mitchell recently made poker history by taking home an EPT title in San Remo, using Twitter to exclaim her joy, “I WON! I bloody WON!!!!!!” after netting a pot of just less than £400.000.
It’s going to be difficult for the UK players to topple the likes of Esfandiari, Seidel, Negreanu, Ivey and Helmuth, but with millions of dollars entering the country through live tournaments on foreign shores, online tournaments on Pokerstars and Full-Tilt, and an abundance of local events and tours, it’s surely a matter of time before these talented players can compete with the best of them. And whilst the US continues to face legal problems with online poker — suffering serious setbacks and diminishing interest as a result — online poker continues to be legal and widely available in the UK, creating generations of players who are eager to face the big boys in the States.