London Poker Festival

3 Sep 2010

The London Poker Festival is now in full swing. Exciting play is going on at the WPT London, and today it is Poker in the Park which is billed at the biggest poker festival in Europe.

Also coming up is English Poker Open and the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE). As well as these big tournaments there are a large number of small buy in events and sit-n-goes going on plus the British Poker Awards. It seems that everybody in London is playing poker.

The WPT London Classic is in session in the Palm Beach Casino in the Mayfair Hotel and 94 players remained at the start of day 2 but by the end all but 34 of them had been eliminated. Two big names to bite the dust were Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel.

By close of play the chip leader was Giovanni Safina with 508,800 chips. He was followed by  Tonio Roeder  with 424,200;  Talal Shakerchi with 357,900; Bruce Atkinson  with 344,600 and Philip Patrick  with 333,500. The two Brits Richard Ashby and Michael Greco remain in the action.

Altogether 171 players entered the London Classic contributing to a total prize pool of around £800,000 with around £250,000 going to the winner.

Poker is the Park is certainly worth a visit. Entrance is free and it really is a must for anybody with an interest in Poker who can make it.  Last year 20,000 people turned up and this year the organisers are expecting even more.

There is the opportunity to learn from the very best poker players, to play live poker, to attend poker lectures and presentations, and to participate in special poker events. Certainly the London Poker Festival is a great way to end the summer.