WPT Career Highlights Value Rank; Career Earnings $ Cashes: Final Tables: Titles: WPT Career Stats Recent Tweets @WPT Tweets by @wpt. Total life earnings: $159,700. Latest cash: $2,258 on 07-Nov-2019. Click here to see the details of Jamie Sykes' 26 cashes.

In the summertime when the weather is high, you can stretch right up and touch the sky. When the weather’s fine – you got poker, you got poker on your mind….

While the worlds attention maybe focused on some small town poker tournament called the World Poker Series or something held in the depths of the Nevada desert (it’ll never catch on if you ask me…) there is still plenty of poker out there in the UK for you discerning poker junkies to sate your urges.

Both Grosvenor Casinos and Coral are keeping Britain as the land of poker hope and glory with their GUKPT Summer Series and the Coral British Masters Poker Tour for those of you not flush enough to pony up $10,000 or just plain not lucky enough to win a WSOP seat online.

With the events ranging from £100 freeze-outs (at the CBMPT), £200 Freeze-outs (GUKPT & CBMPT), £300 freeze-outs (GUKPT) and the £500 main events (both the GUKPT & CBMPT) this summer is a pretty good one for you British poker players.

British Master Class

After being fortunate enough to win myself a seat online at www.eurobetpoker.net for the princely sum of $75+5 (well, technically nothing as this was just a small fraction of my online profit this month after a successful assault on the Pot-Limit Omaha tables courtesy of Rolf Slotboom’s short-stack PLO strategy ;)) I was in sunny Leeds last weekend (19–21 June) for the Coral British Masters.

While I was unable to convert my online success into a cash – I busted in 50th out of the main event when my short-stacked shove for 6,500 at the 300/600 level with Pocket Kings ran into the mighty Ace-Jack with all the money in the middle pre-flop (guess the first card out…) – another Welshman in the form of Carl Williams managed to cash.

Admittedly it was only for £250, but being as Carl had qualified online for next-to-nothing (around $10 I believe) this was still a pretty decent ROI, and being as I had 10% of him I managed to earn myself £25 as well. Granted that’s not quite as impressive as winning a World Series bracelet, but money won is still twice as sweet as money earned.

CBMPT Leeds Champion Tom MacDonald. Image courtesy of A World of Poker.

Congratulations go to 18-year-old Tom MacDonald who saw off 93 other players to reach heads-up with over a 3–1 chip lead. After seeing off a spirited challenge from runner-up Jamie Sykes he bagged a bankroll boosting £15,400 for his troubles, with Mr Sykes earning himself a cool £10,000 in the process for second place.

My disastrous run of tournament form continued in the £100 freeze-out and after getting down to the final 20 with around 35k in chips at the 800/1,600 level the wheels fell off…

I managed to lose two massive back-to-back pots, both while holding Ace Queen; the first was pretty standard, a guy with around 20k shoved my blind from the button and being as he had looked eager to get his chips in the middle for a while, when I looked down to see Ace Queen of spades in the Big Blind I was pretty sure I was in front.
Sure enough after making the call my big chick was dominating the gentleman’s Ace Four of diamonds, until he flopped a Four…
Running Ten’s and Seven’s saw me chop the pot (apparently I’m the lucky bastard here…) so one 72% v 23% (the other 5% is a chop) down, one more to go…

Just a scant two hands later I find myself on the Button with… Ace Queen. I raise to 4,000 the Big Blind glances at his cards and instantly moves all-in. Now personally, I don’t think that he’s doing this with a hand here, maybe a rag Ace or small pocket pair at best so it doesn’t take long for me to make the call.

‘Fucking hell, I’m in bad shape’ mumbles the gent in question as I call and he’s sees my Ace Queen, and he turns over Ace Nine off…
Blank, blank, blank, blank… Nine on the river sees me left with just one Big Blind and a bad taste in my mouth and I’m out in 19th on the next hand when my bag of spanners fails to connect with the flop.

But then, that’s tournament poker for you…
You can read all about the action and adventure at uk.pokernews.com as I’ve just submitted a feature for their website.

On the plus side I managed to come away with a £500 profit from my escapades on the cash tables (£350 of which I made in 10 minutes at one table…) so life’s not all bad.

The atmosphere surrounding the Tour is as friendly as the Gala Tour, and with a lot of the same faces and the fact that you can play in all three tournaments and pay for your hotel for the price of just one GUKPT, it is a pretty good value poker weekend.

The next leg is 24–26 July in Teeside, followed by the Nottingham leg on 14–16 August. Qualify online at www.coralpoker.com, www.galapoker.co.uk and www.eurobetpoker.net for as little as nothing as they are running a series of freerolls from 6pm every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday or visit www.britishmasterspokertour.co.uk for more details.

GUKPT Summer Series

GUKPT Aberdeen Summer Series Champion John Angus. Image courtesy of BlueSquare/GUKPT

Not to be outdone, Grosvenor Casino’s are also running their Summer Series. Their second event was held up in Aberdeen last weekend (yes, an unfortunate schedule clash with the CBMPT which probably explained the low number of runners) where retired accountant John Angus (insert Burger King joke here…) saw off the 41 other runners to win himself £7,870. Congratulations to Black Belt Poker blue belt and Poker Player Strategy Editor Nick Wright on his third place finish for £3,780. It’s always nice to see a fellow poker journo win some glory, and Nick is an all round nice guy anyway.

The last event of the Summer Series will be running this coming weekend (25–18 June) in Walsall so you can still get your Summer of Shove tournament fix here.

Needless to say I and several other members of Cardiff’s poker mafia (the Tafia ;)) will be attending and will be writing an article on it for Poker News.

The quality of play and the value at these tournaments is immense, so while the majority of the poker world focuses on Las Vegas, don’t forget there is still poker to be played and money to be made on this side of the pond as well.

Visit http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/summer_series.shtml
for more info or qualify online at BlueSquare.com.

Micro-stakes madness…

Unfortunately as my focus both online and live has been on the above I have not had a chance to play any poker relating to my Micro-stakes Mission, but as this is a work in progress, rest assured I will be grinding it out at the lower levels in an attempt to win fortune and glory in the coming weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Well I’ve got me a few features to write before the weekend so I’ll sign off until Monday where I’ll let you know all about the GUKPT Summer Series in Walsall and probably bitch about my bad beats 😉

Keep it real folks, and if all else fails… try Wales.

Tidy.

Tags: A World of Poker, AWOP, British Poker, CBMPT, Coral British Masters Poker Tour, Grosvenor Casinos, GUKPT, GUKPT Summer Series, poker, Poker News, tournament poker, WSOP

Playing at the Beach

Everyone loves summer, whether it’s an ice-cream and a trip to the seaside or a balmy evening when it feels like the sun will never quite drop below the horizon. But the middle of the year is also one of the busiest times of the year for cash games, and never more so than at The Palm Beach casino in London’s Mayfair district.

As the capital welcomes millions of tourists every summer, plenty of those are poker enthusiasts who make it to the grandest of casinos on Berkeley Street to test their mettle against players from across London. With a mix of regulars and pros attending most nights, the scene is a thriving one, with high demand for a seat to the game, which kicks off at 8.00pm every night. But what makes the heat of the action at ‘The Beach’ so special? We spoke to London poker pro and industry favourite Jamie Sykes, asking first why The Palm Beach is his choice of venue.

‘Well there are a few reasons. First and foremost, there is daily £5/£10 and above action which other rooms in London can't offer reliably. I also enjoy the more intimate setting of a three-table cardroom with a small team of chatty staff who know all of the regulars. It gives the room an intimate atmosphere which coupled with a plush, clean and cosy environment results in a very pleasant place to play poker.’

It’s rare these days to see a cardroom put player comfort above sheer footfall, especially in London. But as Jamie describes, The Palm Beach is about people rather than numbers.

‘I really like the emphasis on experience rather than volume, spearheaded by the Cardroom Supervisor Charlotte Eaton, whose stern yet ultimately caring approach has maintained the ecosystem which I have known and loved for the best part of five years.

It’s no accident. We obviously work with ‘Charlie’ closely, and no-one puts players first like her and all the team at ‘The Beach’. The friendly atmosphere has never been better, which chimes loudly with calls recently from players of all levels to bring the element of fun back to poker games across Europe. As one of Europe’s most prized cardrooms, it is vital that players have a great night out whatever level they are at in the game. Jamie Sykes is sure that the management’s work in maintaining this treasured aspect of The Palm Beach is what keeps players coming back.

‘It has resulted in a very positive atmosphere and the emphasis is on every type of poker player being able to have the best experience possible.’

It’s important to us at Genting Poker London as we’ve shown, but how significant is it to players like Jamie to have staff who aren't just 'at work' but genuinely enjoy the game?

‘It is paramount. I don't think I'm overstating it to say that cardrooms are delicate ecosystems which need maintaining. If you have staff just clocking in and out, the atmosphere becomes stale. In a stale atmosphere, players aren't encouraged to chat to each other, which means less action, less competition and less frivolity. Games are made or broken by the tone of the dealer and competency of the management.’

Strong words, and ones which we’re sure many professionals would strongly agree with. So what has been the most memorable night for Jamie? We couldn’t resist pressing him for a decision on that!

‘My most memorable night was about a year ago playing £10/£25 with a hilarious man who I believe owns a bank in Saudi Arabia, who attended with a few of his friends. He is probably the friendliest person I've ever met (as evidenced by his compulsion to not only buy everyone in the room a drink but give them an over-the-top dramatic kiss on the cheek, regardless of gender). As a table we drank in excess of 15 bottles of white wine and needless to say our friend was all-in most hands. By the end of it, I felt like I’d had three of four small heart attacks and there was enough money on the table for most people to buy a house with. I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a poker table in my entire life!’

It sounds like an unforgettable night, but there are plenty of those at The Palm Beach Casino. Make sure you take your seat from 8.00pm any night to sample the action at the hottest tables in town!

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