There are many poker tours and events that are aimed at the casual, recreational player, where the game is still taken seriously, but the atmosphere is decidedly lighthearted. The Festival Series is one that comes to mind, as is the Beer Poker Tour. Next week another tour aiming to achieve this same balanced combo of fun and poker launches, the Poker Experience Tour, holding its first event at Manchester 235. Pub poker games run by Redtooth also tick this box.
- Read More: Live Poker in the UK – What’s On in August
- Read More: Poker Experience Tour Manchester
But there is one event that stands out, head and shoulders above anything else in this category, the £100 Carer’s Trust Does Joker’s Wild, at the Grosvenor Goliath in Coventry.
This year’s event was an absolute belter, delivering an atmosphere that is unparalleled anywhere in the poker world. It is hosted by Phil “The Tower” Heald, who has been ever-present at the GUKPT thought its 19-year history. With Tower choosing the playlist, it was always going to be a 70s, 80s and 90s music theme and he did not disappoint, choosing songs that many people naturally wanted to sing, or even dance along to.
There was a significant Scottish contingent who led the party atmosphere, often disregarding the fact they had cards, standing up to dance to crowd pleasing anthems that rolled out, one after another. People doing this often had their hands killed by the dealers, but nobody cared.
The game itself is a novelty, but quite fun, especially when you are dealt the joker, which as the wild card, can be used as any card. You’re not guaranteed to win the hand with it, but most of the time that’s what happens. Defending champion Nick Slade loves the format so much, he wants to see it included on every stop of the GUKPT.
Slade tried, but failed to defend his title. He was not the king harlequin this time and had to settle for stage dancing and air piano playing during final poker-aoke sing-a-long of the night, a roof raising rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.
The field was the largest yet for this annual treasure, with 372 paying players getting involved. I resisted the urge to say “taking their seats” in that last sentence, as several barely sat down at all, choosing to play while dancing (often on top of their chairs).
£15 from every buy-in was donated to Carer’s Trust and along with additional donations for song requests and such like, over £10,000 (final figure yet to be confirmed) was raised for the charity.
There were also eight players taking part who had bounties on their heads, provided by PokerStars. Two of these made the final table, including magician Sean Heydon, who was strip searched before play began, to ensure there were no hidden jokers up his sleeve. Nothing was found and in fact it was The Tower who rustled up the magic, including making a five-foot eleven-inch chicken appear on the stage.
The other bounty player to make the final table was PokerStars’ Live Events Business Development Manager Julien Liarte, who probably dreamt up the bounty idea in the first place, or at least would have been the one to authorise its go ahead. Not only did he do a great job in making this happen, he made it to the heads-up stage and after eliminating Joshua Gaunt, was the last player standing. But he couldn’t cash in on his luck/skill combo this time and the top prize of £4,153 was awarded to Gaunt, while Julian’s share of the prize pool was donated to the Carer’s Trust.
Third place finisher Tarique Imam was bumped up to the runner-up spot for the purposes of the result sheet, taking home £3,106, with 4th place finisher James Jones securing third for £2,493.
But the real winner in this event was poker itself. It’s a serious game, but sometimes it’s fun to let your hair down (if you’re lucky enough to have any) while you play.
The only negative thing in the entire event was the ridiculous near-bubble stalling by some players. One absolute joker was facing an all-in for his last chip, having committed most of it to the pot, but sat for seven minutes doing nothing. His opponent in the hand had even turned his cards face-up and he knew he was behind. Even more ridiculously, he was on the button and would have had a full round before needing to commit his last chip. He was eventually forced to make a decision after another short-stack (me) on the adjacent table called the clock on him. He folded and made the money. I also squeaked into the payouts.
If you only play one tournament a year, you’d not be making a mistake by choosing this one.
Photos by Mickey May, courtesy of Grosvenor Poker and Jonathan Raab
