London is where the very first Irish Poker Tour event took place in 2022 and it remains an important stop on the tour’s busy calendar. This year’s London Poker Festival takes place 4-9 November at Genting Stratford (previously Aspers) with a concise schedule, headlined by a £200,000 guaranteed Main Event, with a £355+£45 buy-in.
The full festival includes over £350,000 in guarantees, with a £400 (£200+£160+£40) Mystery Bounty kicking-off the proceedings on Tuesday 4th November, carrying a £50,000 guarantee. Other highlights include the £500 (£455+£45) London Omaha Championship (£20,000 guaranteed) and the London Cup, a £300 (£270+£30) NLH event with a £30,000 assured prize pool. There is also a £200 Women’s Championship and several other supporting side events and satellites.
There is a distinct absence of high roller events, with biggest buy-in being £500, for the London Omaha Championship, making this a very suitable festival for grassroots players and those with limited bank rolls. This is what’s on offer:
| Event | Dates | Start Time | # Starting Days | Buy-In | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| London Mystery Bounty | 4–6 Nov 2025 | 18:00 | 3 (1A–1C) | £200+160+40 | £50,000 |
| Tuesday NLH | 4 Nov 2025 | 20:00 | 1 | £125+25 | £5,000 |
| Wednesday NLH | 5 Nov 2025 | 20:00 | 1 | £125+25 | £5,000 |
| London Main Event | 5–9 Nov 2025 | 18:00 | 8 (1A–1H) | £355+45 | £200,000 |
| London 200 | 6 Nov 2025 | 14:00 | 1 | £170+30 | £10,000 |
| Thursday NLH | 6 Nov 2025 | 20:00 | 1 | £125+25 | £5,000 |
| London Omaha Championship | 7 Nov 2025 | 14:00 | 1 | £455+45 | £20,000 |
| Friday NLH | 7 Nov 2025 | 20:00 | 1 | £125+25 | £5,000 |
| London Women’s Championship | 8 Nov 2025 | 13:00 | 1 | £175+25 | £5,000 |
| London 250 | 8 Nov 2025 | 14:00 | 1 | £220+30 | £10,000 |
| Omaha 7 Max 4/5 Cards | 8 Nov 2025 | 19:00 | 1 | £175+25 | £5,000 |
| London Poker Cup | 8–9 Nov 2025 | 20:00 | 2 (1A–1B) | £270+30 | £30,000 |
| Omaha 7 Max 4/5/6 Cards | 9 Nov 2025 | 18:00 | 1 | £175+25 | £5,000 |
| Last Chance Turbo | 9 Nov 2025 | 19:00 | 1 | £125+25 | – |
Mystery Bounty Opens London Poker Festival
The £400 Mystery Bounty has three starting days, with its second and final day on Thursday 6th November, when the mystery bounties come into play. It’s the opening event of the festival, apart from a satellite for it, which takes place earlier on the same day. The first flight begins at 6pm on Tuesday 4th November.
The IPT has a unique way that it handles the bounty prizes, as there are two top prizes, one of which does not come into play until the final table. This helps to preserve the excitement of the event, as when the biggest prize gets pulled early in mystery bounty tournaments, it tends to dampen the excitement and kill the atmosphere.
| Date | Time | Event | Clock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 4 Nov | 18:00 | London Mystery Bounty 1A | 30 mins |
| Wed 5 Nov | 12:00 | London Mystery Bounty 1B | 30 mins |
| Wed 5 Nov | 19:00 | London Mystery Bounty 1C | 30 mins |
| Thu 6 Nov | 12:30 | London Mystery Bounty Final | 30 mins |
Reduced Buy-in for London Poker Festival Main Event
The London Poker Festival had buy-ins of £700 for both its 2024 events, however after the September 2024 edition ran into trouble meeting its guarantee, the buy-in has been reduced to a more affordable £400 (£355+£45) this time. The guarantee has also been cut in half and now stands at £200,000 and there are eight starting flights to choose from. The earlier starting flights are run on a 40-minute clock, with 30-mins for the ones in the evenings.
Players start with 30,000 chips and are permitted up to two re-entries per flight. The final hyper turbo flight takes place on Sunday morning, just before play resumes for the second and final day, run on a 10-minute clock. On Days 1A-1G, a total of 15 levels will be played. For Day 1H, the hyper turbo flight, just 8 levels will be played, with most of the early levels with very small blinds being skipped.
| Date | Time | Event | Clock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wed 5 Nov | 18:00 | London Main Event Day 1A | 30 mins |
| Thu 6 Nov | 13:00 | London Main Event Day 1B | 40 mins |
| Thu 6 Nov | 18:00 | London Main Event Day 1C | 30 mins |
| Fri 7 Nov | 13:00 | London Main Event Day 1D | 40 mins |
| Fri 7 Nov | 18:00 | London Main Event Day 1E | 30 mins |
| Sat 8 Nov | 13:00 | London Main Event Day 1F | 40 mins |
| Sat 8 Nov | 18:00 | London Main Event Day 1G | 30 mins |
| Sun 9 Nov | 11:00 | London Main Event Day 1H Hyper | 10 mins |
| Sun 9 Nov | 13:00 | London Main Event Final Day | 40 mins |
Satellites to the London Poker Festival
There are several live satellites included within the festival schedule and not only for the Main Event. Satellites to the £400 Mystery Bounty and the £300 London Cup are also scheduled, each with multiple seats guaranteed into the target event. There is also a satellite to the London Omaha Championship.
They are all run as target satellites, where players are awarded the seat when they have amassed a stack as big as the prescribed target amount, which is usually around 7-8 times the starting stack.
| Date | Time | Buy-In | Satellite Event | Guarantee | Clock |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tue 4 Nov | 14:00 | £60+10 | London Mystery Bounty Target Satellite | 5 x seats | 15 mins |
| Wed 5 Nov | 11:00 | £60+10 | London Mystery Bounty Target Satellite | 5 x seats | 15 mins |
| Wed 5 Nov | 15:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 5 x seats | 15 mins |
| Thu 6 Nov | 12:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Thu 6 Nov | 15:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Fri 7 Nov | 12:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Fri 7 Nov | 12:00 | £60+10 | London Omaha Championship Target Satellite | 2 x seats | 15 mins |
| Fri 7 Nov | 16:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Sat 8 Nov | 12:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Sat 8 Nov | 15:00 | £60+10 | London Main Event Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
| Sun 9 Nov | 11:00 | £40+10 | London Cup Target Satellite | 3 x seats | 15 mins |
There are also online satellites running, at both Paddy Power Poker and Unibet Poker, offering qualification paths into the London Poker Festival Main Event.
Previous London Poker Festivals
The London Poker Festival is the Irish Poker Tour’s away game to the UK capital and it is here that the tour held its very first event, in May 2022. That event was called the Paddy Power Irish Poker Tour & Championship and the Main Event had a £300 buy-in and a £100,000 guaranteed prize pool. It smashed way past that, ending up in excess of £150,000 and was won by Sergio Esteban for £22,500, after a heads up chop, in which Matthew Greig took the larger £27,500 payout.
In 2023, the stop was repeated, with a £400 buy-in and a £150,000 guarantee and once again it ended up well north of that mark, with 609 entrants and a final prize pool of over £210,000. This time it was won by Gary Miller, for £33,000, after a three-way deal with Paul Monaghan and Shawn Morales.
With two successful stops under its belt, the IPT then switched up a gear for 2024, rebranding itself as the London Poker Festival, with a stylish logo that wouldn’t look out of place on the London Tube map. The event itself was also re-invented as a bigger buy-in affair, costing £700 to play and carrying an ambitious £500,000 guarantee. But the ambition was also a reality as with 822 entries, the prize pool ended up just over the line, at £500,910. It was won by Jay Patel, for £79,370, after a three-way deal.
Onto the next one, which was held in September 2024, the first time a second event had been held in London in the same season. For this one, the buy-in remained the same, at £700, while the guarantee was adjusted down to £400,000. Although the January event was a stormer, the 2024 September edition was surprisingly badly attended, with the guarantee missed by a huge chunk, despite an extra starting day being added at the last minute.
The final total number of entries was not included in the published result, but 54 players made the money, suggesting it was no more than 540 players, as the tour typically pays out 10% of entrants. An overlay resulted which was around about the same as the £61,715 Matthias Kribben from Germany banked for winning, although 2nd placed Lei Wang got slightly more after a heads-up deal.
London has unsurprisingly only been scheduled once in 2025, with the IPT craic being spread to the rest of the country instead, with a Glasgow stop, which took place in March with a £400 buy-in. Over 800 players took part, generating a prize pool of £280,820. The 2025 London Poker Festival has the same buy-in as Glasgow, at £400 (£355+£45) and a £200,000 guarantee. Attendance is expected to rise again, at this more affordable price point.
Photos Courtesy of Irish Poker Tour
