Poker In Edinburgh Tonight

Edinburgh's best dive bar - Starbar - is holding a weekly pub poker tournament which occurs at 7.30pm on Mondays. Part of The Nuts Pub Poker League (as seen on Dragons' Den), the tournament is set. Heriot-Watt Poker. The Premier Poker Society in Edinburgh. Heriot-Watt Poker Strategy Tournaments.

The GUKPT is heading north of the border this week for GUKPT Edinburgh.

After two £1k Main Events to start 2017, the next five GUKPTs are £500 buy-ins with £100k Guaranteed and £25k+ for first place.

Edinburgh is one of the best places to play poker in the world – the Maybury Casino is beautiful, and of course should you bust out, you’re right in the middle of a beautiful, vibrant city with legendary nightlife.

Every bar in the Grassmarket area seems to have live music every night. The bars are open late, the beers are flowing and for those with the stamina, the clubs are just getting going!

Somehow, even though the Irish Open has been at Easter since poker was invented, GUKPT Edinburgh clashes with it this year, with the organisers taking it upon themselves to switch the Dublin event for the first time.

While that means I’ll be missing out on the Irish Open this year, it may mean there’s the possibility of overlay in Edinburgh too, as some players will no doubt head to Ireland rather than Scotland.

Grosvenor try and make the GUKPT a true tour of the UK, but with more than 20 casinos all big enough to hold a Main Event leg, and only around 10 held, it’s important for those that want the Tour to be back to support their local leg. Or if you’re thinking of travelling to Edinburgh, do it this year, you never know where 2018 will visit and whether you’ll get another chance.

Playing poker in Edinburgh is great fun. Like Blackpool, a lot of the players don’t really play anywhere else, so there’s a real local flavour to this leg, but not in an unwelcoming way – far from it in fact, they love to see big tournaments coming to their local casino, and the GUKPT is the biggest in Edinburgh, and all of Scotland, in 2017.

I have mixed memories of past performances in Edinburgh. Last year I busted with aces during the last few hands of day 1a, re-entered on day 1b and still couldn’t make it through.

I did have the pleasure of getting over it with a few pints in the Grassmarket which had a great double act of fellas on guitars singing Indie music, but the bizarre backdrop of Scotland’s favourite son Andy Murray getting knocked out of the US Open live on TV in the background!

In 2014 I did make the Edinburgh final table, coming fourth for £7,800. It could have been so different too, I got it all in preflop four-handed for half the chips in play with pocket queens against pocket nines, only to see eventual runner-up Jonny Gray turn one of his two outs.

Since the last GUKPT in Manchester, I’ve been in decent form, making it as close as I’ve ever got to a GPS final table, coming 10th in Sheffield for £1750.

Now I’m ready for Edinburgh and to do even better.

Remember, if you don’t have a seat yet, or want to win another to fire multiple bullets, there are five seats guaranteed online every Tuesday and Sunday on grosvenorpoker.com, and there are loads of satellites at the Maybury through the week, check GUKPT.com for details.

The best media team in the business will be in action in Edinburgh, where not only is there a full blog, but a live stream every day of the four day Main Event (two day ones remember!) with the voice of UK poker Phil ‘The Tower’ Heald in the commentary booth along with my good self and other guest summarisers.

My poker appetite is sufficiently whetted…if yours is too, jump in the car, train or plane and get to Edinburgh for the GUKPT, the best Tour around!

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9.20pm: Done for the day
That's the second starting day of UKIPT Edinburgh in the books, 358 players took to the felt today to swell the total number of runners to 612. A full wrap of what transpired over eight levels of play is on it's way and will be posted shortly. -- NW

9.10pm: De Meulder and Luske fall at the last
Both Marcel Luske and Christophe De Meulder were eliminated right near the end of the day. Here's what happened...

'I had 13,000 and tried to make a steal with position and A-8,' said Luske to me. 'I made it 1,800, another player made a small raise to 3,200 and I called. The flop was 8-9-5, I checked and he bet big, 6,500, I moved all-in for 9,500 and he called with queens. I'm fine with my play though, I think he does the same thing with Ace-Queen, Ace-King and King-Queen.

Whilst Jeff Kimber told me that Christophe De Meulder raised with A-9 and got one caller in the shape of left hand neighbour Vladislav Donchev. The Belgian Team Pro bet the flop and was called.The ace on the turn saw him fire again and Donchev called once more. He then moved all-in on the blank river and Donchev called with Ace-King and eliminated him. -- NW

9pm: Play done for the day
Play is over, in the last four hands two Team PokerStars Pros were eliminated, news on Marcel Luske and Christophe De Meulder's exits coming right up. -- NW

8.45pm: Last four hands
The clock has been paused and each table will play four more hands for tonight. -- MC

8.35pm: Kay gets paid
Dom Kay is up to 60,000, he told me: I three-bet from the big blind with A-10 against an active button raiser, hoping he'd jam on me, he obliged and moved all-in for 22,000 with K-J. I called, first card out was a king, but I flopped an ace and the turn and river were both bricks. -- NW
8.25pm: Nitsche and Grafton both out
Two of poker's bright young things have both exited this tournament in the last few minutes. I caught Dominik Nitsche's exit hand with my own eyes, he moved in for his last 5,850 with K♣7♦ and got called by an opponent with A♠6♠ and despite turning a flush draw, Nitsche didn't get there.

And, Sam Grafton is also out, unable to recover from a big hit earlier. He told me: 'I played well today, I didn't punt it off for once.' -- NW

8.15pm: Chip counts
Check out the chip count page as we've just updated a lot of the stacks of the names and notables.

For instance you can see that Jamie Dale is still in and on 35,000. -- NW

8.10pm: Over in a flash for Gordon
Chris Gordon's tournament had come to an end. The London City trader, who is also a talented amateur poker player, told us of his exit on his way out of the room.

He hadn't played a hand for a long time before he open-shoved king-queen in from under the gun. Another player re-shoved with pocket nines and a third player called with ace-king. Gordon was surprised, due to his image, that he got so much action. The river was a king and the third player scooped the lot. Gordon's going hand around and play some events over the weekend as he has travelled so far. -- MC

8pm: No come back for Matthias De Meulder
The first Team PokerStars Pro to fall today is Matthias De Meulder. He was down to just 3,600 and moved all-in over the top of Chaz Chattha's open, the latter called the extra off.

De Meulder: A♠6♠
Chattha: A♥Q♦

The board ran 3♦K♠2♦A♦Q♣ and after a quick chat with his brother De Meulder left the tournament area. -- NW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 300-600 ante 75

8pm: Never Bluff a local
Rob Yong was up to 100,000 but is already back down to 70,000 after, 'Playing like a fish and getting caught.'

Some went to Paul Romain who needs the money after he told us, 'Virgin cut off my phone today as I haven't paid my bill. It means I can't Tweet.' He's up to 55,000.

The other chunk when to Benjamin Burnhill who Yong couldn't believe would call all in for his tournament life with jack-ten; that was until he found out he was a local. It's fair to say Yong's antics are keeping all amused at his table. -- MC

7.43pm: Yong likes to mix it up
Rob Yong is up to around 100,000 chips after forcing Nicholas Jamieson off pocket aces in a big three-way pot.

We caught up with the action on the turn when the board read 8♥3♦2♥K♠. Jamieson was under the gun and led for 6,400, called by both Robert Boon (mid position) and Yong (button). The river fell 4♣ and Jamieson fired again, for 5,600. Boon folded to leave Yong to dwell. His cut the calling chips from his stack and threw them in, whilst announcing he was all in. It caught Jamieson by surprise as he was about to reveal his A♦A♣. Instead he gave it 20 seconds thought and opened folded. Yong flashed the A♠ and mucked. -- MC

7.40pm: UKIPT Edinburgh winner will take home £101,000
We've had the prize pool through from the powers that be and the headline news is that the winner of UKIPT Edinburgh will pocket £101,000.

Of the 612 players, 72 players will get paid with a min-cash worth £1,050, a final table appearance will earn the elite eight at least £9,750 and should you lose the final hand of UKIPT Edinburgh you can console yourself with £61,000. We'll get the full payout structure up on the blog at the conclusion of play today. -- NW

7.30pm: Thompson (almost) twins his stack with another stack
Patrick Thompson just won a huge pot and almost doubled up, although it's entirely his fault that he was 1,800 light on the double up.

There was about 3,000 in the pot pre-flop - indicating a pre-flop raise from Thompson (under-the-gun) and a flat call from David Campbell in the big blind. Either way the two of them saw a J♣5♣9♦ flop, it was checked to Thompson who bet 1,500, Campbell check-raised to 4,500 and Thompson went into the tank. When he emerged he moved all his big chips over the line - around 15,500 - leaving just 1,800 in green and blacks behind.

Now this is where it got interesting, Campbell made the call, but Thompson thought he had raised to set him in and so turned over his hand - pocket aces - however Campbell had only called. The floor was called and it was ruled that Thompson could take no more aggressive action in the hand and could only call bets from Campbell. The latter checked down the 3♥[10h] turn and river and showed pocket queens.

Players often wonder how much they leave on the table when they play a hand, in this case Thompson knows the exact amount - 1,800. -- NW

7.16pm: Kimber Climbing
Jeff '@jeffkimberpoker' Kimber is enjoying a fruitful day. He just Tweeted: 'Got 65k at 200 400, despatched a few shorties n flopped a set on the table livewire #UKIPTEdinburgh.' -- MC

Poker In Edinburgh Tonight Live

7.12pm: Those who failed to make it around the last bend
Algirdas Matas, Robbie Fisher-O'Brien, Robert Gregory, Francis Prewett, James Lafferty, Paul Gerrard Davies, Timothy Chung, Colin Myott, Lee West, Olof Sundin, Christoffer Svensson, Edward Lundon, Nicholas Lynn, Calin Ciufudean, Barry McMahon, Lee Atherton...

And... Andrew Leitch McAllister, Tor Gammelgård, Chris Hendry, David Somerville, Kris Pillay, KK Verma, Ben Jenkins, Jordan Allan, Richard Milne, Stewart McFarlane, Raymond Morris, Mateusz Warowiec, Terence Owens, Jamie Rhind, Brendan Ruane, Jurij Kolesnikov, Ryan Green, William Bennet, Wesley Oudshoorn, David Price, Renee Xie and David Johnstone. -- MC

7pm: Sam has to graft now
Sam Grafton seemed to be cruising today but lost a big chunk of his stack just before break and will have to rebuild in the last portion of the day's play.

He opened from mid position and Mark Ellis peeled from the big blind to look at the K♠3♦8♥ flop. Grafton continued for 625 and called when Ellis check-raised to 1,600. The turn was A♠ and Grafton called his opponent's 2,000 lead. On the Q♥ river Ellis slowed to a check and snap-called, and declared two-pair with K♦8♠, after Grafton bet 7,800. Grafton quietly mucked and is down to 13,000 or thereabouts. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400, ante 50

6.38pm: Last Break of the day
Quick 20-minute snowball fight for the players before the last two levels of the night. -- MC

6.35pm: Clyde-Smith takes a hit
Sajid Munir just put a big dent in George Clyde-Smith's stack, but got lucky to do so. Five players put in 600 a piece to see a 5♦2♣9♥ flop, the original raiser, who was under-the-gun, continued for 1,100 and Clyde-Smith and Munir were the only callers.

The J♣ turn was checked to Clyde-Smith, he bet 2,500, Munir moved all-in for 10,200, and after the other player folded, Clyde-Smith swiftly called.

Clyde-Smith: J♥J♦
Munir: 4♣3♣

The 7♣ river completed Munir's flush and kept him alive. -- NW

6.30pm: The woes of Team PokerStars Pro
Team PokerStars Pro is four strong today, but with the exception of Jake Cody, none of them currently have more than they started with.

The aforementioned Cody is chugging along on 23,500, although his stack is almost half that of the chip leader at this table, that privilege belongs to Liam Horgan who has 45,000.

A few tables behind Cody sits Marcel Luske, it's quite interesting to see that a number of players have stood up from their tables to take photos of him today on what is a rare appearance in the British Isles for the Flying Dutchman. He saw me eyeing up his stack, and ever the pro (and an old hand at this too no doubt) he cut it down for me and told me he had 14,000.

Neither of the De Meulder brother - Christophe and Matthias - are having a good time of it. The latter is down to 7,900 and filling times between hands to play a game on his IPad, some sort of Farmville type game unless my eyes deceive me. His brother is fairing only slightly better, as he's down to 8,700.

Poker In Edinburgh Tonight Night

It's often said you can't win a tournament on Day 1, but that you can lose it. Whilst none of the Team Pros is setting this tournament alight, the fact of the matter is that at least they're all still in with a chance of doing so. -- NW

6.22pm: Kings can't always be cracked
Dom Kay is up to 27,000 after cracking an opponent's pocket kings with queen-jack. He three-bet an early position open and then called a four-bet jam for 7,000 from the small blind after the original raiser folded. Kay was in bad shape until the board ran [8][10][7][9][2]!

James Honeybone is out after failing to crack kings. He popped by the press desk to tell us that called off his last 10,000 with pocket tens. It's a long way back to Brazil for him. -- MC

6.10pm: Lucky and good
Kevin Williams saw us eyeing him stacking up his chips, now worth around 35,000, and said, 'Better be lucky than good!'

He went on to explain how he busted Ben Jenkins and Nicholas Lynn in quick succession. Jenkins was the first one to go when he squeezed all in for 8,000 after a raise to 700 and a bunch of calls. Williams re-shoved with pocket nines and flopped a third to beat Jenkins' king-queen.

Lynn was a touch unlucky after his aces were cracked by William's flush draw. The chips went in on the flop and Williams hit his flush on the turn and faded the re-draw that card offered Lynn. -- MC

6.05pm: Chip counts
Here's another bunch of chip counts for you, keep an eye on the chip counts page as we're updating it throughout the day: Jamie Sykes (27,000), Dominik Nitsche (7,600), Richard Evans (21,000), Steve Watts (15,600), Chaz Chattha (29,500), Chris Dowling (34,000), Fintan Gavin (12,000), George Clyde-Smith (30,000) and Rob Yong (48,000). -- NW

Poker In Edinburgh Tonight On Tv

5.50pm: Stacks are a melting
Edinburgh has finally caught up with the rest of the country as it has started to snow heavily outside. This message must have got through to the following players who dumped their chips to go and build snowmen (probably not the real reason for busting):

Poker In Edinburgh Tonight Show

John Currie, Mike Panteli, David Knight, Tom Henning, Pablo Fernández Campo, Dennis Wilke, Jean-Pierre Gazian, Mikhail Tsernishev, Samuel Wardlaw, Jim Pallas, Martyn Frey, Wai Kwan Yuen, Mark Wagstaff, Kaida Zhao, Jason Glatzer, Osman Mustanoglu, Michael Whealon, James Howard, Lasse Oevre, Jonathan Nash, Jack Ellwood, Sam Razavi, David Phelan, Tom Gill, Kevin Monroe, Lydia Cugudda, Trond Tjontveit, Charles Denton, Matthew Mckenzie Ireland, Craig Matthew Goddard, and Edmund Catt. -- MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, 25

5.30pm: LeBruce LeChipless
'Seat open, table two,' was the cry from the far room and before we new it the diminutive, sad looking figure of Ian LeBruce walked past.

The local lad, who had cashed in the two previous main events, told us that his pocket kings couldn't stay ahead of an opponent's ace-jack. 'We had 40 big blinds each so it was an 80 big blind pot!' explained LeBruce. -- MC

5.15pm: Jenkins jettisons some chips
I missed the pre-flop action but joined the table to see Ben Jenkins (under-the-gun) betting 1,200 on a Q♣9♠3♠ flop, to his direct left, Richard Blacklock made the call, the other player in the pot got out the way and left those two to it.

The A♠ hit the turn, both players checked to see the [10d] complete the board, Jenkins led for what looked like 900, Blacklock made a swift call and showed K♥K♠, which was ahead of Jenkins K♠Q♦. After that hand Jenkins slips to 19,000 whilst Blacklock is back up to starting stack. -- NW

5pm: Romain has a hand as flimsy as lettuce
Paul Romain made a play. It didn't work. He is still going well on about 31,000.

He opened to 675 from mid position and was called by Alan Wilde in the next seat and Jamie Sykes in the big blind. The flop was revealed as 5♦4♠6♦ and it was Wilde who went wild with a 1,200 bet. Sykes stayed away but Romain made a crisp call to see the 4♦ turn. He check-raised Wilde's 1,200 bet up to 3,800. Wilde wasn't to be budged and called to the 9♥ river where both players checked. Wilde opened 7♥7♦ and it was good as Romain folded. -- MC

4.50pm: Cody slipping
The last level wasn't the best of levels for Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, he tweeted: '20k at the second break had to make some frustrating folds #UKIPT.' -- NW

4.40pm: Halfway through the day
Approximately 50 players who entered Day 1B have been eliminated in the opening four levels. Some of those to have had their tournament ended earlier than they'd have liked are: UKIPT third placed finisher Robbie Bull, Sergi Lloveras, Simon Deadman, John Wilson, Daniel Kind, Euan Cameron, Mark James, Serhan Cimen, Milorad Dobrijevic, Kirsty Anne Mcarthur, Matt Heap and Anthony Gray.

Of course one way to ensure that you're still in come level five is to show up late. That's the tactic that jet lagged Team PokerStars Pro Matthias De Meulder has used today, his late entry boosted the numbers to 357 today and a record breaking 611 in total. The Belgian is now sat next to Sam Grafton, perhaps he should've stayed in bed. -- NW

PokerStars Blog reporting team in Edinburgh (and their Snowman name) : Marc Convey (Squiggles Carrot-Nose) and Nick Wright (Old-Man Sexy-Lips). Photos by Mickey May (Fluffy Frosty-Buns)