This year’s Grosvenor Goliath festival promises to be the biggest yet after a record-breaking year in 2022. The Goliath festival is taking place slightly earlier this Summer and will run from July 27 to August 6 at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the Midlands.
The Goliath Main Event is Europe’s biggest live poker tournament and – aside from the online years of 2020 and 2021 - has broken records every year since it first took place in 2011. Organisers are predicting a prize pool of over £1.5 million for the £150 buy-in Main Event. 2023 marks the 11th edition of the event and organisers are expecting that this year’s Main Event will easily top last year’s record-breaker which attracted a staggering field of 10,584 entries to create a £1,270,080 prize pool.
MainEventTravel.com, Official Travel Partner for Goliath and the GUKPT, is recommending all players bag their rooms now to take advantage of lower rates and make sure they get to stay exactly where they want.
It’s not just the Main Event which promises to make this year's Goliath an absolute epic. This year’s festival features more than 20 tournaments including – for the first time ever – a £3500k Super High Roller.
The Goliath Main Event
The £150 buy-in Goliath Main Event will get underway on July 29 with eight different starting flights over seven days. Flight A is on July 29 at noon with the final two start flights taking place on August 4 - Flight G at 11am and the Flight H turbo starting at 6pm. Late registration will be open until the end of Level 10 for all starting flights with all players sitting down to a 25,000 starting stack.
Each Day 1 flight will last for 18 x 30-minute levels. The Day 1h turbo will have 15-minute blind levels. Satellites are already underway on Grosvenor Poker enabling hundreds of players to win their way into the Goliath Main Event online.
Last year’s Main Event was won by North Lincolnshire native Kyle Jeffrey (pictured below) for £200,000. Jeffrey, who travelled down from Scunthorpe with a bunch of friends, was competing at his third Goliath event. He said: “The money is life-altering! I can do so much with it. I can’t wait. But I’m going to be doing a lot more poker, that’s what I’m looking to do going forward.”
Among those hoping to compete at this year’s Goliath is GUKPT Luton champion David Docherty. Docherty just took down the Irish Open for €365,000 after beating a record 2,491-entry field in Ireland’s biggest ever tournament.
Goliath side events
For the first time ever, this year’s Goliath festival will feature a one-day £3,500 Super High Roller, taking place on August 3. The festival will open with the £1k GUKPT Main Event on July 27 with three starting flights and two re-entries allowed per flight. Other highlights include a £2k two-day High Roller (starts July 30), a two-day £100 Women’s Championship (starts July 29), a series of RedTooth events, a two-day £550 Goliath Cup, a £200 + £200 + £40 Mystery Bounty (with two starting flights – Day 1a on July 30), a £200 PLO tourney, the £100 Joker’s Wild event supporting the Carer’s Trust, the £120 APAT Open Championship and a £150 Seniors tournament.
The Joker’s Wild event, which raises money for the Carers Trust, is a fun tournament hosted by live stream commentator Phil “The Tower” Heald who acts as MC for the night. There’s a Joker in every pack which can be used as any card at all to add a really fun dynamic.
Last year, the GUKPT Main Event was won by rising star Jack Hardcastle (pictured below with friends) for £125,450 with Ireland’s Ciaran Duffy taking down the £1,500 Goliath X High Roller for £61,750. Guy Taylor won Goliath’s first-ever Mystery Bounty tournament for £39,440.
Grosvenor Ambassador Jamie Nixon, who won his first GUKPT Main Event title in London last December, said: “I’m delighted to see the Goliath schedule has been released. Now it’s out, the excitement has really kicked in! I love the fact that the festival is so varied with tournaments for our loyal Redtooth players, who make the Goliath what it is every year, right through to the new Super High Roller, which I’m absolutely buzzing for! Having that excitement for all buy-in levels really puts us on par with the atmosphere at the WSOP! And that’s what it is – the “WSOP of the UK” and the highlight of the year for so many of us!”
Anyone wishing to play this year’s Goliath is strongly encouraged to plan ahead by booking their accommodation with MainEventTravel, the Goliath Official Travel Partner.
Photo Credit: Grosvenor Poker
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