Following the stonking success of the debut UK Poker Open – which created a record Main Event prize pool of nearly £1.5 million last week – Grosvenor fans are very buoyed up for the next Grosvenor event in Blackpool.
GUKPT Blackpool takes place March 16 to 23 with a hectic schedule featuring a total of 18 different tournaments. The regular GUKPT roster includes a £1,250 buy-in Main Event, the £250 Mini Main (which starts on March 19), the £2,000 High Roller, a PLO 4/5/6 Card tournament, the £550 GUKPT Cup, the £150 Seniors event and a £200 + £40 + £200 Mystery Bounty – not to mention numerous satellites.
Blackpool players also get the chance to compete in a very special charity event known as the “Kav Cup”. This capped, fundraiser tournament was first held back in 2015 when popular player Derek Kavanagh (pictured below) was fighting cancer. Kav sadly died in 2017 but his name lives on with the annual £60 buy-in fundraiser.
GUKPT Blackpool runs March 16 to 23 so make sure you have your room sorted with MainEventTravel, the GUKPT’s Official Travel Partner. GUKPT Blackpool takes place right on the seafront – just seconds away from the pier, promenade and famous Blackpool Pleasure Beach – and lots of the best hotels are filling up very fast.
As Jeff Kimber wrote: “Hundreds of people turn out for the Kav Cup, to play some cards and raise a glass to Kav as he battles on without ever once moaning and asking the question his lovely wife, his daughter and all us lot keep repeating – why him? More than that, it shows what a joy the poker community can be. One little fella with a beaming smile on his face who plays regularly in the Grosvenor has made so many mates in this game of ours that would do anything for him, just as he’d do anything for them. Kav often used to say ‘this train don’t stop’ and while he eventually succumbed to cancer, he was an inspirational man.”
This year’s Kav Cup takes place on March 18. More than £50,000 has already been raised by the event in its previous six editions, with this year’s Cup raising funds for GUKPT Blackpool’s chosen charity, the men’s suicide prevention charity Andy Mans Club and the Sick Childrens Trust which offers a shared living space for the families of children in intensive care. The latter charity was chosen by Ian Simpson whose daughter Adeline was on a ventilator at The Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle last October. For more info about the Kav Cup, please see the Derek Kavanagh memorial Facebook page.
This year’s GUKPT Blackpool Main Event – Leg 3 of the 2023 tour – features three start flights (including a Day 1c turbo), with three entries permitted per flight. All players sit down to a 20,000 starting stack with 60-minute levels on Days 1a and 1b.
The GUKPT has visited Blackpool every single year of the tour and the Main Event has already awarded millions in prize money. Previous winners include Grosvenor Ambassador Richard Trigg (2013, £53,000), Tom Middleton (2016, £56,255), Jonny Gray (2015, £69,050) and Simon Deadman (2012, £49,200). The last GUKPT Blackpool in November was won by fishing podcaster Jamie Clossick. Clossick, well-known to fishing enthusiasts as presenter and co-founder of CarpCast, secured victory in his home town for a bumper prize of £109,000.
Photo credit: Grosvenor Poker
£ GBP
$ USD
€ EUR
