Poker in the Park 2011 – don’t miss these [Editorial]

Poker in the Park 2011 – don’t miss these [Editorial]

Friday, 2 September 2011

Poker in the Park is a little bit like Christmas, if your childhood Christmases were less about Santa and stockings and more about poker and pretty girls. If so, you had far better Christmases than I did and your parents are either frightfully negligent or simply know how to throw a party. Today I will be jetting off down the Central Line to Oxford Circus, and there to Hanover Square to attend the fifth annual Poker in the Park extravaganza.

Last year it was pretty damn awesome – part of it for me is seeing poker players/media people/poker groupies that I haven’t seen for a while and it’s nice to catch up. However, even without all that it’s awesome because there’s free poker and live lectures and pretty ladies. And this year, booze. Get in.


This year I’ll be largely found in one of the two Pokerdomes playing in super-turbo freeroll multi-table Sit ‘n’ Go tournaments. Ideally I’d like to play in the Bluff Europe ones, the Nuts Poker League ones, the Fox Poker Club one, the London Poker Meetup one and the D4 Events one but really they’re all the same minus the titles. I just like to show my loyalty to certain names.


My bum will be pretty firmly glued to the seats in the Lecture Marquee between tournaments, though – we’ve got a great load of speakers lined up this year and I intend to see a fair few of them over the next couple of days. In fact, since I like you so much and since I imagine that most of my readers are nymphomaniac 19-year-old double-jointed girls, here is what I intend to do so you can follow me around:


Friday, September 2
15.30 – Arrive. Bum about. Say hello to people, avoid others. Stalk Tatjana. ‘nuff said.
16.30 – James Mitchell in the Lecture Marquee. I’m still a little resentful of this Worzel Gummidge-haired Irish Open Champion, since I first met him when we played pub tournaments in south London with buy-ins of twenty quid or so. Of course, he was crushing online at the time whereas I was writing articles about building a bankroll from freeroll tournaments so perhaps it’s not his fault...
17.30 – Bluff Europe MTTSnG freeroll in Pokerdome 1. Poker for free, yay! Sure, the structure will be silly but that’s half the fun. They actually work out similarly to the Hyper-Turbo speeds you find on PokerStars, for example. Plus the blind structure doesn’t matter when you’re playing for glory and a trophy instead of six figures.
18.30 – Alex Rousso/Nik Persuad in the Lecture Marquee. Our resident Pickleman and a regular, both of whom have excellent poker brains and are more than happy to allow you to pick at them. Alex could never be accused of leaving things unsaid or not going into enough detail and Nik is always full of insights and strategy.
20.30 – Neil Channing in the Lecture Marquee. I’m pretty sure Neil has this slot not because it’s worthy of a headline act but just so people will be forced to stay until at least half-eight in the evening in order to catch him. Anyway, it’s worked – Mr. Channing is not one to miss.


Saturday, September 3.


12.30 – Bluff Europe MTTSnG freeroll in Pokerdome 2. Again, free poker. I imagine that I’ll win both Bluff Europe events on back to back days, actually. I think two trophies would look great either side of my monitor.
15.00 – British Poker Awards. Copy.
16.30 – Roland de Wolfe in the Lecture Marquee. The only man on the list who might make his lecture more hilariously entertaining than Neil Channing. Stuff Lucy Porter (giggity), this guy is the real comedian at Poker in the Park. Of course, he’s also a Triple Crown winner and a sick good poker player so that helps.
17.30 – Sam Trickett in the Lecture Marquee. Sam who? Oh, is he the one who is second only to Erik Seidel in the “has had a sick 2011” list? Won millions in Macau? Aussie Millions Super High Roller champion? Yeah, I think I’ve heard of him, should be worth a watch.
19.30 – Toby Lewis in the Lecture Marquee OR London Poker Meetup MTTSnG. Decisions, decisions. Both clash and I would like to do both. I know, I’ll be nice to the LPM lot and bust out of the tournament reasonably early so that I can still see Toby Lewis give a lecture. Win-win.


I’ll be Tweeting throughout the day and tomorrow while I’m enjoying the sunshine and such at Poker in the Park so follow me @Matt_J_Perry as well as @BluffEurope and @PokerinthePark. I hope to see you there!



Tags: Poker in the Park, Matt Perry, Editorial