Hippodrome London Poker Tournaments

The Hippodrome can boast one of the most opulent tournament rooms in poker. They'll be a Women's Event on Sunday 3 September at 13:00, with a £100 + £10 buy in, and an hour later at 14:00 there's also a knockout event with a £100 + £100 + £10 buy in. Finally, we are holding a two-day Super Deep event starting on Saturday 2 September at 17. The Hippodrome is proud of its former glories. For all that, the establishment was a major deal. As London throbbed as one of the world's entertainment capitals though the 20th century, the Hippodrome was the jewel in the crown of a chain owned by Sir Edward Moss, one of two impresarios whose theatres dominated the scene at the time.

The biggest and most popular casino of London, the Hippodrome Casino, announces, for the first time, the creation of a Poker Pro Team.Two rising stars of world poker will be the ambassadors of the venues during numerous tournaments. . 3% of tournament prize-pool will be withheld to cover the costs of floor staff and dealers. The region’s biggest and best live poker tour takes place up and down the UK throughout the year, with massive prize pools and stellar fields as standard.

If you travel the world for business, you get accustomed to shrugging it off when friends tell you how jealous they are. They talk green-eyed about your lucky, jet-set lifestyle, imagining that you step off the plane and on to the beach.

Much like the travelling salesman who knows that the truth of it actually means trading one out-of-town business park and travel tavern for a foreign out-of-town business park and travel tavern, people on the international poker circuit know that this world isn't as glamorous as you might think. The one thing you learn quickly is that the inside of casinos tend to look remarkably similar regardless of country and even continent. You've seen one blackjack pit, you've seen them all.

Hippodrome London Poker Tournaments 2020

That rule, however, has its exceptions, and the Hippodrome Casino in London, home of the PokerStars LIVE card-room and this PokerStars Festival, is unique. This place is nothing if not theatrical.

Opened in January 1900--117 years ago last week--this building was once one of London's hundreds of 'circus variety theatres', where Londoners of late Victorian era gathered in their masses to watch various cabaret acts.

The entertainment was eclectic to say the least: a young Charlie Chaplin was in the cast of the theatre's first production and Harry Houdini once performed here. There was also a 100,000 gallon water tank where spectators could watch polar bears and sea lions do their thing and into which a troupe of dwarves was also employed to dive from the top of the building. Those Victorians, huh.

For all that, the establishment was a major deal. As London throbbed as one of the world's entertainment capitals though the 20th century, the Hippodrome was the jewel in the crown of a chain owned by Sir Edward Moss, one of two impresarios whose theatres dominated the scene at the time. It latterly became a nightclub named The Talk of the Town, and a roll of honour including Judy Garland, Sammy Davis Jr., Julie Andrews, Tom Jones and Stevie Wonder ensured it lived up to its name.

As the popularity of variety shows and cabaret gradually diminished in the second half of the 20th century, it became time for another reinvention. In 2009, after a short period as a nightclub owned by Peter Stringfellow, the Hippodrome opened as a casino.

However, the £40 million refurbishment project made special efforts to maintain the features of the building's original purpose. It remains obviously and proudly a former theatre, with the gaming floor spread across several levels and often beneath shimmering theatrical lights.

The permanent PokerStars LIVE card-room is located in the gods, at the very top of what would have been the balcony or upper circle. These were the cheap seats, but now they are pretty exclusive: they're running side events, satellites and cash games up there. There's also a spectacular view down on to the entire space, over what would have been the circle (now housing the Heliot Steak Restaurant) and the stalls, which is now the main casino floor.

The first 12 tables of today's £2,200 High Roller event are located on what was once the stage. It's appropriate for the great global performers of poker's theatre: we have the likes of Jake Cody, Felipe Ramos, Aditya Agarwal, Pierre Neuville and Adrian Mateos in today's field. That's five countries and three continents among those five players alone. Six if you include Chris Moorman, who comes from the country known as Internet.

But those aren't the only areas in which you'll find action today. Theatres are typically full of nooks and crannies, and areas once in the wings now include the 'Macau Lounge', for example, housing baccarat and three-card poker tables.

Similarly, 'Lola's Underground Casino' occupies the basement, and it's well worth a trip into the undercroft. Fashioned after a speakeasy, Lola's requires players to disbelieve the shop window that suggests it's an old apothecary and skip past the flickering lamp-post on the stairs.

The red leather lounge chairs, Wurlitzer jukebox and dance podium transport visitors immediately back to the cabaret era. (It's where we'll have the PokerStars player party on Friday at 9pm.) Only those doors marked, appropriately, 'BACKSTAGE' are truly off limits.

In short, if you've ever been tempted to play a poker tournament, but have been put off by the idea of bland, identikit casinos, built to a formula in around 1996, then this is your event. The £990 Main Event kicks off tomorrow, with three starting days and a tremendous £400,000 guaranteed prize-pool. You could record your own slice of history in this most esteemed location.

The first PokerStars Festival to take place on European soil has its inaugural Main Event winner: Rehman Kassam, a 23-year-old law student from London, beat Daniel Harwood heads up on the very stroke of midnight at the Hippodrome Casino, London, to win £89,320 tonight.

Kassam, Harwood and Eric Cech had earlier struck a three-way deal, from which Harwood walked away with £95,000 and Cech £70,000. That allowed them to fixate on the trophy, and the £8,000 they had left on the side, and Kassam came up with all the right moves to halt what had seemed an unstoppable charge from Harwood.

It's no surprise that Kassam negotiated well: on Thursday he was sitting a law exam at university in Nottingham, before hopping on a train to London and winning a live satellite for £120 to book his spot in this event.

'Great, buzzing,' Kassam said of his come-from-behind triumph.

Harwood had seemed set for first place for the longest period today, having led the tournament from the moment he knocked out Francesco Cortese in 12th place. But Kassam over-ran him heads up, winning both of the encounters when they had all of their chips over the line. Kassam had also survived an all-in confrontation earlier, when he beat queens with ace-three to stay alive.

But his feet remain on the ground, despite the windfall.

'It won't change my life,' Kassam said. 'I'll carry on and get my degree and then become a solicitor.'

The tournament attracted 778 players, who added another 166 re-entries, each costing £990 apiece. It built a prize pool of £824,112, with the lion's share still to be divvied up when 24 players returned today.

That quickly became eight--look back on all the coverage that took us there--and a final table, at which Harwood was in the box seat. Meanwhile there were two short stacks: the Australian P.E. teacher, Cech, and Lam Van Trinh, a London-based businessman who was returning to poker after a five-year absence from the game.

They both did the necessary in the opening salvos, pushing their stacks over the line to apply as much pressure as they could. But while Cech survived, Van Trinh departed. It was absolutely standard: Trinh's 8♦8♣ lost to Yuriy Boyko's A♣Q♥. Trinh took £12,150 for eighth.

By contrast, Cech's fortunes were soaring. He got a double up through Ludovic Geilich when his pocket queens held, and then he was in precisely the right place soon after when he got Alexis Fleur to call all-in with K♦J♥ after Cech made what looked like a heavy-handed, late-position steal-jam. It was a perfectly placed trap. Cech had A♥A♣ and sent the overnight leader to the rail in seventh with £16,702.

Many of the rail-birds' eyes this week had been fixated, for good reason, on Geilich. He is a captivating spectacle at all levels of the game, both online and in the live environment, where he already has one UKIPT title (from two final table visits) plus an EPT fourth-place finish.

The 29-year-old from Scotland had been in or around the chip lead for 24 hours, but his high-variance strategy only took him as far as sixth this time. He flopped a pair of kings in a pot with Daniel Harwood. But Harwood too had kings, with a bigger kicker and they got it all-in on the turn.

Harwood faded Geilich's three outs and the tournament lost its most recognisable face. Geilich won £22,950.

Hippodrome London Poker Tournaments Odds

In a bizarre twist, the tournament was then paused for a few minutes after an invasion. The Hippodrome Casino is on the edge of London's Chinatown and today the area was packed with revellers celebrating the start of the Year of the Rooster. That meant a boisterous parade of drums and cymbals and dragons weaved its noisy way through the auditorium, a bedlam hardly conducive to poker.

Yet after the dragon left and the clock re-started, little luck had been bestowed on Le Coc--namely the last Frenchman in the field Clement Tripoldi. Facing the prospect of a blind increase leaving him with a 10 big blind stack, Tripoldi jammed with 8♣7♣ and Cech called with A♣4♥.

There were two clubs on the flop, but no more on either turn or river. Tripoldi was out in fifth for £31,510.

Most of the final table phase of play today had taken place in silence. Well, apart from the bit where the dragon danced. But after the remaining four players discussed, but failed to agree on, a deal, the roof suddenly lifted. It was Harwood, who certainly seemed to enjoy winning big pots more than any of his opponents.

He leapt from his chair when Boyko called his jam. Boyko got up more slowly to depart and picked up his cheque of £43,370. Having already made the final table of the High Roller at this festival this week, where fourth place was worth £26,500, Boyko will consider this to have been well worth the visit from Dublin.

Harwood had close to 18 million in chips at this stage, which is was more than twice as much as his two opponents combined. But they quickly struck a deal to guarantee each of them the biggest victory of their careers.

Cech got a little unlucky when his A♦8♠ lost to Kassam's J♣6♥. And that gave the ammunition to Kassam to at least have a crack at catching Harwood.

Those chances received a tremendous boost when Harwood moved all-in with Q♥6♠ and Kassam found enough -- A♠J♦ -- to call him and double up. That put Kassam into the lead and allowed him to win the whole shebang when his K♥T♣ stayed good against Kassam's T♥7♦.

'Ah well, I'll take the biggest prize,' Harwood said.

That was true, but Kassam is our winner. The PokerStars Festival era is up and running. Next stop Rozvadov!

PokerStars Festival Main Event

Buy-in: £900 + £90
Players: 778 + 166 re-entries
Entries: 944
Total prize pool: £824,112

*Denotes three-way deal