Tag: ISPT

Jakob Michalak Wins ISPT 2013

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You may recall the ISPT satellite promotions at Lock Poker that we reported on now and again. Well that main event has now come and gone, taking place live in London, England at Wembley Stadium, and at the end of it all, the championship title went to Polish player Jakub Michalak.

This after a smaller than expected player pool (761 players to be exact) led to a massive overlay (€589,000 to be exact), meaning that every participant’s pot odds improved in direct proportion to that overlay. What’s more, the final 6 players didn’t play out the tournament to its natural finish, but rather came to a deal based on chip stack size at the time of deal-making. This guaranteed the short stack player at the time, Xavier El Fassey, would still walk away with at least €204,000.

Jakub Michalak is a participant in The Hendon Mob poker database, with the following accolades to his credit:

•    11th place in the £200 NL Holdem 2011 Grosvenor UK Poker TOur Grand Final, London
•    30th place in the €700 NL Hold’em Main Event at the UK & Ireland Poker Tour – Galway
•    3rd place in the €2,000 NL Hold’em Main Event at the IPT San Remo
•    5th place in the €200 NL Holdem Turbo event at the EPT/Estrellas Poker Tour – Barcelona
•    5th place in the €1,000 NL Hold’em 30m Levels event at the EPT Prague
•    20th place in the €1,000 NL Hold’em event at the EPT Berlin
•    14th place in the €1,000 NL Turbo, Six-Handed event at the EPT Berlin

Enter Lock Poker Satellites For International Stadiums Poker Tour

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Lock Poker is now holding satellites awarding seats into the International Stadiums Poker Tour.

Day 1A of the 2013 ISPT took place already, on Sunday February 10th, but there are 5 more Day 1’s remaining, all on Sundays, all starting at 21:00 GMT.

•    Day 1B – March 10th
•    Day 1C – April 14th
•    Day 1D – May 5th
•    Day 1E – May 12th
•    Day 1F – May 19th

Super satellites into one of these ISPT day one events take place every Sunday at Lock Poker according to the following schedule and buy-ins:

•    17:00 GMT – $5 + $0.25
•    17:30 GMT – $8 + $0.40
•    18:00 GMT – $5 + $0.25
•    18:30 GMT – $8 + $0.40

These Super Satellites award seats into one of two regular satellites: a $40 + $4 satellite at 20:00 GMT and a $10 rebuy satellite at 21:00 GMT. Several European poker sites host similar satellites awarding ISPT seats to players in certain countries, while Lock Poker is the exclusive U.S. facing poker site to award seats to American players in this big international event.

These Day 1 events all take place online, with the rest of the International Stadiums Poker Tour finishing live at Wembley Stadium in London, England from May 31st thru June 5th. The ISPT will be broadcast live to over 38 different countries.

Nearing the end of Day 1A the chip leader was Johnny N’Guyen, but it’s still so early it truly is anybody’s game.

Was the ISPT Created to Compete With the EPL?

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The Epic Poker League has gained a good bit of attention in the past few months, both for good and bad reasons.  The prize pools have been huge, and the tournaments involve the biggest names in poker as well.  The bad reasons for all of the attention is the drama that has surrounded their first two events.  While many people find the idea of the EPL interesting and exciting, the tournament just isn’t for everyone.  Some people feel that the International Stadiums Poker Tour was created to put a fight against the Epic Poker League.  While both tournaments seem like very good ideas, they aim to hit different types of players completely.  The EPL is currently running, while the ISPT will kick off early in 2012.  We’re going to take a look at a few ways that these two tournaments are so different.

First off, the ISPT is one of those tournaments that was created for any poker player out there.  Take their estimations on how many players they expect, which is set at more than 20,000.  This is literally the complete opposite of what the EPL is looking for, as they only allow certain players to play, and really never feature events that have more than 300 total players.  This is one way that ISPT has gained poker players’ attention more than the EPL has.

While the EPL’s first event featured a $1 million prize to the winner, the ISPT is hoping that their first place prize can get in the upwards of $10 million.  This alone would draw quite a bit of attention, and is once again an opposite of the Epic Poker League.  You can bet that the creators of the ISPT watched the Epic Poker League and how everything was ran, and made sure to keep their horizons open as to the number of players they will allow, and how large the tournaments will be.  The ISPT is looking to complete change the way that poker is played, with their combination play between online poker (with pads in the stadiums that they play in), and then live table play on the actual field itself.

It is unknown if the ISPT was created to directly compete with the EPL, but it seems that they are attempting to come at the poker world in a completely different way than anyone has ever seen.

New Full Tilt Investors Behind ISPT Events

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The Groupe Bernard Tapie has had their names all over the poker news lately.  It began with their potential purchase of the massive online poker site, Full Tilt Poker, and now has shifted to the brand new International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT).  This event will kick off at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and could potentially be one of the most impressive poker tournaments in history.  The group has reported that they plan on having the event feature a mind-blowing $30 million guaranteed prize pool, and will pay out $10 million to the player who is able to beat out the field and win the final event.

The real question is how this event will be able to pay out a $30 million guaranteed prize pool.  This can be answered in the fact that the Groupe Bernard Tapie is actually expecting the event to draw in between 20,000 and 30,000 players.  They aren’t planning for these events to get underway too soon though, as the anticipated date for the first event is around September 2012.

One of the most interesting things about this event is how it will be laid out.  It will do both online poker and live poker in the event, and players will actually play with software on electronic pads in the stadium to start with.  After that, when the field is narrowed down to about 3,000 players; the event will change over to a live tournament with all of the players participating at different tables on the actual field itself.  The event then goes down to the final table (which will consist of ten players), with the final table paying out an incredible $17.5 million among the ten players.

The expectation of this event (with the combination of the Groupe Bernard Tapie’s possible purchase of Full Tilt), is that they could combine the Full Tilt Poker software in some way with the ISPT events.  This could be an excellent way for players to satellite their way into the ISPT as well, making the buy-in much more affordable for many players.

The information is listed on the actual ISPT website, as well as an advertisement that gives you a more in-depth look at what will go on at these massive events.