Poker is coming to the home of PokerStars, the Isle of Man in the UK, for the first time this October 31st to November 4th. This is first major poker tournament to be held here in nearly fifteen years so the flags will be flying!
This prestigious event will take place at the Villa Marina in Douglas, the capital of the Isle of Man. There’s big bucks to be won with the Main Event promising $500,000 guaranteed where PokerStars staff and Team Pros are allowed to take part for the first time. PokerStars tell us they want as many online players there as possible and have introduced extra qualifiers and packages to give all players a chance of experiencing exciting live poker at this inaugural event.
UKIPT Isle of Man Prize Packages
The inclusive full prize packages are worth £1,600 and will include:
- £1,100 buy in to Main Event
- Hotel accommodation – Villa Marina
- £175 cash for expenses
Seat only packages are worth £1,100 – the buy in to the Main Event – perfect for locals or those who prefer to make their own arrangements. Poker Stars can help you reserve accommodation at the venue, Villa Marina, and promise concierge service, late breakfast and the best price available. All the information about UKIPT approved hotels and contact details to reserve a room can be found here www.ukipthotels.com/
Qualifiers to UKIPT Isle of Man
Poker Stars are making sure that all their players get a chance to play when UKIPT stops at their home since 2005, the Isle of Man. All qualifying players will be given a warm welcome and a great time. If you want in on the action then go through the lobby / events / more / UKIPT and you’ll see just how many qualifiers are running.
Freerolls
UKIPT isle of Man nightly freerolls are held at 8pm UK time and are capped at 5000 players. The top ten players will go on to the weekly freeroll final, Sunday at 8pm UK, where three packages are guaranteed to be awarded, top ten finishers will get paid.
Cash Qualifiers
Qualifiers are running around the clock from just £0.50, they all lead to a seat at the weekly finals which are held on Sundays at 8.02pm UK. You can buy in direct to one of the weekly finals for £215 where there will be an unprecedented 10 prize packages guaranteed to be won, that’s a total prize pool of £16,000.
UKIPT Isle of Man Schedule
As well as the Main Event Pokerstars have organised a schedule of games leading up to the big one. The schedule, as it stands at the moment, is below. We expect Event 3 to be announced soon and maybe further events added before the kick off on October 31st.
| Event | Date and Time UK | Name | Buy in | Capacity |
| #1 | Oct 30th @ 6pm | NLHE 6 Handed | £165.00 | 100 |
| #2 | Oct 30th @ 8pm | Rebuy Super Sat to UKIPT M E | £110.00 | 100 |
| #3 | TBA | |||
| #4 | Oct 31st @ 6pm | Rebuy Super Sat to UKIPT M E | £110.00 | 100 |
| #5 | Oct 31st @ 8pm | NLHE Turbo | £110.00 | 100 |
| #6 | Nov 1st @ 7pm | Rebuy Super Sat to High Roller | £110.00 | 100 |
| #7 | Nov 1st @ 9pm | Turbo Bounty | £160.00 | 100 |
| #8 | Nov 2nd @ midday | NLHE High Roller Single Rebuy | £2,200.00 | 100 |
| #9 | Nov 2nd @ 6pm | Isle of Man Cup | £330.00 | 100 |
The online qualifiers for the UKIPT Isle of Man Main Event, both packages and seat onlys, will commence play at 11am on October 31st. As I write this there are 70 lucky players who have won prize packages and registered and 38 who have won seat onlys from all over the World. There are plenty more packages to be won so why not try and get you name added to the list?
A Bit of Background to UKIPT
The UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) started out in December 2009 and was hugely successful attracting huge fields of players from all over the World at each stop. The schedule always included the poker hot spots in the region which, coincidently, are often the cultural centres too. Many, previously unknown, players earned themselves big money notably Scotsman David Vamplew who took home £900,000.
Season 2 followed the same formula, starting in December 2010, Benny Spindler was the UKIPT Grand Final Champion and bagged £750,000 in prize money. Each of the nine stops boasted a guaranteed prize pool of six figures, attendance records were broken and it was generally agreed that UKIPT was now a fixture in the poker calendar.
Season 3 saw many prestigious venues such as Bristol, where Wojtec Barzantny from Germany claimed back to back titles, added to the schedule with big money won at each of the nine destinations. The largest ever UKIPT took place at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham where 1,625 player were seated for the Main Event, which resulted in the guaranteed £1 million being beaten and the top 207 finishers being paid.
Season 4 has been a resounding success with several events in London plus Marbella, Spain and Galway, Ireland in the custom built Full Tilt Village.
UKIPT Season 4 Big Winners – so far:
- Jake Cody won £19,400 in April
- Ludovic Geilich won €130,000 In early June
- Gabriel Dragomir won £16,480 in late June
- Alan Gold won £187,494 in August
- Dinh Tuan Nguyen won £15,348 in September
- Robbie Bull won £113,405 in early October
UKIPT Isle of Man is the next stop and we can’t wait to visit the home of Poker Stars and get to play with the staff and pro team for the first time in UKIPT history.
The final stop this season is at old favourite Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, England this coming November 27th to December 2nd.