Ladbrokes Poker Experience Weekend

Ladbrokes Poker held the first “Poker Experience” weekend at the Hilton Hotel – Canary Wharf on the weekend of 15th November. Ladbrokes, Glen Francis Poker Events & Caspar Berry, hosted the fabulous event.

The 36 players came from all areas of the UK and they were joined by players from Spain, Holland, Denmark and Hungary…. all having qualified for this unique event online, or winning their places via VIP promotions.

The weekend commenced with a “Friendly get to know each other” poker tournament and it was great to see so many like-minded players having a friendly chat or two whilst playing poker.

The final table heads-up was between “EddieB58” and “slimtony1” with EddieB58 coming out on top…however, they were both winners in the end, winning a Ladbrokes Tournament Chip set each!

The seminars on Saturday with Caspar Berry were in-depth and explained the fundamental principles of poker, tools, body language and presence at the table. All the participants enjoyed this as it included small video clips of the players in the tournament the previous night. Caspar Berry then analysed their body language and gave useful tips on how to improve their game!

Following the seminars, there was a mouthwatering dinner laid on by The Hilton prior to the main “Poker Experience” Tournament. The action was fast and furious, as some extremely aggressive players were looking very serious and determined to get their hands on the 1st prize of a pair of tickets to the Poker Million party with accommodation…

Whilst the players were hard at work, the partners were enjoying a fun game of roulette in the foyer and the person with the most chips won a bottle of bubbly…

Around 1am, we were soon down to the final two, Terry ‘ELLTELL’ Watson and 21year old Irishman Raymond ‘RazorK8’ Kerley…It was very tense but it was soon obvious that it was down to ‘Experience’ vs. ‘Beginner’…. Well-done ELLTELL!

After a long evening we started Sunday morning with our very own Ladbrokes sponsored –pro Jon “skalie” Kalmar hosting a Q and A session on various elements of poker.

There were numerous questions fired at “skalie” regarding live tournaments, managing bankroll and of course being at the WSOP…

Later on, players were split into groups based on their knowledge of poker, beginners, intermediate and advanced. They enjoyed one-to-one workshops with the skalie and with Jacqui & Glen….

Lunch was served and then we were off in our final tournament for the day “Tag team tournament!”

This was a fun tournament where the players worked in pairs and they could discuss decisions in time-out…funnily enough, we had a Mother & Son team, Catherine “Surprises” O’Brien and Rory “LondonRory” McCasserty and much to their surprise…. they won!!

The “Poker Experience” was shared amongst a great community of poker players who all enjoyed a fantastic weekend of poker. Many congratulations to all of them for doing so well, and we hope to see them all again next year for another Ladbrokes Poker Experience weekend!

Diary by s7eve (Steve Mills)

Friday 14th November

Its not much of a trek to Canary wharf for me and I managed to arrive at The Hilton in time to get my room and refresh before the proceedings kicked off....

The Hotel was very good.... you can tell, I call it the Toblerone Rule.........

The better the hotel... the better the selection in the Mini-Bar and the higher the price..... Toblerone (standard ordinary size) £3.75, apparently the pound is not holding well on the chocolate market...

The room was fantastic, though I am not going to publish the pictures of me in my Hilton dressing gown and slippers, nor tell you who took them!

After registering with Kavshi - a great addition to Ladbrokes Poker Promotions and Events Team ...we had a welcome drink in the bar and commenced a little table tourney...

Amazingly there where 4 people that didn't turn up at all... and one kept ringing me as he was late ... poor Lordloucan, not only did he turn up feeling unwell, but his cab got lost on the way there and crashed...

Unfortunately he was not the only one who was ill. Both my boys had been sick all week and I finally succumbed ... but still managed to last the evening out by drinking my personal cold cure of Vodka and Benilyn...

The opening game was a bit fast to say the least and it soon became clear that the difference in experience between the participants was vast. I was cold decked, short stacked, running jacks in the cut off into aces in the small blind... oooops

The participants attended the Ladbrokes Poker Experience weekend through Direct-Buyin’s, few of them were invited through Ladbrokes Poker newsletters, some had won the package by the online qualification route and a few had won the package in various competitions. This was Ladbrokes first Ladbrokes Poker Experience weekend and we were the Guinea Pigs….

The first game finished before 12 and the winners and losers retired to the bar to celebrate… and boy did you need to be a winner ... £8.50 for a gin and tonic... The Bar closed at 2am but no one seemed to mind as the first lecture was set for 9 am Saturday.

Saturday 15th November

I was feeling really unwell on Saturday morning and after losing my breakfast I arrived late and missed Caspar Berry’s introduction and sat myself at the back to snivel and cough out of everybody’s way and to sip on my lemsip ... no vodka!

Caspar was soon into the deep mathematical side of poker and I couldn’t help thinking after a few hours.... and putting myself in the beginner’s heads ... some must have been thinking. …Surely you use cards to play poker?

I gleaned a few things from the first session but the lunch break came at the right time I needed more lemsip...

The afternoon kicked off with some cards in our hands and some analysis of positions/ reasoning behind decisions and interesting discussions on body language, table image and presence... the afternoon soon disappeared far too quickly...

Nigel Blower joined us for dinner and the evening saw a tournament with first prize being Poker Million Party tickets including accommodation. I went out just before the FT when my push with AT was called by 2 cards …he he ... ok they where live, ho hum... The Poker Million party tickets were won by a relative newbie slogan writer.... I’m not bitter, he didn’t knock me out. Well-done Terry “ELLTELL” Watson...

Everyone was in a party mood and the biggest glitch of the weekend was the bar closing again at 2am... though somehow we managed to stay up till 5ish... with a skillful use of room service delivering to a corridor... it would have been a perfect chance to expand the froth files...

Sunday 16th November

Sunday we all managed a 10 am start and I was given the honour of introducing Ladbrokes Sponsored Pro, Jon "skalie" Kalmar....

Jon like Caspar was a bit slow starting but soon got going and was well received... the smokers amongst us also had mini lectures from him at cigarette breaks and during the game we played later he was available to all for any one to one questions...

After another lovely buffet lunch was served, we had a Tag-Team tournament to conclude the weekend. We were playing in pairs and able to take time outs to discuss decisions ... I was teamed with Ladbrokes Poker Sponsorship Manager, Marios Diamandi. We made the FT, but we had separate agendas, apparently my job was to gain chips ... he he ... and I was informed by text of my demise, while smoking with skalie... Not to be defeated by being out of the tournament... I managed to take over from Boomer 797 who had to leave to catch his flight back to Guernsey, my new partner was " scalier".... who carried on in the maries vein, my second chance finished in 2 hands ... some things are just not meant to be...

I met some great guys over the weekend and as always was looked after very well... fortunately with the people that didn’t turn up.... They really missed out, not on a few giveaways, but a "Poker Experience" .........

Thanks to all involved...