Tournaments such as Chris Moneymakers route to the PSPC are temporarily placed on hold as well as The Hippodrome Series and PokerStars MegaStack Live. For details of future events when we restart, check the poker tournament pages. There are new policies and playing detail introduced to meet current guidelines which can be found on our Rules page.

January 25, 2017 12:24 pm

At the start of the year, PokerStars kicked-off its PokerStars Championship in The Bahamas, with the rebranded live tour designed to appeal to seasoned pros looking to compete in some of the world’s most glamorous locations. Now the world’s biggest online poker brand has launched its new second tournament series, the PokerStars Festival, which offers a more affordable, regional and fun feel for poker enthusiasts.
First stop on the PokerStars Festival calendar is the Hippodrome Casino in England’s capital city, London, which from January 22-29 will feature 22 events with buy-ins ranging from as low as £120 to as high as £2,200 for the PokerStars Festival High Roller. Expected to draw one of its biggest crowds, however, will be the £990 PokerStars Festival Main Event which gets underway today and will run until January 29th.
Attending the inaugural PokerStars London Festival will be a number of top poker pros sponsored by PokerStars, including Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos, Aditya Agarwal, and Luca Pagano, as well as UK Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody and Liv Boeree. Commenting on the tournament series, Boeree, with $3,152,646 in live earnings, stated:
“Players can expect a top-notch poker experience – the Hippodrome is a stunning, landmark setting to play the beautiful game of poker, so I expect it’ll be an unforgettable experience for most players.”
Also attending the PokerStars London Festival is the snooker legend Stephen Hendry who dominated the game in the mid-1980’s and 1990’s. Throughout his illustrious career, the Scottish player captured a record seven World Championship titles, and amassed nearly £9 million in tournament winnings during his 27 year reign. Looking forward to taking part in today’s PokerStars Festival London Main Event, Hendry explained:
“The anticipation is much like that of a snooker tournament really – the adrenaline, the eagerness to size up your opponent, and the desire to be on your best game. The strategic thought, patience and focus needed isn’t dissimilar to what I’m used to. Although, at least with poker you can practice online. I can’t wait to get out there and give it my best in the Main Event; it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

PokerStars Live Poker Events and Tournaments - Information regarding the biggest tournaments including European Poker Tour (EPT) and more. Discover more information. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-Gambler.
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More about our exciting European Poker Tour events and schedules. You can also head to the Qualify page to play your way to each event, held in glamorous locations.
During December we are bringing the festive cheer to our poker room by giving our guests more chances to walk away with a cash prize every week. Omaha high hand. Each day in December Omaha players will be drawn a high card each hour, 11am to 10pm.

Lawrence Cullen Wins the Record Breaking Unibet UK Poker Tour London Main Event (£25,500)

United Kingdom's Lawrence Cullen outlasted a huge field of 714 entrants to win the 2020 Unibet UK Poker Tour London £220 Main Event at Aspers Casino Westfield Stratford City for £25,500.

This was the first big cash for Cullen who never had the lead in the event until heads-up play.

'I won a smaller tournament a few weeks ago but this is my first big win and means a lot to me,' Cullen shared with PokerNews. 'The smaller win gave me some confidence after struggling a lot during the year I have been playing tournaments.'

Cullen would have been satisfied with simply a final table result and he was on top of the world after winning the event.

'I enjoyed every second of the event and was just happy to make the final table,' said Cullen. 'To win it is a dream!'

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Lawrence Cullen	United Kingdom	£25,500
2	Callum Pooles	United Kingdom	£18,319
3	Damien Pilkington-Lewis	United Kingdom	£12,200
4	Micahel Isguzo	United Kingdom	£8,800
5	Bartas Samoska	Lithuania	£6,500
6	Valentin Ghioca	Romania	£5,250
7	Martin Tse	Hong Kong	£4,350
8	Mark Wong	Singapore	£3,480
9	Vlad Munteanu	Romania	£2,610

To say the Unibet UK Poker Tour London was a success would be a huge understatement. Not only was the £50,000 guarantee smashed by almost triple with a huge £141,372 prize pool but also it by far set a new record for the tour.

The previous record was established in 2018 when Paul Romain outlasted a field of 289 entrants to win the £13,000 top prize. That event generated a £57,800 prize pool.

This is not all as there were plenty of promotions surrounding the event by both Unibet Poker and Aspers Casino with plenty of goodies handed out including t-shirts, phone popsockets, and free beverage service for the entire final table.

This is not all as Unibet Poker held a special Last Longer contest for its online qualifiers won by Russia's Aleksandr Lebedev, who finished in 33rd place for £805. Although the cash was nice the last longer prize was even nice as Unibet Poker awarded him a Unibet Open Tallinn package on May 20-24 valued at a whopping €2,000.

Last longer contests for online qualifiers will be held at all future Unibet UK Poker Tour events this year including the next one at Aspers Casino Newcastle on May 28-31.

Players can qualify through feeder tournaments for just €0.50!

Final Day Action

A total of 119 began the final day with 80 players guaranteed at least a min-cash of £400. The bubble broke before hand-for-hand play even began after Louis Zimmermann ran his jacks into the queens held by Egidijus Alsauskas.

Among the notable players to cash short of a final table finish included Unibet Poker Ambassador David Lappin (49th - £595), Antonis Poulengeris (22nd - £1,050), William Kassouf (19th - £1,180), and Unibet Poker Finnish Ambassador Jorma Vuoksenmaa (13th - £1,555).

Lappin, Vouksenmaa, and Dara O'Kearney, who unfortunately didn't cash, were all gracious ambassadors and happy to mingle with the everyday poker player at Aspers Casino.

The final table began after Romania's Alexandru-Dan Toporeanu (10th - £1,920) ran his treys into the fives held by Hong Kong's Martin Tse.

Poker Tournaments London Today News

Callum Pooles, who was playing his first big live tournament in a casino, entered heads-up play in the chip lead and showed relentless aggression throughout the table. Meanwhile, the eventual winner Cullen entered the final table in fourth place and was relatively quiet until heads-up play, letting Pooles do most of the dirty work.

Two eliminations took place shortly after the final table began. Romania's Vlad Munteanu (ninth - £2,610) jammed his short stack with king-queen before Singapore's Mark Wong (eighth - £3,480) three-bet jammed for more with tens. United Kingdom's Damien Pilkington-Lewis had both players covered and called with queens and flopped a full house.

2020 World Series Of Poker

Lithuania's Bartas Samoska managed to double up against Collum to temporarily take the lead by Collum snagged it back after eliminating Tse in seventh place for £4,350.

Shortly after, Romania's Valentin Ghioca (sixth - £5,250) three-bet jammed his short stack with jack eight and didn't get there against Cullen's king-ten suited.

Samoska then got short on chips and hit the rail soon after in fifth place for £6,500. He got it in with jack-six suited in a three-way pot and didn't get there against the ace-king held by Pilkington-Lewis des