Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena

Posted on

The Goliath poker tournament, run by Grosvenor casinos, and held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, is the biggest poker tournament in the UK in terms of number of entries. The whole thing stretches over a total of 8 days. The buy-in is £100, plus £20 registration fee. Haye and Harrison entered a poker tournament in the Philippines; Harrison, having not played for a year, placed second, while Haye finished 28th. “David should be confident in his play,” Harrison tells me down the phone. “In the tournament we played, about 500 players, I came second and David cashed. GUKPT Grand Final – The Poker Room, London – 21st November – 6th December 2020 Goliath Goliath – Grosvenor Casino Coventry and The Ricoh Arena, Coventry – 29th July to 9th August 2020 25/25 and 25/50.

TEAM EUROPE 11-3 TEAM USA

Ouschan/Filler 5-2 Van Boening/Woodward
Joshua Filler 5-0 Skyler Woodward
Ouschan/Gorst 3–5 Thorpe/Robinson
Jayson Shaw 5-3 Shane van Boening

Europe regained the partypoker Mosconi Cup with an emphatic 11-3 victory over Team USA which was completed by MVP Jayson Shaw at Ricoh Arena, Coventry.

Alex Lely’s side won three of the four matches played on Thursday evening to complete their first partypoker Mosconi Cup win since 2017, Shaw making the winning 9-ball against Shane van Boening.

“It feels great,” said Shaw, whose two singles and two doubles wins saw him become the first Brit to lift the Predator MVP trophy since Chris Melling in 2012. “I was feeling a little bit of pressure at the end there, but I played well to go 4-2 up, I really dug deep. I am delighted to win.

“If that had been in front of 3,000 fans it would have been great, but we will still enjoy this. They played well the last two years; you have to take your hat off to them. This time around we jelled better as a team, we played better in the doubles matches, and won a lot more lags which was massive because a lot of fames came down to hill-hill.”

“It feels amazing,” said European captain Alex Lely. “It has been quite a tussle; we have self-quarantined away from our families but we put a lot of work in and it paid off.

“They are top of the bill, all young. Having lost the last two years, this is the start of a new era. These players will set the benchmark for the next ten years. There are so many new, young players coming through, so it isn’t just these five players.”

Team USA Captain Jeremy Jones said: “We didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. The Euros definitely outplayed us but I don’t really think the score reflected how close the overall play was.

“It was a weird situation this year, we didn’t have the travels to different countries to play as a team, we didn’t get a warm-up match, we didn’t get a lot of things, let alone a bunch of tournaments.

“Alex did a good job. Overall, I think his job is a little easier, I think he would tell you the same thing, especially with us losing Justin. Matchroom did a great job considering everything that was required to make this happen but we will leave and we will be thinking of winning the Cup again, not just some time, but we are going to win it back soon.”

Europe had begun the day with an 8-2 lead, thanks largely to a 5-0 session whitewash of Team USA on Wednesday.

Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena Software

They moved a step closer to glory when Albin Ouschan and Joshua Filler beat Shane van Boening and Skyler Woodward 5-2 in Thursday’s opener. Joshua Filler then avenged the defeat he suffered to Woodward in the final match of last year’s Cup with an emphatic 5-0 victory.

That set the stage for Ouschan and debutant Fedor Gorst to seal the title for the hosts. Billy Thorpe and Chris Robinson were fighting though and took a 5-3 win to save this team the ignominy of equalling the record defeat suffered by USA in 2013.

Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena Tournament

Poker tournament ricoh arena seating chart

That handed Shaw the chance to claim the Cup by beating Van Boening. The Scot had made the winning 9 in the 2016 event and despite a match which at times swung in favour of both players, it was Shaw who took Europe’s 11th point of the week for their 13th partypoker Mosconi Cup title, the same number won by USA.

You’ve heard of the expression “taking everything but the kitchen sink”, well, we came close to even taking that with us! Along with 5 different baseball caps, various shirts, a pack of cards (obviously), along with poker table-top, no end of charging cables with sockets, and all kinds of other odds and ends, Christina came up with the bright idea of bringing the microwave! The thought process behind this was that we could buy supermarket microwave meals, and heat them up in our hotel room, rather than fork out on restaurant food or room service. It sounded crazy, but in fact, at the same time, it sounded like a good idea, so it was popped into the boot of the car, and we were off.

The Goliath poker tournament, run by Grosvenor casinos, and held at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry, is the biggest poker tournament in the UK in terms of number of entries. The whole thing stretches over a total of 8 days. The buy-in is £100, plus £20 registration fee. That’s a lot for any small time players, but not too much for all keen regulars at any of the Grosvenor casinos around the country, and with a guaranteed prizepool of £250,000, it’s one that a lot of people like to have a go at. There are plenty of satellite tournaments where you can win tickets for a lot less than £100, and Christina and me had spent the previous few weeks trying to do just that. I’d won a ticket via a freeroll (which was also a £5 rebuy) in Swansea, not having to rebuy once, so I had one ticket for nothing, but it would be useful to have a back-up in case of needing to re-enter. Well, we probably spent about £100 between us trying to get a second ticket, and failed; I spent a frustrating week trying to download the Grosvenor poker software, without success. But no bother, we had enough funds to buy-in a couple of times each if necessary.

Patrick, winner of Swansea Grosvenor’s recent league final, and collector of 8 (or was it 9?) Goliath tickets had tipped me off weeks before that Cardiff were playing Coventry in the same week as the tournament at the Ricoh (for the first time in years, I’d barely glanced at Cardiff’s forthcoming fixture list), so making this game was a must. Even though, as Coventry no longer play in Coventry, this meant a 30 mile diversion to their current home of Northampton. As chance would have it, this is also where Christina’s nan lives, so the plan was to stop off here on the way.

Christina’s nan has a lovely, well kept home, with an extraordinary collection of bears, elephants, dragons, and other ornaments. Her collection of Charlie Bears currently stands at over 80, I believe – she’s another one with a bit of a Shopping Channel addiction – but the main room that houses the bears looks fantastic. We engaged in some small talk while we waited for a large variety pizza to be delivered – we learned that the neighbour’s dog, for example, had caused some problems, necessitating in the installation of a 9’ fence!

The pizza really was delicious, and was washed down with a cracking cup of coffee, but we were already running late to miss the start of the match. Fortunately, the Sixfields Stadium was but a short drive away, and within minutes, we had our tickets, and despite the gates, with the kick-off already underway, being locked, a knock on a couple of doors, and we were in, with Cardiff already a goal up, and the 350-strong Cardiff support in good voice.

I think I’d missed something when I tried a chant of “Is that all you take away?” directed at the Northampton-resident Coventry fans – it would appear the order of the day was not to mock, but unite in support at their misfortune vis a vis “modern football”, apparently akin to Cardiff’s situation (while Coventry don’t even play in Coventry, we, the Bluebirds, don’t even play in blue). Still, I’m sure in the old days Coventry’s situation would have been fair game for mickey taking, rather than this thing of showing mutual support. On 35 minutes, fans on both sides were being encouraged to hold up signs of mutual bad-situationism. For me, this is just an atmosphere killer. Chants of “Can you hear Northampton sing?” would work far better, I think, or at worst, “We’ve got a bigger grievance against Modern Football than you!” or something along those lines.

Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena Seating Chart

Cardiff won the game 2-1. Not too bad a game. The Coventry (or was it Northampton?) keeper, Burge, came in for a fair bit of stick, but not too much else untoward. My phone’s battery had died, so sadly, no photo of Christina at her first ever Cardiff City game. She has the ticket and memories, of course, though.

Poker Tournament Ricoh Arena Schedule

A quick stop at the Ricoh to see how things were getting on. We had a quick look in the main room. There were a number of masseurs on hand, as it were, which Christina has an objection to. As she sees it, this gives male players an unfair advantage, and she finds their presence a little offensive. She asked one of the Grosvenor staff why there are no male masseurs for female players, and was met by the slightly predictable response that the gender of the masseurs is not the issue, when quite clearly it is – I don’t think a team of male masseurs would be nearly as popular. Well, the guy said he would raise the issue with his manager, but in the meantime, if Christina needed her back rubbed during the tournament, it was probably going to have to be me doing it! She paid her entry into the tournament, and we headed to our hotel, which we hadn’t even checked into yet.