For UK-based poker players, there has been a lingering absence that has been keenly felt on the domestic poker scene for the past five years; the absence of the United Kingdom Poker Championship (UKPC) from the schedule.
Well, the good news for poker players based in the UK is that after such a lengthy absence from the calendar, the hugely popular tournament is set to return in early 2023.
In partnership with the Nottingham-based Dusk Till Dawn Casino, the tournament series will feature a £560 buy-in Main Event, which will have a prize pool of £500,000 guaranteed.
Additionally, there will be another £50,000 up for grabs for players that qualify for the Main Event at the Dusk Till Dawn Casino.
The UKPC is slated to begin on January 7th 2023.
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How To Qualify For The UKPC
Whilst there will be a number of qualifiers being held at Dusk Till Dawn Casino over the coming weeks and months, it may not be convenient for players to travel to the casino in Nottingham to participate.
However, there are other options as there are an extensive range of qualifying events scheduled to take place online right through until the New Year.
- UKPC Daily Dollar Qualifier
Starting yesterday, 17th October, the UKPC Daily Dollar Qualifier will be available to compete in at GGPoker most days over the next couple of months.
Starting at 8pm BST, these daily satellites will offer one Main Event ticket (worth £560) to the lucky winner of each qualifier (with 60 in total available to be won in the run up to the tournament starting).
With very low buy ins, this offers even lower stakes players the chance to play their way to an entry into the Main Event and a shot at a share of that £500,000 guaranteed prize pool.
- Wednesday’s $80 Super Satellites
Starting on Wednesday October 26th, there will be a total of eight seats up for grabs, one per tournament, in the $80 Super Satellites that will be contested every Wednesday at 8.30pm BST right through until the start of the UKPC.
GGPoker have announced that they will be looking at offering customer the opportunity to play their way to a seat at the Main Event in a number of other ways and details of those additional qualifying options will be made clear in the next couple of weeks.
- UKPC Main Event Structure
All players that qualify through the different Main Event satellites and qualifiers will take part in Day 1 of the tournament online, selecting from dates on Saturday 7th or Thursday 12th January.
The top 20% of the field from the two qualifiers will then head to Nottingham to plat in Day 2 of the tournament at Dusk Till Dawn Casino.
Players will be able to buy in directly to the UKPC Main Event Day 1 events at GG Poker for £560.
Additionally, all players who qualify for the UKPC Main Event will also be invited to compete in an exclusive tournament – the UKPC Aftermath £25k Freeroll.
“Huge Live Score”
Speaking about the return of the UKPC and the extensive number of qualifiers available for the Main Event, the UK and Ireland head of Marketing at GG Poker, Angela Martin, commented:
“GG Poker is thrilled to partner with Dusk Till Dawn and ensure our players now have an opportunity of winning their way into the UKPC Main Event, one of the highlights of the UK Poker year.”
“There’s at least £500,000 to be won, and with satellites from $1, we hope to see some players turn a tiny online buy-in into a huge live score at the UKPC!”
History Of The UKPC
The UKPC was first contested back in 2014 when it was sponsored by Sky Poker.
The same company sponsored the event for three years before ending their association in 2016. The tournament was then not contested in 2017, but was revived in 2018 by Party Poker for one year.
However, since then, the tournament has not been contested until its revival in January 2023.
- Previous UKPC Main Event Winners
All four Main Event winners have hailed from England and are listed below.
2014 – Alex Spencer (England)
2015 – Fraser Bellamy (England)
2016 – Edmund Yeung (England)
2018 – Christopher Brice (England)
- Other UKPC Tournaments
Alongside the Main Event, the UKPC also runs other tournaments, or at least has done in the past and there is every expectation that the revived tournament series in January 2023 will feature at least some of the tournaments hosted in previous UKPC series.
Tournaments contested at previous UKPC series include:
- A No-Limit Hold’em Open
- A NLH Super-High Roller Event
- A No-Limit Hold’em Warm Up tournament
- A NLH High Roller Tournament
- A NLH Finale
- A NLH 8-Max Turbo
- A NLH 6-Max
- A NLH UKPC Mini
- A NLH Turbo
- A Pot Limit Omaha Tournament
- A NLH Heads Up Tournament
At the time of writing, the full schedule of events for the 2023 UKPC has not been released, but keep your eyes peeled on this page as when the full tournament schedule for the event is released, we will add it to the section below, together with the winners for each event.
2023 UKPC Tournament Schedule
Wed 11th to Mon 16th January – £560 NLH Main Event – £500,000 Prize Pool
Full Tournament Schedule to follow.
With a burgeoning domestic scene, the poker industry in the UK is still in great health and events such as the return of the UKPC will only help further develop the scene. With players such as Stephen Chidwick, Sam Trickett, Ben Heath and Sam Grafton all ranked inside the top 100 players in the world in terms of career online live tournament earnings, it is going to be interesting to see whether a new generation of UK Poker talent is set to join these more established stars on the domestic and World Stage.
