Last year, PokerStars announced that it would bid farewell to the live poker tours it has sponsored around the globe for years to replace them with new festival and championship formats. There were mixed reactions to the news from the poker community, yet the old tours held their last events by the end of 2016 to give way to a new era in the live tournament poker history.
The first-ever PokerStars Festival took place last October in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The choice of host to the first such festival was not an arbitrary one. The world’s largest online poker room wanted to celebrate its return to the US after it had been banished from the nation years ago. Last spring, PokerStars was allowed to launch online poker operations in New Jersey.
Interest in the New Jersey festival was modest but this could be explained with the fact that PokerStars’ live festivals are yet something new to the region and the local poker community.
On the other hand, the PokerStars Festival London, which has just been completed, was off to a much better start. The festival was hosted by the emblematic Hippodrome Casino in London. It enjoyed great interest among players from the UK as well as from other parts of Europe and the world from the very beginning. That interest was maintained throughout the whole festival to culminate in a large Main Event field.
PokerStars Festival London’s schedule featured as many as ten events, excluding cash games and various satellites. Buy-ins for the ten tournaments varied from £170 to £2,200. Players who wanted to enter the Main Event had to pay a buy-in fee of £990.
Overall, the ten events generated a total of £1,432,205 in prize money. As many as 437 players received a share. And here are some of the biggest winners at the inaugural PokerStars Festival London, the successor of the widely popular and much-loved UKIPT London stop:
Daniel Harwood
A UK tournament regular, Harwood cashed in two PokerStars Festival London events. He first scored a 62nd place in the £275 PokerStars Super Deep for £380 and then finished runner-up to Rehman Kassam in the Main Event. Although Harwood failed to emerge as the victor of the festival’s highlight tournament, he scooped the lion’s share of the prize pool. His payout of £95,000 was determined in a three-way deal between him, Kassam, and Australian Eric Cech, who finished third in the Main Event.
Rehman Kassam
As noted above, the 23-year-old law student bested the field of the first-ever PokerStars Festival London. Kassam collected £89,320, aside from the shiny tournament trophy. The Main Event was the only one the player cashed in over the festival’s course.
Speaking of the Main Event itself, it attracted a massive field of 944 entries to generate overall prize pool of £824,112. And it is quite an accomplishment to be the last man standing out of a such a hefty field.
Yuriy Boyko
Boyko did not win any events but made two final table appearances throughout the festival, which was more than enough to secure him a place among the biggest winners. The player first finished 4th in the £2,200 High Roller for £26,500 and then took another 4th place in the Main Event, scooping a payout of £43,370. Overall, Boyko cashed £69,870 from the inaugural PokerStars Festival London.
Joe Johnson
The £2,200 High Roller was the highest buy-in event on the London festival’s schedule. It was young Englishman Joe Johnson who took it down. The player emerged the victor over a pack of 178 entries to secure his second-ever live tournament payout and first-ever live tournament title. Johnson collected £59,912 for his efforts.
