The Champion of Champions tournament takes place at the G casino in Luton on Thursday 4th December, starting at 2pm. It was originally scheduled as a two-day tournament but will now take place over just one day. The event has a £75,000 prize pool, supplied courtesy of GUKPT sponsor Blue Square Poker and is a freeroll tournament open only to player who have won events on the tour during 2008.
There are currently 76 players who have qualified for the event, but there are a further 20 places available for the players who win events at the remaining two festivals on this year’s tour (leg 9 at the G Casino in Blackpool and the Grand Final festival at the Vic).
Unusually, the number of starting chips each player receives will depend on the buy in of the event they won to qualify for it. Players who have won side events with a buy in of up to £300 will receive 5,000 chips; for side events with a buy in of more than £300, 7,000 chips will be awarded; winners of the £1,000 main events will receive 10,000 starting chips and the player who wins the £3,000 Grand Final will start with 15,000. Players who have won more than one qualifying event will start with the combined total for the events they have won, up to a maximum of 25,000 chips per player.
Another unusual feature of the event is the way the prize pool will be distributed. Before the tournament starts, players will be asked to vote on two possible prize structures and the one with the most votes will be used for the event.
Blue Square has formed a betting market for the event, which currently has Jeff Kimber as the 14/1 favourite to win. Jeff has won two tournaments so far this year and is currently the chip leader on 15,000 starting chips.
This week the GUKPT is in Blackpool. The main event of last year’s Blackpool event attracted over 350 players and this year it is expected to be closer to 400. The Blackpool festival is already underway and one of the first side events, a £150 PL Hold’em freezeout had 236 entrants, which is a record field for a GUKPT side event.