Welcome to the Full Tilt Poker UKIPT Galway Festival!
Welcome to the Full Tilt Poker United Kingdom & Ireland Poker Tour Galway Festival! This 60-event series kicked off on July 27, but there's still a week's worth of great action beginning with today's €2,000 UKIPT High Roller. The PokerNews Live Reporting Team is on hand to live report today's action, and will also provide updates from the €1 million guaranteed UKIPT Galway Main Event and €10,000 UKIPT Super High Roller later this week.
The €2,000 UKIPT High Roller Championship, which is Event #44 on the schedule and set to kick off at 6:00 p.m. local time, will be played eight handed and will feature a single re-entry option. One man we expect to see in action is FTP Professional Gus Hansen, who has been one of the stars here in Galway over the past week. The "Great Dane" won Event #8 €1,000+€100 UK vs. Ireland Heads-Up Championship where he played some memorable matches against the likes of Max Silver and Dave Nicholson.
Hansen has kept busy not only playing poker (including a runner-up finish in yesterday's €35+€5 Daily Grind tournament), but also by playing a plethora of other games — billiards, Pacman, etc. — in the FTP Galway Players' Lounge. He also took time out of his "busy" schedule to accept the keys to the city from Galway Mayor Padraig Conneely.
Last month, Full Tilt Poker announced the names of four Tour Ambassadors to represent the online poker room at all stops of the UKIPT, including here in Galway. They include Martins Adeniya, Sinem Melin, Dermot Blain and Ben Jenkins, all of who will play online at Full Tilt Poker as Red Pros. Here's some more information on each of the ambassadors:
Martins Adeniya
Adeniya first discovered a love of poker while studying business at the University of Bath and quickly worked his way up from low-stakes home games to multi-tabling $10/$20 NL Hold’em online. After earning over $180,000 for a third place finish in the FTOPS Main Event, Martins decided to focus 100% on poker and has since become a familiar face on the live circuit with multiple WSOP and EPT cashes under his belt.
Dermot Blain
Blain is one of Ireland’s best-known professional players, bursting onto the poker scene with a stunning triumph in the 2009 APPT Macau Main Event netting him just over $540,000. His record also includes a fifth-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event for more than $365,000 and lifetime live tournament earnings of over $1.3 million.
Ben Jenkins
Jenkins has played professionally since 2009, with career highlights including a chop of PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up and a number of significant final table appearances. A keen sports fan, Ben is delighted to have the opportunity to represent both Full Tilt Poker and the British poker community on this year’s UKIPT tour.
Sinem Melin
Melin is one of Britain’s rising female poker stars, having final tabled both the 2011 UKIPT Brighton Main Event and the 2013 GUKPT London Main Event. She loves to follow high-stakes poker action both online and live and is very proud to act as a Full Tilt Poker Tour Ambassador for UKIPT Season 4.
“These Tour Ambassadors will help redefine what it means to represent a poker site,” said Dustin Iannotti, Full Tilt Poker’s Senior Manager of Pro, Celebrity & VIP Marketing. “These players are working with us to create exciting new live experiences that will leave UKIPT players with memories that extend well beyond the felt.”
While you wait for our live coverage to begin, which will be in a few hours, we recommend you check out this video in which PokerNews' own Kristy Arnett, Sarah Grant and Laura Cornelius track down the UKIPT Ambassadors in order to gain a spot as the girl who gets to cover the UKIPT Galway tournament. Which girl will be here in Galway? Watch to find out!