UK poker tournaments have always been very attractive to players from all over the world. According to the British gambling law that was not changed for more than 300 years, casinos could not charge the players for participation and all money went to prize pools, making these tournaments literally free.
However, there also was a negative side. As far as casinos could not charge the player, they had very little interest in running these tournaments. Many of them did, because it was a good way to promote the casino and to attract potential money players, but the conditions were really dreadful. At most tournaments, all games except the final table ran without a dealer. The satellites worked badly, as the players had an option to take money instead of the seat, and the prize pools were poor.
Modern History:
The system has recently been changed and nowadays card rooms can charge tournaments participants for up to 10% of the buy-in, but not more than £25. This change upset some players who used to play for free, but on the other hand it has made UK poker tournaments more rentable for the casinos, which is expected to give positive results, such as improved conditions, better organized satellites and more money in the prize pool. At least there will be competent dealers at each game.
The first casino that took advantage of the new rule was
Grosvenor Casino Walsall. The casino has only been running poker games for 18 month, but during this period has established itself as a very popular poker venue. The place can accommodate 150 participants at a time and generates quite large prize pools for its tournaments.
The First Large Event:
The first large event announced at Grosvenor Casino Walsall was Limit Holdem tournament with guaranteed 250,000 pounds in prize money. Such event is considered as a monster in UK, where poker tournaments are traditionally small. However, the buy-in to the event is also huge: 2,500 pounds. The only UK poker tournament with a larger buy-in is Poker Million that charges its participants for 6,000 pounds each. Grosvenor Casino is now working hard to fill up the expected 100 seats. If they do not succeed, they are going to have quite large expenses.
For now, their plan seems to be realistic. Many satellites and super satellites are planned not only for the tournament week, but also before it. With the new regulations in the UK, the casino can now oblige the satellites winners to take their seat, and not the money, so there can be quite many satellite qualifiers. There is also a possibility that many poker players from Europe will take part. There are a couple of airports and plenty of hotels nearby the casino, so international participation is quite possible.
The Rest of Europe:
Nowadays, in Europe there is at least one poker tournament running each week, and the operators need to be careful to not clash their events with others. European poker is quite young and still is healthy. There are very few high rollers who wander the continent in the search of poker action, and even they have a limited amount of money. There are between 150 to 200 poker rooms in Europe, which range from small two-three table clubs to big poker venues with a dozen of tables or more. England and Austria are two European countries with the highest popularity of poker. However, the popularity of poker is quickly growing all across Europe and there already are signs of tough competition between its poker venues, which supports the growth of a larger player base.