The Victor Poker Cup

While Twickenham may just be around the corner, the quiet Middlesex town of Teddington isn’t normally the kind of place you’d associate with being home to landmark sporting events.

But from the 21st to 23rd of July this year, that’s exactly what it became as the inaugural Victor Poker Cup arrived at the town’s famous studios, bringing with it the cream of European poker.

The one hundred players were drawn from sixteen countries across the globe, with people coming from as far afield as Australia, Iran and the USA to contest for one of poker’s most prestigious prizes.

The all-star cast featured names familiar to poker fans everywhere, including Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliot, Marcel Luske, Harry Demetriou, David Colclough, Noel Furlong, Simon Trumper, Donnacha O’Dea, Mel Judah, Liam Flood and the Hendon Mob. Each had paid £5,000 to enter. Each had their eye on the largest prize in European poker, a cheque for a cool £250,000.

Scheduled to take place over three days, The Victor Poker Cup saw the one hundred players drawn randomly into tables of ten, with five tables being played to a conclusion on each of the first two nights. The winner of each table would then progress to Day 3’s ten-man final.

The perils of a random draw were perfectly highlighted with many big names being drawn together promising fascinating poker. Barny Boatman and fellow Hendon Mob player Ram Vaswani were drawn together while Poker Million winner Donnacha O’Dea was drawn with Harry Demetriou and Marcel Luske. And on day two there was the obligatory “Table of Death”, featuring Noel Furlong, Julian Gardener, Padraig Parkinson, Mel Judah, Zac Goldsmith and CardPlayer Magazine owner Barry Shulman.

The single table format tests a players skill to the limits, and requires them to show a mastery of all forms of poker. Winning through to the final of The Victor Poker Cup requires a player be able to assess opponents quickly, be able to deal with different playing styles and tactics and show skill at playing full-handed, short-handed and heads up.

Tournament director Jon Shoreman’s unique and innovative tournament structure also ensured that players had time to play (and with heats lasting in excess of ten hours, they certainly had time!), and avoided the crap shoots seen in other televised tournaments. As Harry Demetriou later commented, “there was almost a guarantee that you would never reach a crapshoot type level where the game would to all intents and purposes be substantially deskilled.”

Day one’s play featured many of the pre-event favourites, and was a day for the favourites as many fancied names made it through to the final demonstrating some world class poker on the way.

On table one, up-and-coming star John Kabbaj saw off Ron “The Mad Yank” Fanelli after four hours of heads-up play. Table two saw Bruce “Elvis Snr” Atkinson “all shook up” by Sean Murphy. Gary Bush edged a tight battle with Norwegian Stig Andreas Sorenson on table three while Ram Vaswani beat Inside Edge magazine’s Warren Wooldridge in one of the evening’s most intriguing match ups over on table four. The five finalists from day one were completed by Joe “The Elegance” Beevers who made it a good night for the Hendon Mob by beating Stephen Lennon to make it two out of three for the North London boys.

Day two promised as good action as day one, and the large crowd wasn’t disappointed. Table one saw Paul Leckey edge out Observer journalist Victoria Coren after his pocket sixes held up against Victoria’s pocket threes. Rowan McIntyre, a journalist playing in his first ever land-based poker tournament, ensured some success for the fourth estate, causing a massive upset to take table two (seeing off The Devilfish and US-star Noli Francisco in the process). Table three saw a titanic heads up match up between Donnacha O’Dea and Harry Demetriou, with Harry coming out on top to prevent Donnacha from doing a TV double. Ross Boatman made it three out of four for the Mob on table four by beating TV’s Grub Smith heads up and WSOP main event runner-up Julian Gardener completed the final line-up by holding out against talented online player Espen Bjorknes.

And so to the final, featuring ten of the world’s finest poker players competing for the trophy and a cheque for £250,000.

After a cagey start, Rowan McIntyre was the first to depart after more than four hours of play. John Kabbaj was disappointingly out next up after running into Harry Demetriou’s trips. Joe Beevers was then knocked out by Ram Vaswani (ensuring Ram had now accounted for two of his three fellow Hendon mobsters) and was swiftly followed by Julian Gardener, who was unlucky enough to find his pocket nines run into Ram’s pocket aces. Harry Demetriou then accounted for both Gary Bush and Sean Murphy in one hand, as his pocket tens held up against Gary and Sean’s Big Slicks. After a long period of aggressive pre-flop play, three then became two as Paul Leckey was knocked out in third, leaving pre-final favourite Ram Vaswani to battle it out heads up against Harry Demetriou.

The decisive hand came a little after four in the morning, as Ram raised all in with Ace-King against Harry’s pocket nines. Neither hand improved, ensuring that Harry Demetriou became the first ever winner of The Victor Poker Cup. A clearly chuffed walked out into the dawn a quarter of a million better off, deserved payment for two days of almost faultless poker. Our congratulations go out to him, and we can’t wait for him to return next year to defend his title.