The upcoming “Poker In The Park” festival, which will be held in London at Leicester Square on August 13th and 14th, will feature a charity poker tournament along with two days of discussion on some of the hot button issues in the poker world.
Thursday, August 13th features several speakers that will be able to help newcomers and veteran players expand their games to new heights. “Poker In The Park” will kick off around 5PM (London time) on August 12th with a welcome speech from 2006 World Champion Jamie Gold prior to the 50 player Charity Poker Tournament that will be held.
The tournament will assist in the fundraising efforts of the Jamie Gold Foundation, which has a host of charitable organizations that it supports. The Foundation supports such causes as the Muscular Dystrophy Association/ALS Division (which Gold’s father passed away from), the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, the Montel Williams MS Foundation and the Fallen Heroes Fund, just to name a few. Prizes in the tournament will include a £5,200 European Poker Tour entry, a £3,000 Unibet Open package and other poker and non-poker related merchandise.
After the tournament has played for about an hour, current World Champion – until the 2009 “November Nine” step to the felt later this year – Peter Eastgate will host a Q&A at 6PM. Once Eastgate’s Q&A has completed, three players will step up with advice for players on three crucial areas of today’s poker world. Alex Rousso, who has competed on the English poker scene for the last couple of years with impressive finishes on the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, will pick up the microphone at approximately 7PM to discuss the necessity of knowing statistical information while sitting at the tables. Popular English player Nik Persaud will follow Rousso and take up the topic of using the internet to improve a player’s game and 2008 Irish Open champion Neil “Bad Beat” Channing will finish off the evening of poker discussion with a look at tells in poker.
Friday, August 14th brings an expanded list of players to the dais to speak about different aspects of poker. Poker professional Derek Webb will begin the day at 12:30PM with a discussion on new poker games that are coming on the horizon. Later in the afternoon, two time GUKPT champion Marc Goodwin will take the mic to discuss Omaha Hold’em and English poker veteran Paul “Action” Jackson will take situations from his poker career and subjects them to hand analysis. Other speakers include Liv Boeree, Michael Greco and 2007 WSOP Europe runner up John Tabatabai (among others), with a closing seminar and comments coming from Gold around 9PM.
Now in its third year of existence, “Poker In The Park” has drawn huge crowds to discuss poker and play the game. Last year’s festival drew an estimated 10,000 people and it is expected that this year’s version will exceed the attendance from last year. The festivities of “Poker In The Park” will be free of charge and should provide a wealth of information and fun for poker aficionados in London, from across Europe and from around the world.