After a great final table battle we are pleased to announce that Dean Dunkerley becomes our latest UK Pub Poker Champion!

It was a hard fought table out here in Las Vegas and Dean played without mistake all afternoon to take the title.

There’s comments, updates and videos on our Facebook page and also on our youtube channel.

Greetings from Las Vegas! - 7 players made it so far! In 9th we have Richard Brakewell and in 8th we have Andrew Gee who couldn’t make the trip. Let’s see who becomes the UK Pub Poker Champion!

We’ll have regular updates on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/redtoothpoker) and news updates here.

Check out this video to see who won the prizes in our Welcome Tournament last night!

The welcome tournament took place last night - here’s snapshot of what happened…

Here are the dates and venues for the upcoming regional finals for season 6.1. Please note, the South West final is now our Plymouth final which gives our Bristol final a brand new name.

Good luck!

North Scotland - Saturday 26th May
G Casino
5 Exchequer Row
City Wharf Development
Aberdeen
AB11 5BW
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

South Scotland - Sunday 27th May
Mint Casino
506-516 Sauchiehall Street
Glasgow
G2 3LW
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

South West – Saturday 9th June
Grosvenor Casino
15 Derrys Cross
Plymouth
PL1 2SW
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

Wales One – Saturday 9th June
Grosvenor Casino
The Red Dragon Centre
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4JY
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

East London - Sunday 10th June
Loose Cannon Club
13-16 Allhallows Lane
London
EC4R 3UL
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

West Midlands One – Sunday 10th June
Circus Casino Star City
Watson Road
Birmingham
B7 5SA
Registration 12noon
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

West Country – Sunday 10th June
Grosvenor Casino
266 Anchor Road
Bristol
BS1 5TT
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

East Midlands – Sunday 10th June
Alea Casino
108 Upper Parliament Street
Nottingham
NG1 6LF
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

North West Two - Sunday 10th June
Circus Casino
Queen Square
Whitechapel
Liverpool
L1 1RH
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

Wales Two – Sunday 10th June
Grosvenor Casino
The Red Dragon Centre
Atlantic Wharf
Cardiff
CF10 4JY
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

Central England – Saturday 16th June
Aspers Casino
6 Commercial Street
Northampton
NN1 1PJ
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

North East – Sunday 17th June
Circus Casino
Forth Street
Newcastle
NE1 3NZ
Registration12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

South Yorkshire - Sunday 17th June
G Casino
87 Duchess Road
Sheffield
S2 4BG
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

South England - Sunday 17th June
Shuffles
240 Fratton Road
Portsmouth
PO1 5HH
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

West London - Sunday 17th June
Loose Cannnon Club
13-16 Allhallowes Lane
London
EC4R 3UL
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

North West One - Sunday 17th June
Manchester 235 Casino
2 Watson Street
Manchester
M3 4LP
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

West Midlands Two - Sunday 17th June
Circus Casino Star City
Watson Road
Birmingham
B7 5SA
Registration12noon
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

West Yorkshire - Sunday 17th June
Alea Casino
4 The Boulevard
Clarence Dock
Home of the Royal Armouries
Leeds
LS10 1PZ
Registration 12.30pm
Presentation 1.30pm
Shuffle Up & Deal 2pm

Poker In The Pub have joined forces with Redtooth Poker to bring you an even better poker playing experience. The move will enable us to offer better coverage in the South West of England, South Scotland and Norfolk areas bringing our members a whole host of exciting new venues across the country. This acquisition will also enable us to generate another South West regional final in the Plymouth area with our Bristol regional final being given an exciting new name!!

Our Plymouth final will be number 18 on the Redtooth calendar bringing the yearly count to 72!!

Click HERE to find your nearest venue.

The Publican Awards were held at The Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane in London at a glittering pub industry event on Tuesday evening hosted by the comedian Jimmy Carr and the industry trade magazine, the Morning Advertiser.

Voted for by licensees and pub operating companies, Redtooth scored highly for its weekly pub quizzes and pub poker tournament for driving customers into pubs and increasing their business profitability.

Redtooth, based in Barlborough, Derbyshire employs 20 employees and has been running pub quizzes since 1998 and the national UK Pub Poker tournament since 2007 and has attracted a huge following from thousands of pubs from the Orkneys to Penzance.

Managing Director for Redtooth, Martin Green commented: “This award has blown us all away and I want to thank the entire Redtooth team for all their hard work.

“The whole ethos of our business is about driving people into pubs for a great night out: I have been creating quizzes for over 20 years and at Redtooth we know what makes a great pub quiz work. We applied the same understanding to our live pub poker business and it’s been a huge hit for licensees and their customers. We keep things simple for the operator and we keep customers in the pub for the evening.  As the world’s largest live poker tournament, we are always looking at enhancing the experience for our customers and at the end of the 2012 poker season, we will be flying out 100 people to Las Vegas for our National Final.

“There’s been a lot of talk about food being the big focus for pubs but operators mustn’t overlook the fact that people also go to pubs to be entertained. We’re offering a cost effective solution to those quiet week nights.”

Caption (l to r): Gavin Murdoch from award sponsors, Tradeteam Ltd, Martin Green, Redtooth Director and Rob Willock, Group Editor for the Morning Advertiser

INTRODUCTION

Las Vegas anyone? I’d imagine 134,559 Redtooth Poker members wouldn’t say no. Well that was the big prize on offer on this fabulous sunny day at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, and also an indication of what Redtooth Poker has become in the five excellent years of it’s existence. Nine players would leave the building at some point in the evening of Sunday 25th March having won a prize that is every poker players dream… a week in Las Vegas with flights, accommodation and breakfast all on Redtooth! Welcome to the 2011/12 Redtooth Poker National Final.

Fun Fact: Furthest player north was Craig Neate of the Argyll Hotel in Ullapool - 495 miles one way.

As 9:00am passed the queue outside this prestigious venue was forming. Almost 400 players travelled from all corners of the UK to one of Europe’s largest poker venues, Dusk Till Dawn, in Nottingham with glamour model and TOWIE star, Lauren Pope and TV quiz professional Mark Labbett on hand to add some star quality to the proceedings. The players and guests were also entertained by upcoming magician Afromagic who displayed some dazzling card tricks throughout the day. Lauren Pope and Mark Labbett were also going to be present later in the evening for photos with our eventual nine Las Vegas qualifiers and to present them with their ticket and a bottle of champagne.

Fun Fact: The best represented city was London with 55 players from within the M25.

‘SHUFFLE UP ‘N’ DEAL’

‘Shuffle up n deal’ was once again announced by Tournament Director Simon Trumper as the excitement and tension was felt all across the card room. Almost exactly one minute later we had lost our first player, Paul Abbott who plays at the Hilly House in Dudley hit the rail to a huge round of applause after his K-K ran head first into A-A, which unfortunately for Paul, didn’t bring our first outdraw of the day. Paul later received a bottle of wine in a wooden box emblazoned ‘1st out of the tournament’ as a nice consolation prize, better luck next time!

Fun Fact: 10% of the players at this National Final were female.

Not long after the rail became much more populated which included our oldest ever regional final champion Fred Copley, aged 83, and previous West London champion Jamiee Dickinson as they both made early exits. Last year’s winner, David Cheesman, who is the only UK Pub Poker Champion to re-qualify the following year made a good fist of his defence but ultimately fell short in 107th position. The previous nights RPCT winner, Carl Shipsey, carried on his good form with a top 100 finish in 81st place as the business end of the tournament was fast approaching.

Fun Fact: The best represented pub was the Mulberry Tree in Warrington with four players.

Once the final 20 players were reached the players’ thoughts could start turning to the prospect of a trip to Las Vegas as they were only an hour or two away after all. We still had a couple of reigning champions in the field in Richard Arnott our North Scotland champion and Nigel Hardy who is the current East Midlands champion, both held healthy chip stacks at this point. Nigel even became one of our chip leaders when his A-A found a dream scenario with another player picking up K-K, doubling Nigel up.

Following a short break with only 13 players left we were soon on the bubble as Mervyn Allen, Paul Smith and Malcom Coleman left us in 13th, 12th and 11th place respectively. In what was expected to be a very long bubble it was soon burst as Craig Evans from the Winding Wheel in Cannock soon followed Malcom in 10th place as all players and rail birds crowded around the table to see the final hand of the evening. The remaining nine players all cheered and breathed a huge sigh of relief in the comfort of knowing they had made the Last Table, Las Vegas trip.

LAST TABLE, LAS VEGAS PLAYERS & CHIP COUNTS

1. 393,500 Dean Dunkerley - Player’s Lounge, Sheffield
2. 317,000 Andrew Gee - Spink’s Nest, Huddersfield
3. 274,000 Neil Pitchford - Dolphin, Thetford
4. 216,500 Richard Arnott - Imperial Bar, Cupar
5. 169,000 Richard Breakwell - Cleveland Arms, Wolverhampton
6. 167,000 Richard Hoodless - Bull’s Head, Stapleford
7. 151,000 Nigel Hardy - Davy Lamp, Ilkeston
8. 147,500 Paul Broughton - Chartwell Arms, Leicester
9. 115,000 Andrew Seymour - Moby Dick, Weymouth

FINAL TABLE SEAT DRAW

Seat 1: Richard Breakwell
Seat 2: Richard Arnott
Seat 3: Andrew Seymour
Seat 4: Richard Hoodless
Seat 5: Nigel Hardy
Seat 6: Andrew Gee
Seat 7: Dean Dunkerley
Seat 8: Neil Pitchford
Seat 9: Paul Broughton

All eyes are now on Sunday 13th May as the final table takes place in Las Vegas, Nevada with the new UK Pub Poker Champion being crowned later that day. Good luck guys!

NATIONAL FINAL FINISHING POSITIONS

The National Final is well underway - Here’s Lauren Pope and the Redtooth Poker Girls on hand to welcome the players to the tournament.

There’s latest updates and discussion on our Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/redtoothpoker

Join Us!

Don’t forget our Redtooth Poker Celebration Tournament is on this Saturday at 5:30pm at Dusk Till Dawn, the first tournament of our National Final weekend. There is a £30 buy-in with a £5,000 Guaranteed prize-pool. You can buy-in online via the DTD Shop and the password can be found in our password area.

Good luck!!!

CIRCUS CASINO - BIRMINGHAM

THE ACTION

Star City welcomed another group of West Midlanders as the final eight players would reach the pinnacle of pub poker at Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn. £1,000 would also be split between the top eight players.

There were some outstanding venues on the day as the Hilly House went close to claiming the team event title. The Bulls Head in Warwickshire also had a good run but neither venue could outperform the impressive Cat & Fiddle on the day. They were represented by John Carroll, Adam Bacciocchi and David Wood.

THE FINAL TABLE

Seat 1: Dave Loftus - Albion, Wolverhampton (120,500)
Seat 2: Wayne Maunder - Rose & Crown, Coventry (13,500)
Seat 3: Dean Garratt - Tenth Lock, Brierley Hill (119,500)
Seat 4: Diana Van Dyk - Royal Oak, Gloucester (184,500)
Seat 5: Sam Watson - Pillar of Salt, Droitwich (40,000)
Seat 6: Ian Bratley - Rose & Crown, Wolverhampton (77,500)
Seat 7: Darren Lee - Mount Pleasant, Coventry (95,500)
Seat 8: Steven Smith - Round Oak, Wolverhampton (95,000)
Seat 9: Chris Wildgust - Woodrow, Redditch (35,500)

Redtooth regular Diana Van Dyk led the way on chip count with Wayne clinging on as the short stack. Wayne soon made some headway as he started his impressive comeback. With Diana having already qualified from season 1 the top 9 would all be invited to Nottingham. Steven Smith left us in 8th place and was followed by Chris, Dean and Darren. Dave Loftus fell just short of the title in 4th with Diana in 3rd. The heads-up match was between our comeback king Wayne Maunder and Ian Bratley. The final hand saw the best hand lose as Ian’s 6-2 outdrew Wayne’s Q-9 on a 10-A-5-2-3 board. Unlucky Wayne and congratulations to Ian Brately who becomes our new West Midlands Two champion.

THE WINNERS

1. Ian Bratley - Rose & Crown, Wolverhampton
2. Wayne Maunder - Rose & Crown, Coventry
3. Diana Van Dyk - Royal Oak, Gloucester
4. Dave Loftus - Albion, Wolverhampton
5. Darren Lee - Mount Pleasant, Coventry
6. Dean Garratt - Tenth Lock, Brierley Hill
7. Chris Wildgust - Woodrow, Redditch
8. Steven Smith - Round Oak, Wolverhampton