Our very own Vegas 100 champion, Bobby Regan, has been enjoying all the media attention since he won the inaugural Vegas 100 tournament over in Las Vegas. Since the well earn victory he has appeared on BBC Radio Newcastle, featured in the Newcastle Chronicle, the Sunday Sun and has even been featured in this month’s WPT Poker Magazine.

Blyth pub helps UK Pub Poker Champion on road to success

A pub in Blyth is celebrating after one of its customers was crowned the UK Pub Poker Champion in Las Vegas.

The Last Orders on Regent Street has praised Bobby Regan for beating thousands of pub poker players from across the country to win the prestigious Vegas 100 Redtooth Poker title and the £5,000 first-place prize-money.

Bobby, 25, from Blyth began the long journey to the title after joining the Redtooth Poker league at the Last Orders every Tuesday night.

He has been supported by the pub’s league organiser Alison Taylor throughout each stage of the tournament, even helping him to gain a passport in order to travel to America for the final.

House-wife Alison from Blyth volunteers to run the poker league two nights a week with husband Jimmy and Last Orders landlord Alan Fairbairn. On average around 25 players take part in the league each night with people travelling from across Blyth to play.

A huge banner has been erected in the pub congratulating Bobby on his success.

Alison said: “We were delighted for Bobby that he won Redtooth Poker’s Vegas 100. As a league we helped pay for his accommodation and travel to qualifiers including Sheffield, as well as getting him to Gatwick to travel to America, which we would’ve done for any of our players, as we have a great rapport with all of them.

“It’s fantastic to see all ages of the community coming together to play poker from across Blyth. We have a 69-year-old grandmother who plays twice a week, every week. Alan puts on food for the players and there’s a great friendly spirit amongst everyone in the league.

“More people are joining all the time and we provide support to new participants on how to play poker properly. We’ve even given players a lift home if they have missed the last bus!”

The number of players in the Last Orders’ Redtooth Poker league has more than doubled since it was launched 18 months ago.

Last Orders landlord Alan Fairbairn added: “The league starts around 8pm, but we have people coming into the pub about an hour before and many remain for most of the evening.

“We needed to retain people more in the pub during the night and the poker league has certainly done the trick. We easily have an extra 50 people coming to the pub on a weekly basis which can make a difference.”

Redtooth Poker is the UK’s largest live pub poker league with more than 1,000 venues and 150,000 players registered with the event since it was launched in 2007.

For more information about Vegas 100 and Redooth Poker visit www.redtoothpoker.com or call 01246 813713. Alternatively follow @redtoothpoker on Twitter.

To watch videos from the Vegas 100 tournament visit www.facebook.com/redtoothpoker.