This week, Full Tilt Poker announced its tour ambassadors to represent the site at all stops of the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). The players’ first tournament will take place at the UKIPT Galway Main Event in early August.
The games will include Open Faced Chinese, turbo no-limit hold’em deepstack tournaments, Irish Poker Championship, and a Super High Roller event. The Main Event will include €1 million in guaranteed prize pool. The side events are also expected to attract some of Europe’s best cash game players.
Here are Full Tilt’s new poker pros:
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Ireland’s Dermot Blain will be one of Full Tilt’s tour ambassadors. In 2009, he won the APPT Macau Main Event which netted him just over $540,000 in cash prize. Blain also got a fifth place finish in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event, which earned him $365,000. The Irishman’s lifetime live tournament earnings stands at more than $1.3 million.
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Englishman Ben Jenkins, who started playing professionally in 2009, will also represent the Internet poker site. His career highlights include a final table chop of PokerStar’s Sunday Warm-Up. He’s also made several final table appearances in high buy-in events.
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Martins Adeniya began playing poker while studying business at the University of Bath. He earned over $180,000 for a third place finish in the FTOPS Main Event. He has captured multiple WSOP and EPT cashes the past few years.
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Sinem ‘Sin’ Melin is one of Britain’s most exciting female players. She reached the final table in both the 2011 UKIPT Brighton Main Event and the 2013 GUKPT London Main Event.
“These Tour Ambassadors will help redefine what it means to represent a poker site,” said Dustin Iannotti, a marketing executive with Full Tilt Poker. “These players are working with us to create exciting new live experiences that will leave UKIPT players with memories that extend well beyond the felt.”
The Galway poker festival will feature a Full Tilt Village, which is a giant tent where players can grab food and drinks, socialize, and share battle stories from the felt. Starting on Saturday, UKIPT will showcase the biggest festival in the history of poker in Europe.
Here is the event schedule. Hold’em tournaments include:
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€1,100 Ireland Heads Up Championship
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€2,500 Irish Poker Championship
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€1,100 UKIPT Galway Main Event
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Open Face Chinese Poker
A total of 60 tournaments will be featured, with buy-ins as low as €20, the €1,100 Ireland Heads Up Championship, ending with the €2,500 Irish Poker Championship.
The UKIPT series of tournaments is expected to pose a challenge for amateurs and professionals alike. Who will emerge as the champion? There’s a good chance that individual will be under the age of 35, as the Hold’em landscape has become more globalized with younger players getting more practice through online, multi-tabling matches.
Many of Europe’s best players are expected to participate in the UKIPT. Additionally, the poker scene has witnessed a constant infusion of new poker enthusiasts who honed their skills through aggressive Internet play.
Galway, located on the western side of Ireland, represents Full Tilt’s first live festival since being acquired by PokerStars earlier this year. The poker tournament will take place at the same time as the Arts Festival and the Galway Races.
