"Money isn't everything … unless you're playing in a rebuy tournament."

 No-one at the table had any idea who the action was with...

*      *      *      THE BEER HAND OPEN IS NOW FULL!!!      *      *       *

The BHO is a regular live poker tournament open by invitation only to all registered members of 7-2offsuit and The London Poker Meetup, a combined membership exceeding 500 poker enthusiasts. Blimey. That's a lot. It's a ‘freezeout’ tournament held at a private venue in London and is not open nor accessible to general members of the public. Its aim is to provide live multi-table tournament poker experience to the amateur player or poker enthusiast for relatively small stakes and in a fun, friendly and informal environment (with beer on tap!)  All buy-ins are re-distributed to the winning players in the form of prize money, and the organisation and running of the tournament is carried out on a strictly voluntary basis – a tournament organised by poker players, for poker players. There is no rake or entry fee.

You must be a registered member of either 7-2offsuit or the London Poker Meetup in order to participate in this event. There will be a maximum of 54 seats available on the day. Bagsy a seat by the bar.

The BHO is held at the regular venue for the London Poker Meetup in SE1. For those of you who have not ventured there before this is a private room with it’s own bar (and barman) and is not accessible to the general public. Those who have played there already will know how friendly the staff and management are. We will have the use of the room for the entire day and table service will be provided. It is customary for every player to kick in a quid for the barman who (despite having no hair) provides us with such excellent service whenever we play there. 

Next day/date: Sunday 9th April 2006

Start time: 12:00 noon kick-off.

Breaks: At colour ups (4pm and 7pm approximately)

Registration: Arrive from 11:15am for registration. Please ensure you arrive no later than 11:45am so that final seating can be arranged in good time.

Runners: Maximum 54 (6 tables of 9 runners each)

Open to: Only members of 7-2offsuit and London Poker Meetup

Format: No Limit Texas Hold’em FREEZEOUT (no re-buy, no top-up)

Buy-in: £40 buyin 

Starting chips: T7500 (12x25, 12 x 100, 12x 500) - a total of T405K in play

Structure: Usual structure (see below) blinds start at 25/50 off the button

Predicted finish: Between 21:00-21:30hrs

Prize pool: Assuming we get all 54 runners - a princely £2160

Final table: last 10 finishers (a generous 18% of the field!)

Payouts: £600/£400/£300/£200/£160/£140/£120/£100/£80/£60

Bubble prize: A rather nice 7-2offsuit Limited Edition Tee, which you can always auction on eBay if you don't like it, grumble grumble…

Results: As this one is open to non-72os players results will be ineligible for inclusion in the 72os league table.

Rules: Standard casino rules will apply. I suppose the Organiser’s decision is final. That would be me.

There is no hire charge for the private room at the Walrus on a weekend, but there is a minimum £500 spend at the bar, so to keep Tony, the owner of the venue happy we all need to spend at least £10 on food and drink – as we’re going to be there all day I don’t really envisage this being a major problem as long as everyone sticks their hands in their pockets and buys a few Lager Tops and some Planter’s peanuts. I’ll do my best to drink enough for three or four of you to take some of the pressure off...

We play EXACTLY the same structure used in the World Series of Poker, but with 30 minute blind intervals throughout and blinds frozen at 5K/10K to ensure some play is left in the game at later levels. On this basis the tournament is typically 9-10 hours to reach a conclusion. There will be a number of cash games and Sit and Gos available to players who bust out of the tournament early. That takes care of me, anyway…

The final table will be dealer dealt. All players at that table will be ITM.

Once all 54 seats are taken we will NOT be accepting any further entries (because there simply won’t be enough room!) so I'd suggest you get in there quick! Payment in full of the tournament buyin of £40 will be required from you in advance to reserve your seat, and it's first come, first served. Payment can be made in a number of exciting ways:

Cash - if you’re at one of our London home games you can just make payment to the game host who will forward on your details. If at The Pub Game, make payment to one of the London Poker Meetup organisers, Dave Potts, Dave Bland, Mark Oldfield or Jim Lynott.

Cheque / Postal Order - by post to Dave Potts. My address, lest it's slipped your mind, is 12 Shalimar Road, London W3 9JD.

Online - Pokerstars funds transfers are also possible – my user ID is 'Origami Boy (Acton, God's Country)'. For your info GBP40 = USD70

However you decide to pay please ensure I have your full name, address, mobile number and email address so I can send you a confirmation.

Yup. If there's no date currently shown at the top of this page then please email to pre-register your interest and you will be given first refusal once the next date has been agreed. Unless I forget.

A fully up to date runner list can always be found in our forums.

                         - "Behold the power of the Beer Hand!" -