A 2025 highlight
One of the live highlights of 2025 was the Party Poker UK tour. I attended my first in Glasgow, which was a lot of fun, as was Birmingham. For my final live outing of the year, I headed to Aspers for the London stop.
you can win anything from an online ticket up to a free entry to the high roller
I got there just in time to max late reg Day 1B, and managed to bag on the first bullet which is always nice. Even nicer is the great “spin the wheel” promo. In this, you can win anything from an online ticket up to a free entry to the high roller. You get a spin of the wheel for each entry in the mini or the Main Event, and I spun optimally and landed the best prize. As an added bonus, my co-writer and sponsored Party ambassador Barry Carter fired many bullets, spun the wheel many times, and never got more than the minimum prize.
Day 2 of the Main
Not much went right for me and it was mostly a case of hanging around grinding 20 big blinds. I got moved into the feature table near the bubble and got a little carried away, posting on my Simplify Poker Academy exhorting members to tune in for some bubble excitement. That excitement turned out to be watching me correctly folding all the garbage I got dealt as I safely navigated the bubble.
Off feature, I got a bit of a spin going but got short again when they moved me back to feature late in the day with three tables left. The trend of just getting dealt garbage on feature continues as I whittled down from 12 big blinds to just 4 when I found KQs in late position, put it in against a loose late position raiser, and didn’t get there against his rag Ace, busting in 19th for my 41st live cash on the Hendon mob this year. I believe this is a new record for an Irish player. This is (I think) my third time setting a new high mark, which has escalated fast in recent years in the era of non-stop live poker and multiple reentries, a fact underlined by the fact that Paul Carr also broke my previous record this year (with 35 cashes). While I’m here, shoutout to Paul who took down his second Irish Poker Tour leaderboard in three years in a thrilling finish involving Shane Keary and Killian Farrell.
High Roller
I was back the following day to use the High Roller entry I won on the wheel. One day 1k’s in London can be pretty dusty reg infested affairs, but Party do a very good job qualifying recreationals from $1 feeders and free promotions, so this was a very mixed very fun affair. I ran insanely well at the start to treble my stack in the early going, prompting legend Joel Beevers who was at my table to comment:
You’d be dangerous if you ever started running well.”
I told him that was a long held view of mine.
I maintained a decent stack throughout the event until a standard lost flip on the bubble for a dominating stack left me super short. In a race to the bottom with my neighbour in which it was clear we’d both be forced in on the same hand (him as small blind, me as big but with slightly less), we did a bubble saver. We both ended up busting in the same hand so he got the actual cash by virtue of his one chip more, while I at least got some money from the bubble deal.
Bigger and better in 2026
The tour which has been one of the surprise packages of this year is coming back bigger and better in 2026 with nine or ten stops planned. The first four of those have already been announced:
* Sheffield: 27 January-1 February 2026
* Seville: 17-22 March, 2026
* Madrid: 12-17 May, 2026
* Manchester: 16-21 June, 2026
The Party live and ambassador teams do a great job attracting recreational players and making the event fun for them. Lots of smaller side events are key to this objective: something other tournament organisers seem to lose sight of at times. I didn’t attend the recent PokerStars Open in Manchester, but one criticism I heard over and over from those who did was that the lack of smaller side events meant recreationals were thin on the ground, and the Main Event ended up overlaying as a result.
I’d much rather attend a fun event with a great atmosphere
When it comes to live poker, I’m virtually recreational myself, at least in the sense that I’m not trying to make my living exclusively from it. I’m not even optimising for financial return: I’d much rather attend a fun event with a great atmosphere coming from recreationals happy to be there and having a great time. The number of them who took the trouble to stop and tell me how much the books or the free strategy newsletter had helped them, or how much they enjoy the podcast on their commutes was truly staggering in London, and it’s always wonderful to hear your output is appreciated.
My next article will be a look back at 2025 and a look forward to 2026, but the Party tour is already pencilled in to my schedule!
