Black Belt Blog

Mental Game of Poker: Available Now

2012-01-27T04:46:00.001-08:00

Every month, players are able to collate Belt Points in return for their time at the table, which they can then transfer into Spending Points and spend on various items such as merchandise, training and live events.

Now, we're giving you the chance to invest those points in the most vital book on poker in recent years: The Mental Game of Poker.

We're already rewarding players for maintaining their Belt with the Orange Belt Freerolls, Grab a Grand, and more, but now you can also secure your copy of Jared Tendler's highly acclaimed publication for just 1,000 Spending Points - that's merely two months' worth of maintaining Orange.

Jared Tendler is a professional psychologist who has furthered the games of some of poker's most consistent pros, including names such as online phenom Dusty Leatherass Schmidt and EPT Champion Ben NeverScaredB Wilinofsky.

In the process, he has quickly established himself as the frontrunner in mental game coaching, whilst also elevating the increasing importance of topics such as tilt control, confidence, and coping with variance - crucial elements in a game of diminishing edges.

Now, with the help of poker scribe Barry Carter, Jared has managed to condense all his theories into one book, meaning you can learn all the key elements of the mental game of poker in one fell swoop and for the incredible price of 1,000 Spending Points.

Ordering your copy couldn't be easier: simply log in to your community account at Blackbeltpoker.com, select Store in the top right-hand menu, and then locate The Mental Game of Poker under the Merchandise heading. The book - and all its proven strategies - will then be in your hands within days.

The Black Belt Poker Store is split into four categories, with a plethora of rewards at your disposal including Academy seats, online tournament tokens, T-shirts and caps, and subscription to acclaimed tutorial site DeucesCracked.

One of our most popular items are Dojo Sessions, which are a snip at just 300 Spending Points. The next available Session is PLO Cafe, in which professional Omaha cash game player Jerome Bradpiece will be analysing the hands of attendees and helping players fine-tune their game. But be warned: tickets sell out fast, so secure your seat now via the Store.

Gorilla Warfare in Leg 3

2012-01-26T04:55:00.000-08:00

Breaking news: I won the office sweepstake! And my prediction of 118 for that evening's Black Belt Poker League was right on the nose and would have earned me a bonus prize on Bruce's Price is Right. As it was, I was forced to settle for £2 (50p of which was my initial investment), which although was a welcome addition to the coffee fund, paled in comparison to the booty collected by Leg 3 winner Anthony BoraBoraBoy Giuntini who saw his digital count rise by $147.52.

A proud member of Koddzilla's Carps, Anthony played the recent Black Belt Nottingham Live dressed as a gorilla in a bid to earn some extra dough for Cancer Research, but whilst he fell short on that occasion, there was no monkeying around on Tuesday as he defeated a tough final table that included former League Champion Adam JHobbit1 Saunders, and also unknown entity Essxhg who was appearing in his second final table after finishing sixth last week.

Further down the list, Leg 1 and 2 winners Mark SebastianKat Cooper and Shaun TableKnight Herran-Venables came 101st and 97th respectively, whilst reigning League Champion Mark bornTOflirt Atkinson fell in 52nd. Last week's League leader, kippery, came 54th.

1st BoraBoraBoy -- $147.52
2nd AlRawling -- $100.30
3rd bas2604 -- $76.70
4th StakattakBBP -- $54.57
5th Essxhg -- $38.35
6th paul6543 -- $30.97
7th JHobbit1 -- $25.07
8th pbsef81 -- $20.65
9th Nanoplankton -- $16.22
10th G3OFF -- $14.16
11th Gums1981 -- $14.16
12th BoatDrink -- $14.16
13th BarnabasStinson -- $12.39
14th HesGot2Aces -- $12.39
15th whosurmama -- $12.39

A total of 178 players have tackled this opening trio of legs, but only one has empty space above him: Allan AlRawling Rawling, whose second place finish sees him leapfrog the likes of Sarrannedipity, Mrdroodle and BoatDrink into pole position with 349 points. Having said that, nemesis BoraBoraBoy is breathing down his neck like a parched parrot with 347.

1st AlRawling -- 349 points
2nd BoraBoraBoy -- 347 points
3rd kippery -- 340 points
4th Essxhg -- 329 points
5th JHobbit1 -- 329 points
6th Sarannedipity -- 315 points
7th Touagorimou -- 311 points
8th BubbleCloud -- 309 points
9th Mrdroodle -- 304 points
10th BoatDrink -- 293 points

11th TeamPokerTourUK -- 292 points
12th Nanoplankton -- 290 points
13th TheSimian -- 290 points
14th ZoeRiZZ0 -- 287 points
15th clevski1 -- 284 points
16th NPStars1 -- 16 points
17th russellhansen -- 278 points
18th wondrwman -- 273 points
19th FlopTheNuts77 -- 270 points
20th BarnabasStinson -- 269 points

In this week's Deepstack Mulligan, Kevin S0lution Birt rectified his bubble chagrin from seven days previous to take down Wednesday's outing. He unknowingly swapped places with dionysian who topped the podium last week.

1st S0lution -- $135.00 (50 points)
2nd SvenBenson66 -- $90.00 (30 points)
3rd Nanoplankton -- $45.00 (10 points)
4th JHobbit1 -- $30.00 (5 points)
5th dionysian (5 points)

Victory will like have come have somewhat of a relief for S0lution, as he bubbled that evening's Barney Rubble Orange Belt Freeroll. His conquerers won a total of nine tournament tokens between them into the daily $6K GTD event with Black Belt Poker doubling any winnings.

1st HammerHorror -- 5 tokens
2nd eixip50 -- 3 tokens
3rd tristiano -- 1 token

If you'd like to take a munch out of the value being dangled above, then there's nothing to stop you: simply click here to download the software and open an account by following the step-by-step process provided.

Even if tax season and the festive aftermath is thinning your wallet, then we still have some free money to give you. Tonight, at 20:00, the Yellow Belt No-Lose Deepstack returns with another $100 of added money up for grabs. Entry is $1 with no registration fee, and everyone gets their money back, whatever your postion.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - League XIII: Cool for 'SebastianKat'
Week 2 - No Knightmare for Shaun in Leg 2

Just £99 for an Academy - That's No Level

2012-01-25T09:54:00.000-08:00

Forget spoiling your other half this Valentine's month to ostentatious restaurants and overpriced candy; why not treat yourself instead and take your game into the poker pitstop courtesy of the first Black Belt Poker Academy of the year?

On Saturday, February 25, Black Belt Poker will be returning to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London for another day of intensive poker tutelage with two of our finest mentors: Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso and Blue Belt Kevin Williams.

The subject matter will be Learning to Adjust: Levelling & Exploitation with Alex and Kevin guiding you through a plethora of related topics such as Game Theory, Table Dynamics and Poker Trackers. Meanwhile, players will be invited to participate in workshops within smaller groups, as well as asking any questions or queries they may have.

The full schedule is as follows:

Introduction
No Right Answers: Applying Game Theory (Alex)
Who's Got a Target on Their Back? (Workshop)
Short Break
Using Trackers to Exploit Opponents (Kevin)
Adjusting to Table Dynamics - Three Key Concepts (Workshop)
Exploitation and Four-Street Poker (Alex/Kevin)
Short break
Making & Executing a Plan (Workshop)
K.I.S.S.: Avoiding Overthink (Alex)
Levelling: Who's Zooming Who? (Workshop)
Seminar Ends

As an exclusive offer to Academy attendees, anyone who wishes to play the Vic's £50+6 tournament later that evening will automatically be entered into a last-longer with the last (wo)man standing winning free entry into the next Academy.

Academy seats are a snip at just £99, or the reduced price of £400 for five. If you would like to attend February's outing, or any other Academies from our 2012 schedule (see here), then simply drop us an email at training@blackbeltpoker.com to register your interest and discuss payment options.

Alternatively, Black Belt Poker players can secure their seat in seconds by purchasing a token from the Store for 4,800 Spending Points. If you are Green Belt or above and wish to use one of your free tickets, then simply get in touch to confirm attendance.

"Our last Academy of the year was a sell out," reveals Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso, "and we also received some of the best feedback ever. We've worked hard on the format of our Academies over the last two years and they really are a fantastic learning experience. Come see for yourself."

For one time only, February 25 will feature a double-Academy as 2008 Irish Open Champion Neil Channing hosts a day of educational gems at the Northern Poker Stars Poker Club in Carlisle. The topic will be Tournament Play with Neil divulging all the skills that helped him to a near three million in live tournament winnings. Contact ken@northernpokerstars.co.uk to reserve your seat.

No Knightmare for Shaun in Leg 2

2012-01-19T09:37:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time, a knight of the table (although not necessarily of the 'round' variety) galloped into Leg 2 of BBP League XIII to test his might. Every quest had been conquered, every dragon in the kingdom slayed, and the last damsel in distress already rescued (by Shrek, who probably did you a favour, mate). There wasn't much else to do, so, he laid down the lance, parked his trusty steed, tipped the stablehand, filled up his chalice, and... switched on the computer!

126 warriors - including the likes of Blue Belts Ross Jarvis and Jamie Burland - turned up for Leg 2, which commenced last Super Tuesday at the usual time of 19:30. A fierce battle ensued and before we knew it, we were down to two Yellow Belts: Shaun 'TableKnight' Herran-Venables and Mick 'FishtFuct' Williams.

Shaun eventually swung the axe and connected, eliminating his rival to reap the $144.95 first prize, 151 points and a guaranteed seat in the end of league SNG playoff (for the fourth BBP Live seat). Victory means Shaun is now 60th in the overall standings.

For his efforts, Mick 'FishtFuct' Williams, now 67th overall, bagged a princely $100.80 and 143 points - not bad for a $5 investment. Third place was claimed by Barrie 'rinkydinky23' Cullen, who binked $76.54 and 139 points. The Yellow Belt is now 71st and one spot behind League XII champion Mark 'bornTOflirt' Atkinson. Fourth and fifth spots were secured by Nottingham Live finalist Adam 'ACarey' Carey and League II champion Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington respectively.

1st TableKnight -- $144.95
2nd FishtFuct -- $100.80
3rd rinkydinky23 -- $76.54
4th ACarey -- $56.70
5th russellhansen -- $37.80
6th Essxhg -- $31.50
7th TheZartog -- $25.20
8th BubbleCloud -- $18.90
9th mrdroodle -- $15.75
10th ZoeRiZZ0 -- $14.17
11th browndog0 -- $14.17
12th sammyforever6 -- $14.17
13th SirNutFlopper -- 13.54
14th WiseOwlBB -- $13.54
15th nakgeela4 -- $13.54
16th NPStars1 -- $12.91
17th kippery -- $12.91
18th doochats -- $12.91

Top spot in the overall standings is currently shared by two Orange Belts: David 'kippery' Read and Andy 'mrdroodle' Erskine, who are both on 275 points. Ian 'FlopTheNuts77' Fox, who finished second in Leg 1, is sitting behind them with 249 points whilst Leg 1 winner Mark 'SebastianKat' Cooper has slipped out of the top 20 after crashing out in 119th place.

1st kippery -- 275 points
2nd mrdroodle -- 275 points
3rd FlopTheNuts77 -- 249 points
4th russellhansen -- 246 points
5th Sarannedipity -- 242 points
6th Touagorimou -- 236 points
7th Yosemity2207 -- 230 points
8th BubbleCloud -- 229 points
9th NPStars1 -- 227 points
10th rungoodPLS -- 222 points

11th doochats -- 220 points
12th fialie -- 216 points
13th plusEVldn -- 216 points
14th AlRawling -- 214 points
15th JHobbit1 -- 211 points
16th AngelVickie48 -- 208 points
17th Essxhg -- 205 points
18th BoraBoraBoy -- 204 points
19th clevski1 -- 203 points
20th Th3End1sN1gh -- 202 points

Even if you missed out in Leg 1 (like the top three finishers this week), don't worry because you still have plenty of time to make your mark in League XIII. The action will return for its third outing next week, same Bat time, same Bat channel.

On Wednesday at 20:00, we witnessed the return of the Slice of the Action Orange Belt Freeroll. This time around, we were awarding shares of Black Belt Sam Razavi in next month's UKIPT in Galway.

Last year, four lucky Orange Belts won in excess of $16,000 after Sam took down UKIPT Cork. Will he be able to repeat the feat in Ireland? There were 71 runners in last night's freeroll, which suggests he isn't short on support. Below are the players that won a piece of the pie:

1st NPenfold666 -- $100 sponsorship
2nd StakattakBBP -- $50 sponsorship
3rd ourkidsid -- $25 sponsorship
4th jfdiwins -- $25 sponsorship

Just 30 minutes later (at 20:00pm), 32 players dipped into the $15+1.5 Deepstack Mulligan. Orange Belt Spencer 'dionysian' Lawrence came out on top in that tournament. The top five also received Belt Points.

1st dionysian -- $177.60 (50 points)
2nd 99Ranny -- $120.00 (30 points)
3rd craigsidders -- $72.00 (10 points)
4th MRMANC -- $48.00 (5 points)
5th TartanSpecialI -- $26.40 (5 points)
6th S0lution -- $26.40

Don't have an account? Then click here to download the software and open an account by following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - League XIII: Cool for 'SebastianKat'

League XIII: Cool for Sebastian Kat

2012-01-12T06:56:00.000-08:00

Black Belt Poker entered the new year with just one New Year's Resolution: to continue offering value to our players. And first up was the latest Black Belt Poker League, which arrived last (Super) Tuesday with a near-recording breaking attendance.

153 in total sat down for the opening leg, including Black Belt Poker sponsored pros Kevin Williams, Warren Wooldridge and Jamie Burland, as well as head honcho Neil Channing - all keen to make an explosive start to the League's unlucky-for-some thirteenth outing.

The dangling-carrot on this occasion is three free seats into a 2012 Black Belt Live Main Event, as well as 200 Belt Points just for participating in all eight legs. Meanwhile, each leg winner once again earns entry into a Second Chance SNG to battle it out for the fourth Black Belt Live seat.

The first man to secure his spot in the SNG - although he may, of course, be collecting silverware in eight weeks' time - was Mark 'SebastianKat' Cooper, who used his feline skills to outwit fellow furry beast Ian 'FlopTheNuts77' Fox and snap up first. $173.28 sure buys a lot of catnip.

Meanwhile, mrdroodle proved that his League XII form was no fluke with a sixth place finish, whilst Sarannedipity also finalled in 10th. Reigning Champion Mark 'bornTOflirt' Atkinson came 68th.

1st SebastianKat -- $173.28
2nd FlopTheNuts77 -- $121.60
3rd kippery -- $91.20
4th vinsangel -- $68.02
5th Nanoplankton -- $45.60
6th Mrdroodle -- $38.00
7th Yosemity2207 -- $30.40
8th BobbersAllin -- $22.80
9th AlRawling -- $17.10
10th Sarannedipity -- $13.68
11th LegendKing1 -- $13.68
12th huzi9mm -- $13.68
13th StilettoMafiosa -- $12.16
14th gnomeeee -- $12.16
15th AngelVickie48 -- $12.16
16th rungootPLS -- $10.26
17th Mo33a -- $10.26
18th Touagorimou -- $10.26
19th forgot2piknik -- $8.74
20th wondrwman -- $8.74
21st TeeDeeEye1 -- $8.74
22nd FastFuse -- $8.74
23rd clevski1 -- $8.74

Get the calculators out - some complicated maths required for this one. Unsurprisingly, the top three also hold fort on the standings podium after turning a tournament token into a fruitful venture.

1st SebastianKat -- 177 points
2nd FlopTheNuts77 -- 169 points
3rd kippery -- 165 points
4th vinsangel -- 161 points
5th Nanoplankton -- 158 points
6th Mrdroodle -- 155 points
7th Yosemity2207 -- 152 points
8th BobbersAllin -- 149 points
9th AlRawling -- 146 points
10th Sarannedipity -- 144 points
11th LegendKing1 -- 142 points
12th huzi9mm -- 141 points
13th StilettoMafiosa -- 140 points
14th gnomeeee -- 139 points
15th AngelVickie48 -- 138 points
16th rungootPLS -- 137 points
17th Mo33a -- 136 points
18th Touagorimou -- 135 points
19th forgot2piknik -- 134 points
20th wondrwman -- 133 points

The action returned the following night with a respectable 37 players in the Deepstack Mulligan. Yellow Belt MRMANC (not a Manchester United fan, I suspect) took the spoils:

1st MRMANC -- $205.36 (50 Belt Points)
2nd WiseOwlBB -- $138.75 (30 Belt Points)
3rd 99Ranny -- $83.25 (10 Belt Points)
4th 47chris -- $55.50 (5 Belt Points)
5th S0lution -- $41.62 (5 Belt Points)
6th desiretheright -- $30.52

Also on Wednesday was our latest, and newest Orange Belt Freeroll, the 'Omaha Orgy', in which winners earned entry into various Omaha tournaments on Black Belt Poker, including the $100+9 Monday Night Omaha freezeout.

Ironically, 'LillJem' rose highest. The face behind the moniker? Jemma Pateman, who completed an incredible double after picked up an entire season's worth of League tokens in last week's Freeroll. Can she score the hat-trick in next week's Slice of the Action and bag a piece of UKIPT Cork Champion Sam Razavi in Galway?

1st LillJem -- Monday Night Omaha ($100+9)
2nd bagpussrocks -- $500 GTD Omaha ($50+5)
3rd JHobbit1 -- Monday Night Omaha Satellite ($20+2)
4th FlopTheNuts77 -- Monday Night Omaha Satellite ($20+2)

If you're new to Black Belt Poker, and like what you see, then jumping aboard the gravy train is easy: simply click here to download the poker client and follow the step-by-step process to opening your account.

With just one leg in the bag, the League is still wide open.

Black Belts Go Down Under

2012-01-09T06:04:00.000-08:00

January is usually a time for licking your financial wounds and preparing for the upcoming tax bill, but for the top poker pros, an even tougher predicament faces them: should they play the Aussie Millions, or head to Bahamian shores for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure?

For Black Belts Richard Ashby and Sam Razavi, the perhaps more illustrious and equally sunny former is their destination of choice, with the action kicking off this Thursday and culminating in a total of 51 tournaments including the A$10,000 Main Event.

"I'm heading over on Tuesday evening," reveals Richard. "I'm going to be playing the Main Event, and all the non-Hold'em side events, although I'll skip the really small ones, and also the two big ones: A$100,000 and A$250,000. This time I'll be pretty much playing poker throughout the whole trip.

"The cash games are really good over there and I'll be playing them daily unless I'm still alive in a tournament. They used to have big Limit games, Omaha High, which were great, but now they tend to be Pot Limit games instead.

"I'm a big fan of the Aussie Millions," he adds, "and would say it's the best event on the calendar, with Vegas second. The complex and the hotel are really nice, and the dealers and staff in the Crown Casino are friendly. There's always a lot of action too."

Both Richard and Sam have enjoyed success in Melbourne. Although Richard took down an Eight-Game side event in 2011, his biggest payday was A$150,000 when he came seventh in the Main Event in 2009. Fellow Brit Barny Boatman came eighth.

"The Main Event's usually quite soft," Richard claims. "I think when Joe Hachem won the World Series back in 2005, it attracted a lot of players to the tournament, and there are also tonnes of satellites. I won't be treating it any differently to other big tournaments though."

In last year's event, Brown Belt Sam Razavi made a star-studded final that included Chris Moorman and Patrik Antonius. He ultimately departed in sixth place for A$250,000. Former Brown Belt James Keys finished second for $1,035,000.

Sam's performance earned him enough points to reach Black Belt and formed the launch pad for his tournament career. Just a few months later, he would join Jamie Burland as one of two Black Belt Poker UKIPT Champions when he took down the title in Cork.

This year, both Sam and Richard will be looking to go that one step further and bring home the title, and we'll be keeping a close eye on their progress and keeping you updated via the Black Belt Poker Groups.

Go Live With League XIII

2012-01-06T04:25:00.000-08:00

The Black Belt Poker League returns this Tuesday for its first outing of the new year. The final digit in the date may have changed, but the value at Black Belt Poker continues to deliver as we serve up our usual dose of bonuses and rewards.

This time around, we're offering four lucky players the chance to play a Black Belt Live event and echo the achievements of Nottingham Live champion Stuart Hyson who won $15,500 when he captured the title at Dust Till Dawn.

In 2012, we plan to host three Black Belt Live events, and if you finish in the top three of League XIII, you will receive free entry into a Main Event of your choosing, wherever the venue may be. In addition, the overall Champion will earn himself a personalised Black Belt Poker hoodie, as well as all the bragging rights he can handle.

League XIII commences Tuesday, January 10 at 19:30, exclusively on Black Belt Poker. As usual, the League will run over eight legs, taking place every Tuesday. The event can be located in the lobby under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments and costs $5+0.50 to enter. You can also buy in using Belt Points by purchasing a token in the Black Belt Poker Store.

Points for each leg will be awarded in reverse order, so that in a 50-runner event, 50th would earn 1 point, and 1st 50 points. The top 10 finishers per leg receive the following additional points:

1st 25 Points
2nd 18 Points
3rd 15 Points
4th 12 Points
5th 10 Points
6th 08 Points
7th 06 Points
8th 04 Points
9th 02 Points
10th 01 Point

Once again, we're also giving away Belt Points to those who make it into the top 10, but just miss out on star prize:

1st 2012 Black Belt Live Seat & Personalised Hoodie
2nd 2012 Black Belt Live Seat
3rd 2012 Black Belt Live Seat
4th 725 Belt Points
5th 600 Belt Points
6th 500 Belt Points
7th 400 Belt Points
8th 300 Belt Points
9th 200 Belt Points
10th 100 Belt Points

As with the previous League, we're offering all leg winners who couldn't quite to make it into the top three spots one final bite of the cherry in a Second Chance SNG. The SNG will take place the day after the final leg of the League on Wednesday, February 29, with the last man standing reaping the same rewards as the overall winners and earning free entry into one of our 2012 Black Belt Live events.

This means that even if you're in last place with just one leg to go, you still have a chance of winning the star prize!

And it doesn't end there. Anyone who manages to sweet-talk the Mrs. and escape to the computer to play all eight league legs will once again be rewarded with an additional 200 Belt Points. That's extra value just for turning up, regardless of your final position in the standings!

Last time, Yellow Belt Mark 'BornTOflirt' Atkinson became the Black Belt Poker League Champion when he took down the twelfth League to date. As a result, he was invited for a slap-up meal at the Black Belt Poker Christmas party to wine and dine with the likes of Neil Channing and Richard Ashby, before being entered into a £100 SNG against the Black Belt Poker team of sponsored pros.

Tom Drew's done it twice, but next time - as the giant blue finger would say - it could be you...

Previous Winners:

League I: Adam Saunders
League II: Mark Brassington
League III: David Meunier
League IV: Andy Brisland
League V: Trevor Myers
League VI: Mark Ranson
League VII: Tom Drew
League VIII: Trevor Ingman
League IX: Jamie Burland
League X: Tom Drew
League XI: Robert Bulman
League XII: Mark Atkinson
League XIII: ?...

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

OMG! First Place & Back to Back Finals

2012-01-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

For most, the festive period is one of rest, a time to ravage a turkey, share a tipple with the in-laws, and blow off the one-year dust from the Monopoly. For Black Belt Poker player Martin 'OMGDannyRudd' Malone, however, it was a time for making money... real money.

As December 25 drew to a close and the final mince pies were consumed, Martin received a belated, but welcome Christmas present when he defeated a 725-thick field to take down iPoker's $100,000 Guaranteed tournament.

A 27-year old former youth worker from Southampton, Martin is an MTT specialist who plays tournaments ranging from $5 rebuys to the Sunday Majors. On this occasion, he managed to turn an initial investment of $200+15 into a juicy $30,450, thus ensuring he finished 2011 with a bang.

"It felt great to win," revealed Martin. "I think I shouted 'Boom!' quite a lot and ran to tell the Mrs. I had won it. She was eating breakfast at the time having already had a full night's sleep - its a strange world all this poker stuff!

"There was a huge jump from second to first of around $15,000," he continued, "so it was pretty sick playing heads-up for double the prize of second. In the back of my mind, I couldn't help but think that if I finished in the runner-up spot, I'd have to replay the whole tournament and come second again just to win the amount I was currently playing for!"

Several other Black Belt Poker players made the money, including Andrew 'LegendKing1' Dwyer (28th: $841.00) and Jerome 'GONGONONGO' Bradpiece (92nd: $203.00). Martin isn't the only Black Belt Poker player to win the event; Blue Belt Kevin Williams achieved the same feat earlier in the year for a whopping $42,000, although with a less 'seasonal' guaranteed prize pool of $200,000.

Although Martin doesn't consider himself a pro, he does label himself an 'online grinder', and just one week later he was back at the table to defend his title. Amazingly, the New Year celebrations almost echoed the Christmas cheer when he made an incredible second consecutive final table and finished ninth for $1,899.80. In the same tournament, Orange Belt Chris 'SchnauzerSoze04' Cope finished 15th for $1,024.00.

Martin's feat, and near back-to-back wins, was an exceptional achievement, and a great way to greet 2012. To learn more from Black Belt Poker's most in-form player, I caught up with him just a couple of days ago to talk about his victory, second final table, and how the heck he convinced the Mrs. to exchange a festive evening in front of a log fire for a lengthy session behind the monitor.

Check out the interview here...

Ross Jarvis Becomes Latest Blue Belt

2012-01-01T10:48:00.000-08:00

Professional poker player Ross Jarvis has become the latest player to scale the ranks of the Belt-Up Rewards System and reach Blue Belt.

As a result, he'll now be receiving $1,500 per month in live tournament backing, as well as free entry into the £750 UKIPT Galway Main Event as part of our Blue & Improved promotion.

Ross is a 26-year old former student from Chesterfield who worked as journalist for Poker Player Magazine before turning pro earlier in the year. Since then he has been able to churn out a comfortable living at the online felt playing mid-stakes six-handed cash.

He only occasionally ventures into brick and mortar, yet already has two titles to his name including victories in the Virgin Poker Festival and Sky Poker Tour. Ross will be looking to add to the trophy cabinet this New Year when he makes his debut as a Black Belt Poker sponsored pro at January's Main Event at the Fox Poker Club.

Ross' venture commenced in early November when he was one of a number of hand-picked recipients of 'Channing's Golden Ticket' and invited to the lavish Ritz Hotel for an exclusive presentation on Black Belt Poker.

"I’d never been inside the grand palace before and it was quite the spectacle," he wrote in a recent blog entry. "…in a separate room around the corner was a worldwide first: a large group of online poker players dressed respectably in a suit and tie… Channing and Warren Wooldrige gave a presentation on the benefits of being a sponsored Blue Belt to us all and I was left feeling it was just the sort of fresh start and challenge that I wanted."

Over the course of the next two months, Ross ambushed the Black Belt Poker tables, and reached the Blue Belt threshold of 50,000 Belt Points in mid-December, allowing him to sit back and relax during the festive period. In the meantime, he even found time to write a strategy article offering advice to those looking to turn pro.

"We're really pleased to have Ross join the team as one of our sponsored pros," commented Neil Channing. "Given his writing background and determination to succeed in a major live event, what we're offering suits him to a tee. What's more, he's a nice, friendly lad who's always looking to improve his game. It's great to have him on board."

If you play mid-stakes cash and would like to follow in the footsteps of Ross, then check out the Belt-Up Rewards System now.

Birthday Belt Boost

2011-12-29T09:28:00.000-08:00

This New Year, Black Belt Poker are giving you two reasons to launch a party-popper into the air and plant a kiss on the nearest victim with our Birthday Belt Boost.

If Her Majesty's two birthdays turn you green with envy, then be jealous no more as we're showering you with gifts and celebrating your birthday right here at Black Belt Poker.

Each year from the anniversary of your first deposit, you will have 30 days to make a further deposit and receive a Belt Boost, thus enabling you to earn Belt Points twice as fast. If you make a deposit of $100 or less you will receive 3 Belt Points for every dollar raked, but deposit over $100 and you'll earn 4 Belt Points!

If you first deposited with Black Belt Poker before January 1, 2011, then your birthday will become available as the fireworks hit the sky on January 1, 2012. What's more, you'll also receive a Birthday Belt Boost again iater in the year on the date of your initial deposit.

For those who first deposited during 2011, and less than 12 months ago, then don't fret, we'll be celebrating your birthday during 2012 and, on your one-year anniversary, you will also be eligible for the Birthday Belt Boost and increased rate of earning points.

If you're a Yellow Belt, then this is the perfect opportunity to fast-track your way to Orange and start reaping the benefits of the Belt-Up Rewards System. Not only will you earn Belt Points at a faster rate, but you'll also be invited to play in our weekly Orange Belt Freerolls.

For the first time ever, there will be five Freerolls in February, including two new entries: Omaha Orgy and Limit Up in which players will fight it out over Omaha tournament tokens and 1,000 in Belt Points respectively. Also that month, we're holding our first freeroll satellite into the third Black Belt London Live event.

If you've been regretting not taking full advantage of your first-time deposit Belt Boost when you initially opened your account, then the Birthday Belt Boost is the ideal opportunity to make amends and treat yourself to some added value. Please check out our promotions page for all the details.

Festive Freezeouts on Black Belt Poker

2011-12-24T01:26:00.000-08:00

The stockings have been unfilled, the Christmas pudding consumed, and the Sherry bottles emptied - you've even had time to squeeze in a heated argument with the family over a game of Monopoly.

But what do you now? New Year's just under a week away, tackling the tube strikes and onslaught of bargain-hunters is no longer an attractive proposition, and you just don't fancy that umpteenth viewing of Goldfinger.

Don't worry, as Black Belt Poker has the answer to your post Christmas-woes with our Festive Freezeouts.

In order to fill in that festive gap, Black Belt Poker are hosting three festive tournaments, commencing with the Turkey Sandwich on Tuesday, December 27, a $10+1 six-max freezeout at 19:30.

Then, the following day, again at 19:30, we'll be adding more stuffing to the seasonal period with the Big Turkey Sandwich, this time with a $50+5 entry fee. If you want to play pros such as Richard Ashby and Neil Channing, then this one's for you.

Finally, later that evening at 20:30, you can feast on some deep-stacked action in our Festive Mulligan, a $15+1.5 No Limit Hold'em freezeout with Belt Points added to the prize pool for the top five finishers.

And if you've got some poker ants in your pants and can't wait until then before hitting the cyber felt, then we have $5+0.5 satellites for the Big Turkey Sandwich running tonight at 17:00, then again on Monday, before a double whammy on Tuesday (17:00 and 20:30).

Don't just sit there unfastening your Belt and digesting the final remnants of Christmas dinner - join us at Black Belt Poker for some festive poker shenanigans and add some hard cash to your pile of presents. Surely you're not just going to settle for those Argyle socks?...

Tokens are now available in the Store, or buy-in directly via the cardroom lobby.

Click here for a reminder of the schedule...

Born To Win; Atkinson Tops League XII

2011-12-22T08:30:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, Yellow Belt Mark 'bornTOflirt' Atkinson won the latest Black Belt Poker League, earning himself an invite to tonight's Black Belt Poker Christmas party where he'll be get to meet, greet, and eat before participating in a £100 SNG against our lineup of sponsored pros including Neil Channing, Richard Ashby and Kevin Williams.

Heading into the final leg, only a disaster of epic proportions could steal defeat from the jaws of victory, and such an occurrence was indeed evaded as Mark secured the title with a consistent-as-ever 21st place finish. The spoils on this occasion went to Peter 'UliKoko' Derrick, who defeated a tough final table - which included League XI runner-up finishers Nick 'nickhem1' Hemming and Karl 'KBV1TALS' Briggs - to claim the $114.000 first prize.

Also among the 76 entrants were bubble boy and former League Champion Andy 'RedKiteBlackBelt' Brisland, and dethroned Champion Robert 'myteamouse' Bulman who sadly picked up the wooden spoon in 76th place.

1st UliKoko -- $114.00
2nd bolden1212 -- $76.00
3rd S0luton -- $47.50
4th mork1971 -- $36.10
5th paul6543 -- $28.50
6th liquidpoker101 -- $22.80
7th nickhem1 -- $19.00
8th Snotterz -- $15.20
9th KBV1TALS -- $11.40
10th lionrampant27 -- $9.50

In total, 193 poker fanatics partook in League XII, with 10 lucky players receiving prizes for their hard work. With just 50 points separating 5th from 17th, all the changes occurred in the bottom half, with NPenfold (22nd) and TeeDeeEye1 (19th) replacing Elysiumjay (44th) and 45683ah (60th), the latter just missing out on a payday by a mere seven points.

1st bornTOflirt -- Xmas Party & Seat in £100 Pro SNG (668 points)
2nd Mrdroodle -- 1,000 Belt Points (602 points)
3rd Sarannedipity -- 850 Belt Points (596 points)
4th liquidpoker101 -- 725 Belt Points(585 points)
5th losbert40 -- 600 Belt Points (551 points)
6th Nanoplankton -- 500 Belt Points (536 points)
7th KBV1TALS -- 400 Belt Points (526 points)
8th TeeDeeEye1 -- 300 Belt Points (521 points)
9th bagpussrocks -- 200 Belt Points (521 points)
10th NPenfold666 -- 100 Belt Points (519 points)

11th 45683ah -- (512 points)
12th lionrampant27 -- (506 points)
13th Elysiumjay -- (505 points)
14th ACarey -- (504 points)
15th doochats -- (499 points)
16th JaytheHippy71 -- (496 points)
17th ChipRead77 -- (495 points)
18th BoatDrink -- (485 points)
19th taylormade777 -- (481 points)
20th RedKiteBlackBelt -- (467 points)

Although Mark Atkinson was all but dusting his crown prior to the starting whistle, there remained hope for others in the form of the Second Chance SNG, a one-table tournament that offered all leg winners the opportunity to be the last-man-standing and capture the star prize.

The Leg winners were as follows:

Leg 1: JosseWales
Leg 2: JaytheHippy71
Leg 3: steviegw
Leg 4: myteamouse
Leg 5: DConTour1
Leg 6: mrdroodle
Leg 7: mrdroodle
Leg 8: UliKoko

Although Andy 'mrdroodle' Erskine had achieved the remarkable feat of winning two consecutive events, he was to suffer the pain of the bubble at the final furlong when he lost heads-up to opening leg winner Barry 'JosseWales' Styles. As a result, we'll be seeing Barry tonight at the Grosvenor Victoria where he'll join Mark in the £100 Pro SNG.

The League may have come to a close, but our weekly Mulligan was still offering players a second bite at the cash cherry (as well as bonus Belt Points) with a feast of deep-stacked action for the affordable price of $15+1.5. 33 clicked 'register', but only one came out smelling of roses: former League Champion Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington.

1st russellhansen -- $198.00 (50 Special Points)
2nd HesGot2Aces -- $123.75 (30 Special Points)
3rd ourkidsid -- $79.20 (10 Special Points)
4th deadlydaveLDN -- $54.45 (5 Special Points)
5th Bluegooner1 -- $39.60 (5 Special Points)

Meanwhile, the latest Orange Belt Freeroll was taking place simultaneously with 65 players battling it out for shares in Richard Ashby in the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event. With a final table already under his belt, Richard's pie-slices were hotly contested as 65 looked to grab their piece of the action. Only four could enjoy this pleasure, however; they were:

1st JustinBieber -- $100 sponsorship
2nd BoatDrink -- $50 sponsorship
3rd lionrampant -- $25 sponsorship
4th WiseOwlBB -- $25 sponsorship

Tonight, the Yellow Belt No-Lose Deepstack returns to cyber shores this evening at 20:00, but to keep you entertained during the holiday season, we have our Festive Freezeouts which include the wonderfully named Turkey Sandwich and Big Turkey Sandwich, $10+1 and $50+5 freezeouts respectively.

The Big Turkey takes place at 19:30 on December 28 with satellites running throughout the week, so there's no excuse for failing to escape the in-laws and joining us for some poker debauchery on Black Belt Poker. Check out our tournaments page for more details, and we look forward to seeing you at the tables with your almost-out-of-date mince pies and ready-to-go New Year party poppers.

Don't have an account? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory
Week 2 - 'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2
Week 3 - Stevie Does It
Week 4 - Mighty Win for Bulman in Leg 4
Week 5 - DConTourTakes Us to Valuetown
Week 6 - Erskine Shines in Leg 6
Week 7 - Droodle Does Double

2012 Academies Announced

2011-12-19T03:11:00.000-08:00

With the final Black Belt Poker Academy of the year: Home on the Range done and dusted, 2011 has now concluded its full schedule, thus allowing you to put into practice your newfound skills over the festive period in-between those mince pies and drops of Sherry.

As the cliche claims: "poker is easy to learn, but hard to master," and so Black Belt Poker will be returning in the New Year to once again serve up a poker pitstop and help you stay ahead of the game with six more Academies.

The first Academy will take place on Saturday, February 25 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London with Alex Rousso being joined by Black Belt and UKIPT Champion Sam Razavi. Together, they will teach techniques in game-adjustment, including exploiting opponents, and how to avoid being exploited yourself.

As a heads-up cash specialist with a penchant for speech-play, Sam boasts oodles of experience in poker psychology, and will be on hand to teach you all the nuances and tricks for getting the better of your opponent.

The full schedule for 2012 is as follows:

Saturday, February 25: 'Learning to Adjust: Levelling & Exploitation'
Saturday, April 21: 'Poker by Numbers: The Basics of Odds & Outs'
Saturday, May 26: 'WSOP: Winning Your Seat & Surviving Vegas'
Date tbc: 'How to Become a Pro'
Date tbc: 'Preflop Aggression: Three-Bets, Four-Bets & Beyond
Date tbc: 'The Biggest Leak: Value-Towning the River'

If you would like to attend any of the aforementioned Academies, then you can secure your seat now by emailing us at training@blackbeltpoker.com. Academies cost just £99 per ticket, or 4,800 Spending Points via the Black Belt Poker Store. And as a special deal, we're also offering five tickets for the reduced price of £400, meaning you get one free!

Anybody who reaches Green Belt in the Belt-Up Rewards System automatically receives free tickets to two Academies of their choosing. Alternatively, there will be a free seat up for grabs in our Enlightenment Orange Belt Freeroll on Wednesday, February 1.

"Our last Academy of the year was a sell-out," reveals Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso, "and we also received some of the best feedback ever. We've worked hard on the format of our Academies over the last two years and they really are a fantastic learning experience. Come see for yourself."

For one time only, February 25 will feature a double-Academy as 2008 Irish Open Champion Neil Channing hosts a day of educational gems at the Northern Poker Stars Poker Club in Carlisle. The topic will be Tournament Play with Neil divulging all the skills that helped him to a near three million in live tournament winnings. Contact ken@northernpokerstars.co.uk to reserve your seat.

Droodle Does Double

2011-12-15T06:16:00.000-08:00

The Black Belt Poker League entered its penultimate leg of the season this week as 72 players looked to knock 'bornTOflirt' off his throne and echo the last-man-standing achievements of Andy 'Mrdroodle' Erskine just seven days prior.

In the end, neither objective was fulfilled as 'bornTOflirt' not only held onto top spot, but extended his lead, and 'Mrdroodle' entered Groundhog Day by completing an incredible double.

In fact, most of the final table were in near-equally fine fettle: last week's runner-up 'HammerHorror' finished third, 'taylormade777' repeated his seventh place, whilst 'Nanoplankton' improved on his ninth place finish by two places.

Meanwhile, 2010 Ultimate Warrior Hasmukh '45683ah' Khodiyara turned a token purchase into a $79.20 payday, and former League Champion Trevor 'TeeDeeEye1' Ingman snuck into the money in eighth.

1st Mrdroodle -- $115.20
2nd 45683ah -- $79.20
3rd HammerHorror -- $48.60
4th S0lution -- $36.00
5th bornTOflirt -- $27.00
6th Nanoplankton -- $21.60
7th taylormade777 -- $18.00
8th TeeDeeEye1 -- $14.40
9th KODDZILLA
10th JaytheHippy71

Another emphatic performance from 'bornTOflirt' means that, barring a meteorite falling from the sky, he's going to be the League XII Champion and joining us at the Black Belt Poker Christmas party to play in the £100 SNG. However, it's not too late to join him; win the final leg next week and you'll be entered into a Second Chance SNG with the previous leg winners, the survivor of which will also be awarded the star prize.

1st bornTOflirt -- 612 points
2nd Mrdroodle -- 537 points
3rd Sarannedipity -- 533 points
4th losbert40 -- 520 points
5th liquidpoker101 -- 506 points
6th 45683ah -- 495 points
7th Nanoplankton -- 475 points
8th Elysiumjay -- 472 points
9th JaytheHippy71 -- 469 points
10th bagpussrocks -- 468 points

11th BoatDrink -- 466 points
12th doochats -- 465 points
13th NPenfold666 -- 464 points
14th TeeDeeEye1 -- 463 points
15th taylormade777 -- 458 points
16th ACarey -- 457 points
17th KBV1TALS -- 456 points
18th ChipRead77 -- 454 points
19th lionrampant27 -- 438 points
20th JHobbit1 -- 435 points

For those who struggled in the current League, there were consolative rewards in this week's Orange Belt Freeroll as we gave away a total of 36 tokens into League XIII in the new year. 'Nanoplankton' came out smelling of roses; he earned himself free entry into all eights legs.

1st Nanoplankton -- Season Ticket Pass
2nd bagpussrocks -- 7 League tokens
3rd ourkidsid -- 6 League tokens
4th ToddCoxeter -- 5 League tokens
5th generlashifty -- 4 League tokens
6th 10Royals -- 3 League tokens
7th VBlueBBP -- 2 League tokens
8th Ruaction -- 1 League tokens

Finally, 18 players participated in Wednesday's Deepstack Mulligan with top prize going to Kevin 'S0lution' Birt:

1st S0lution -- $135.00 (50 Belt Points)
2nd nicenutter -- $81.00 (30 Belt Points)
3rd lionrampant27 -- $54.00 (10 Belt Points)
4th TheHulk85 (5 Belt Points)
5th losbert40 (5 Belt Points)

If you haven't already heard the news, Black Belt Poker are hosting some Festive Freezeouts to keep you entertained during the respite period between Christmas and New Year, including our $50+5 Big Turkey Sandwich. If you're looking to slip away from the in-laws for a few hours, then this could be the perfect escape route.

Don't have an account? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Orange Wednesday: New Freerolls Added

2011-12-11T05:08:00.001-08:00

If you're considering going to the cinema on Wednesdays, then think again as Black Belt Poker are making you an offer you can't refuse.

Every Wednesday at 20:00, Black Belt Poker host an Orange Belt Freeroll, exclusive to Orange and Purple Belts. As the title suggests, entry is absolutely free, with prizes ranging from training to a luxury chip set to shares in our Black Belts in live tournaments.

In total, there are five freerolls including Merchandise Madness and Barney Rubble, but whilst you've been grazing on your poker popcorn, we've spiced things up with an extra three freerolls. Threerolls!

The first one to grace your monitor will be Omaha Orgy, an orgasmic experience that will delight its winners with Omaha tournament entries, including a seat into the $100+9 Monday Night Omaha event.

Also joining the roster is Limit Up. Take your game to the limit in our Limit Hold'em freeroll and win Belt Points for finishing in the top four spots with first place earning an entire month's worth of free Orange Belt maintenance.

Then, in February, a month in which there will be an unprecedented five freerolls for you to feast on, you'll be able to take a bite out of our London Live Freeroll, in which we'll be serving up free seats into the third Black Belt London Live.

The next freeroll is The Season Ticket Giveaway on Wednesday, December 14 in which we give out no fewer than 36 tokens into the Black Belt Poker League. The following week will then be A Slice of the Action - your chance to win shares in the Aussie Millions with Black Belt Richard Ashby, who final-tabled the event in 2009.

The schedule for the next three months is as follows:

December:

Week 1: Merchandise
Week 2: The Season Ticket Giveaway
Week 3: A Slice of the Action (Richard Ashby - Aussie Millions)
Week 4: Barney Rubble

January:

Week 1: The Season Ticket Giveaway
Week 2: Omaha Orgy
Week 3: Slice of the Action (Sam Razavi - UKIPT Galway)
Week 4: Barney Rubble

February:

Week 1: Enlightenment Freeroll
Week 2: Omaha Orgy
Week 3: London Live Freeroll
Week 4: A Slice of the Action
Week 5: Limit Up

So, this is your chance to be a contender, a somebody. Go ahead, make your day and may the force be with you. There's no place like Black Belt Poker on a Wednesday.

Want us to show you the money? Check out our promotions page to see exactly what you can win from our current lineup of Orange Belt Freerolls.

Erskine Shines in Leg 6

2011-12-11T04:12:00.000-08:00

Leg 6 of Black Belt Poker League XII commenced last Tuesday night, with 85 players pulling $5.50 out of their virtual pockets to join in with the competitive fun. With only two legs to go after this, participants were eager to make their mark and boost their chances of joining us at the BBP Christmas dinner.

In the previous leg, Andy 'Mrdroodle' Erskine had only managed 57th place. This week though, the Orange Belt came roaring back to claim the honours, leaving with $127.52, 110 valuable points and undoubtedly a huge grin on his face. This victory has also propelled him into 6th in the overall standings with 440 points.

This week's runner-up came in the form of Tim 'HammerHorrow' O'Mahoney. The Yellow Belt won $85, 102 points, and, like 'mrdroodle', vastly improved on last week when he finished in 41st place. He now sits in 32nd place in the overall standings with 347 points.

Third place was claimed by former League Champion Mark '99Ranny' Ranson who took home $53.12 and 98 points. The Yellow Belt is in 74th place with 218 points.

1st Mrdroodle -- $127.52
2nd HammerHorrow -- $85.00
3rd 99Ranny -- $53.12
4th 7onyB -- $40.37
5th Sarannedipity -- $31.87
6th elvis18111 -- $25.50
7th taylormade777 -- $21.25
8th Elysiumjay -- $17.00
9th Nanoplankton -- $12.75
10th CareybearBBP -- $10.62

At the moment, Yellow Belts are holding the top three spots in League XII.

Mark 'bornTOflirt' Atkinson still leads the way despite dating danger this week when he finished 31st for 55 points. He now has a total of 534 points.Saranne 'Sarannedipity' Branter, meanwhile, maintained her second place position in the overall standings and inched closer to 'bornTO'flirt' after claiming fifth place in Leg 6. She now has 505 points.

Third place changed hands after Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland climbed four positions, courtesy of an eighth place finish. He is now on 469 points.

1st bornTOflirt -- 534 points
2nd Sarannedipity -- 505 points
3rd Elysiumjay -- 469 points
4th losbert40 -- 458 points
5th liquidpoker101 -- 449 points
6th Mrdroodle -- 440 points
7th ACarey -- 436 points
8th NPenfold666 -- 435 points
9th doochats -- 421 points
10th BoatDrink -- 420 points

11th JHobbit1 -- 420 points
12th bagpussrocks -- 412 points
13th KBV1TALS -- 409 points
14th 45683ah -- 406 points
15th JaytheHippy71 -- 405 points
16th elvis18111 -- 401 points
17th ChipRead77 -- 400 points
18th Nanoplankton -- 400 points
19th TeeDeeEye1 -- 394 points
20th lionrampant27 -- 390 points

On Wednesday at 20:30, 27 people jumped into the $15+1.50 Deepstack Mulligan. Ciaran 'HeGot2Aces' Cole came out on top, gaining a $202.50 payday.

1st HeGot2Aces -- $202.50
2nd doochats -- $121.50
3rd CaptainJack5 -- $81.00

Finally, a special congratulations goes out to Gerald 'WiseOwlBB' Stanley, who became our first player to cash in the daily $6K GTD tournament with a token gained through the Orange Belt 'Barney Rubble' Freeroll. He had won $261.60 in the actual tournament, but doubled up as part of our promotion, taking home a total of $523.20.

Don't have an account? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory
Week 2 - 'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2
Week 3 - Stevie Does It
Week 4 - Mighty Win for Bulman in Leg 4
Week 5 - DConTourTakes Us to Valuetown

iPOPS: 2 BBP Brits & An $89,300 Czech

2011-12-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

The iPOPS Live kicks off tomorrow in Prague, but at 16:00 two Black Belt Poker players will be playing for an $89,300 first prize in the grand finale of the iPOPS Main Event.

The iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) was a mini-series of four events with a value-quenching $1 million in guaranteed prize pools. In total, there was in excess of $150,000 in added money, including a whopping $77,125 overlay in the $125+10 Main Event.

This monetary carrot lured 3,383 to the felt, included 16 players who had won free seats courtesy of Black Belt Poker. As well as adding seats to our weekly tournaments, we also held daily Bang For Ya Buck MTTs which offered players the chance to win a seat for a single buck. Meanwhile, 'FlopTheNuts77' received free entry just for bubbling Event #1 as part of our exclusive Bust a Black Belt promotion.

As such, Black Belt Poker boasted a near five percent of the field, including Nik Persaud, Neil Channing, Richard Ashby and Toby Lewis, as well as Blue Belts Jamie Burland and Ben Meredith who both managed to cash. The stars of the day, however, were Rupinder 'AceSingh' Bedi and Richard 'generalshifty' Hurst who survived to the final 27, and will now play to a conclusion at the iPOPS Live tomorrow.

Rupinder is a well-known circuit player from Leicester who has enjoyed a number of results including a GBPT title, a DTD Monthly Freezeout victory, and a final table in the GUKPT Blackpool. Richard, meanwhile, is a regular on Black Belt Poker shores, and is a former Purple Belt who recently cashed in the Black Belt Nottingham Live. In doing so, he earned an extra 10 percent to his prize for being Orange Belt, as well as $100 for eliminating bounty Jake Cody.

Having lost a crucial pot just moments before the final whistle, Rupinder was left with just a few big blinds, but thankfully iPoker have come to his rescue and modified the structure to enable more play. Blinds will therefore start at 10,000/20,000 with a 40-minute clock, meaning Rupinder now has a fighting chance with over 10 big blinds, and Richard a much more manageable 25 big blinds.

The chip counts heading in to tomorrow are as follows:

Anastasiya3250 -- 626,755.06
CurtisCTUfrom24 -- 971,299.60
geoffowen -- 2,214,830.15
GrinderBerlin -- 907,542.32
TonyMontana147 -- 696,249.92
BlinkyBill00 -- 3,177,658.96
generalshifty -- 507,207.34 (D)
Veryunique -- 1,524,204.00 (SB)
heyjoe26 -- 2,464,969.37 (BB)

mitchelll -- 2,570,963.85 (SB)
panjodeluxe -- 4,194,546.70 (BB)
AceSingh -- 206,085.45
gliiiiip -- 1,239,831.76
ShaneGamble -- 889,053.26
fladfisk1l1 -- 582,330.93
nbban -- 944,745.87
Chuikapridi -- 1,615,161.41
JonnyWhite22 -- 1,078,997.58 (D)

Nickval79 -- 1,124,955.12 (BB)
daramcc -- 1,023,706.82
XENOC1DE -- 800,550.95
whatdoiwant -- 746,129.80
poomhead -- 224,191.60
POKZ1337 -- 1,085,977.56
EuroxxBuster -- 684,230.44
NashvilleSkyline -- 1,085,448.46 (D)
mick44yx -- 642,375.72 (SB)

The event runs alongside the iPOPS Live €700+70 Main Event with the final table scheduled for 13:00 on Sunday, December 11. Good luck to both Rupinder and Richard, and congratulations to everyone who cashed in the inaugural iPOPS. You can follow Richard's progress on Twitter @generalshifty.

Academy: Home on the Range

2011-12-06T09:08:00.001-08:00

If you think a "range" is little more than a series of mountains, then our latest Academy is for you - taking place on Saturday, December 17, Home on the Range will provide you with all the information you need for placing opponents on a range of hands, whilst also learning methods of widening your own.

Taking the reigns this time will be Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso and Black Belt Poker sponsored pro Kevin Williams. With oodles of experience between them, they'll be presenting topics such as opening ranges, polarising and range-merging, whilst also hosting smaller discussion groups and workshops.

Kevin explains further:

http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/articles/read/Academy-Range

"These days," adds Alex, "it's no longer enough to figure that an opponent is tight or loose, bad or good; you need to know about opponent range assessment. Since opponents in the modern game are more likely to have multi-street plans - both for how they play their hands and combat yours - it's much better to have plans of your own."

Tickets cost a mere £99. If you would like to attend, then drop us an email as soon as possible at training@blackbeltpoker to discuss payment options and secure your seat. Alternatively, you can purchase a token in our Store under Live Events using Spending Points accrued at the Black Belt Poker tables.

The full schedule is as follows:

(13:00) Introduction: putting someone on a range, not a hand
(13:15) Opening Ranges: player types and their ranges
(13:45) Workshop: opponent opening ranges
(14:30) Short Break
(14:45) Narrowing Ranges: what opponent actions mean
(15:15) Workshop: opponent ranges on later streets
(16:00) Guess the Hand
(16:40) Short break
(16:45) Battling Ranges: polarising and merging
(17:15) Workshop: battling against ranges
(18:00) Recap Session: with Q&A or optional extra workshop
(19:00) Seminar Ends
(19:45) Optional entry into Vic £50+6 tourney with last-longer for Academy attendees

For those working from a budget, there will be a $10+1 satellite tomorrow at 19:30, exclusive to Black Belt Poker players. The event requires a minimum of five runners so register early if you plan to play.

'DConTour1' Takes us to Valuetown

2011-12-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Last week, onlookers assumed we were off our rocker when we gave away an incredible seven seats into the iPOPS Main Event this Sunday; this week, rocker-descent was officially confirmed when we dished out a further nine. That's a total of $2,160 in added value!

The action kicked off on Monday with Bang for Ya Buck, a daily $1 rebuy satellite with one seat added to first place on top of the standard prize pool. Winners so far include: 'gnomeeee' (Monday), 'lionrampant27' (Tuesday), 'liquidpoker101' (Wednesday), 'SurrealKiller' (Friday) and 'daveyb15' (Friday) with the final event currently playing out. With fields from as little as 22 runners, players were certainly getting a whole lotta bang for that buck.

Once again, we also added a seat to the fiercely competitive Black Belt Poker League as 95 players swamped the tables for Leg 5. Although Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland was competing in his second consecutive final table, he couldn't quite make it to the top of the tree, the final branch snapping when he lost heads-up to debutant winner 'DConTour1'.

1st DConTour1 -- $142.52
2nd Elysiumjay -- $95.00
3rd bornTOflirt -- $59.37
4th sixnout -- $45.12
5th generalshifty -- $35.62
6th liquidpoker101 -- $28.50
7th nakgeela4 -- $28.50
8th SurrealKiller -- $23.75
9th ACarey -- $14.25
10th habbad -- $11.87

175 hopefuls have partaken in League XII thus far including Neil Channing and Richard Ashby, but the frontrunner remains Yellow Belt 'bornTOflirt' who extended his lead by collecting the bronze medal. 'Sarannedipity' remains steady in second, whilst Leg 2 winner 'JaytheHippy71' is snapping at her heels in third.

1st bornTOflirt -- 479 points
2nd Sarannedipity -- 414 points
3rd JaytheHippy71 -- 401 points
4th NPenfold666 -- 397 points
5th losbert40 -- 391 points
6th BoatDrink -- 391 points
7th Elysiumjay -- 387 points
8th KBV1TALS -- 382 points
9th liquidpoker101 -- 375 points
10th ACarey -- 374 points

Currently close, but no cigar are the following batch, including former League Champions Adam 'JHobbit1' Saunders and Trevor 'TeeDeeEye1' Ingman:

11th doochats -- 373 points
12th JHobbit1 -- 373 points
13th 45683ah -- 364 points
14th TeeDeeEye1 -- 358 points
15th bagpussrocks -- 352 points
16th habbad -- 342 points
17th plusEVldn -- 342 points
18th RykanShadow -- 335 points
19th sprinterz -- 331 points
20th ChipRead77 -- 331 points

Again, echoing the generosity of last week's ventures, the Deepstack Mulligan returned with not only community points in tow, but also a free seat to play for. After numerous near misses, and gut-wrenching bad beats, Dawn 'bagpussrocks' Cooke finally buttered her bread the right side with an outright victory. $198.00 was the monetary reward.

1st bagpussrocks -- $198.00 & iPOPS Main Event seat (50 Belt Points)
2nd Yosemity 2207 -- $123.75 (30 Belt Points)
3rd CaptainJack5 -- $79.20 (10 Belt Points)
4th thefly2011 -- $54.45 (5 Belt Points)
5th 45683ah -- $39.60 (5 Belt Points)

Although Bang for Ya Buck has yet to reach its conclusion, the iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) has already witnessed the first three events create a gargantuan $112.900 in overlays, including the Omaha which fell short of the $150,000 guarantee by a whopping $84,900.

In total, 25 players have cashed via Black Belt Poker, most notably an in-form Bruce 'UsainZeus88' Jones who final-tabled the opening event for $13,160.00. More recently, David 'deadlydaveLDN' Eames received $1,575.00 for 10th in the last night's Omaha adventure.

Event: $100+9 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max Freezeout
Entries: 1,890
Black Belt Poker players: 92
Guarantee: $200,000
Overlay: $11,000

4th UsainZeus88 -- $13,160.00
36th emotivator21 -- $660.00
49th johnnycoot123 -- $500.00
58th griffyid7777 -- $460.00
110th nickhem1 -- $280.00
138th RVP83 -- $260.00
172th farryboybbp -- $220.00
180th PhilNe2Q -- $220.00
250th NeilChanning -- $180.00

Event: $50+5 No Limit Hold'em Rebuy
Entries: 1,357
Black Belt Poker players: 35
Guarantee: $150,000
Overlay: $17,000

24th farryboybbp -- $600.00
26th LegendKing1 -- $600.00
27th myteamouse -- $600.00
44th lordmatt0 -- $435.00
64th losbert40 -- $330.00
93rd johnhunkydory -- $270.00
109th kippery -- $240.00
198th 45683 -- $165.00

Event: $100+9 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max Freezeout
Entries: 651
Black Belt Poker players: 36
Guarantee: $150,000
Overlay: $84,900

10th deadlydaveLDN -- $1,575.00
18th UliKoko -- $975.00
30th UsainZeus88 -- $615.00
60th THENFORCER -- $435.00
68th GONGONONGO -- $405.00
78th NeilsBitch -- $405.00
100th themackem1968 -- $315.00
116th NikPersaud -- $300.00

Meanwhile, in other news, Wednesday saw our Orange Belts fight it out for MTT tokens in the Bareny Rubble Freeroll. To those new to the name, if the following players turn their tokens into tournament winnings, we'll double their cash prize:

1st WiseOwlBB -- 5 tokens
2nd LolaLoveheart -- 3 tokens
3rd mork1971 -- 1 token

And finally, 47 took at a stab at our recently introduced Yellow Belt No-Lose Deepstack. Every single player received their $1 entry back with the final table sharing the $100 in added money.

1st Bambury -- $31.00
2nd BlackMadonna26 -- $21.00
3rd rungootPLS -- $13.50
4th FLYINGPROFISH -- $10.50
5th vinvgo -- $8.50
6th gnomeeee -- $7.00
7th WhiteShadow951 -- $6.00
8th BoraBoraBoy -- $5.00
9th BeatTheDonk123 -- $4.00
10th PhilDee64 -- $3.50

Another week and another value-fest on Black Belt Poker; every single event enjoyed an inflated prize pool, with nine lucky players hoping to turn their minor investment into a behemoth of a payday in tomorrow's final iPOPS event. If you've been living in a cave for the last few weeks, it's not too late - the action starts at 18:00 and unless 4,000 runners miraculously appear from the sky, there will surely be an overlay.

See here for details on Black Belt Poker's exclusive Bust a Belt Promotion for tomorrow's Main Event.

Don't have an account? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory
Week 2 - 'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2
Week 3 - Stevie Does It
Week 4 - Mighty Win for Bulman in Leg 4

Jared Tendler Enters the Dojo

2011-11-30T03:54:00.001-08:00

This December, Black Belt Poker welcome a special guest into the Dojo as mental game coach and acclaimed author Jared Tendler dons karate suit and plimsoles to host the penultimate Dojo Session of the year.

Taking place at 19:00 on Monday, December 5, Jared will be on hand to share his knowledge of the mental game with a focus on tilt control and how a composed mentality can directly aid methods of game-development.

As always, the Dojo will be open to questions from the floor, with Jared on hand and happy to answer any niggling queries you may have about tilt and the various triggers that can result in flying mice and broken laptops.

If you would like to attend, then tickets are now available through the Black Belt Poker Store ('Live Events') for the steal-of-the-century price of 300 Spending Points. If you are Purple+ Belt and have a free Dojo Session at your disposal, then all you have to do is drop us an email at training@blackbeltpoker.com to secure your seat.

"I've long respected Neil Channing and Black Belt Poker," commented Jared. "I'm excited to be hosting a Dojo Session and look forward to bringing the members a truly memorable and valuable event. Tilt is the most costly problem in poker, and few players truly understand how to face the issue head-on."

Jared turned to golf psychology after his drive to become a professional golfer was thwarted by failures in pressure situations. A degree in counselling psychology later and he became a licensed mental-health counsellor, before going on to assist some of golf's most talented players with the mental side of their game.

Despite his success, he would ultimately make the transition over to poker and is now considered a leading expert in the mental game having helped over 180 players across 30 different countries. His students include some of poker's most consistently winning players, including online titan Dusty 'Leatherass' Schmidt who attributes much of his success to Jared's guidance.

Earlier this year, Jared released his much-anticipated book The Mental Game of Poker, in which he takes readers through proven techniques to improve common pitfalls such as handling-variance, confidence and motivation. The book has been well-received by both pros and amateurs alike, and is essential reading for anyone serious about improving their game.

Now, only on Black Belt Poker, you can learn from Jared in December's Dojo Session, and find out why he has quickly become one of the most respected and celebrated coaches in poker.

If you would like to purchase The Mental Game of Poker, then you can do so at jaredtendlerpoker.com.

The full schedule for the next six of Dojo Sessions will be announced later today.

Brucie Bonus

2011-11-29T05:15:00.001-08:00

Last night, the iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) made its hotly-anticipated debut as 1,890 ambushed the virtual felt, falling short of the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool to create an $11,000 overlay.

The opening event was a $100+9 No Limit Hold'em freezeout with no fewer than 92 hopefuls (almost five percent of the field!) playing through Black Belt Poker and looking to take advantage of the exclusive bonuses. Among them were Academy host Alex Rousso, Nottingham Live winner Stuart Hyson, and former EPT Champion Toby Lewis.

Each iPOPS event is hosted by a Black Belt with added bonuses awarded for the following achievements:

Bust the host
Bust by the host
Chip leader at the second break
Bubble boy (within five places of the money)
Final table bubble

Event #1's host was Aussie Millions finalist and UKIPT Cork Champion Sam Razavi who was unable to add to his list of accolades when he departed in 1488th. Unfortunately, his assassin didn't play through Black Belt Poker, and so was unable to claim his free seat into the iPOPS Main Event.

One player who will be playing on Sunday courtesy of Black Belt Poker is 'FlopTheNuts77'. Although he finished two away from the money, he was awarded a consolidative bonus seat for being a Bubble Boy and finishing within five places of a cash prize.

Those who did make the money included Black Belt Neil Channing (250th), and League XI runner-up Nick 'nickhem1' Hemming (110th), who recently lapped up a free London Live 2012 seat when he survived a last-longer against his fellow League winners at last week's Nottingham Live.

The most impressive performance, however, was that of Bruce 'Usainzeus88' Jones, who made it all the way to the final table before finishing fourth for $13,160 when he lost a massive pot for the chip lead with Q-9 versus A-7. In a fantastic gesture, he declared prior to the event that he would be donating 20 percent of any returns to three different charities.

An Orange Belt in the Black Belt Poker Belt-Up Rewards System, Bruce's total investment for the event was zero, having earned entry into all four iPOPS events via the Nottingham Live Finalists Freeroll last Tuesday. He then continued his incredible form by beating a record-breaking field the following day in the Deepstack Mulligan.

If you would like to follow in Bruce's footsteps and turn a small acorn into a giant money tree, then throughout the week, we're offering you the chance to qualify for Sunday's Main Event for a single buck. At 20:00 every day, we're holding a $1 Bang for Ya Buck rebuy with a seat added to first prize. Last night, just 28 players participated, meaning Black Belt Poker more than doubled the prize pool!

Already, Black Belt Poker have given away an amazing eight seats, and there are plenty more up for grabs. What's more, whether you win a seat or not, if you play the Main Event and manage to eliminate one of our three Black Belts, you'll automatically receive a package worth €1,450 into the iPOPS Live Open in Prague.

Nowhere else do you receive this kind of value, so if you're thinking of taking advantage of the $1,000,000 in guaranteed prize pools and inevitable overlays, then make sure you play the iPOPS on Black Belt Poker.

Players who cashed through Black Belt Poker:

4th UsainZeus88 -- $13,160.00
36th emotivator21 -- $660.00
49th johnnycoot123 -- $500.00
58th griffyid7777 -- $460.00
110th nickhem1 -- $280.00
138th RVP83 -- $260.00
172th farryboybbp -- $220.00
180th PhilNe2Q -- $220.00
250th NeilChanning -- $180.00

iPOPS: Bang for Ya Buck

2011-11-28T04:36:00.000-08:00

The flashing lights are going up; the stores are already playing seasonal tunes; and advent calendars are on shelves - some think November's too early a kick-off for the festive spirit, but not at Black Belt Poker; we've already done our Christmas shopping and are handing out gifts with our red and white hats donned.

Tis the season for giving, and Black Belt Poker are giving away more than anyone. With seven iPOPS Main Event seats already won during last week's tournaments, we're adding another six this week with our daily Bang for Ya Buck tournaments.

Starting tonight and ending on Saturday, the Bang for Ya Buck tournaments will run daily at 20:00 with players presented with the opportunity of winning an iPOPS Main Event seat for a single buck. Tournaments will be a $1 rebuy, with one seat added to the standard prize pool, absolutely free!

To register for the event, simply locate the tournament in the poker lobby via Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > iPops Bang For Ya Buck! (Mon). If you don't already have an account, then opening one is easy: simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

If you make a mistimed move in the opening event, or suffer an untimely bad beat, then don't fret, as you'll be able to put your name down for the following day's tournament immediately, and have yet another chance to win a seat for just $1. As soon as Monday's event starts, registration for Tuesday's will open.

If that's not enough, then you can even win a Main Event seat whilst playing the preliminary events. The first one starts tonight, at 18.00, and in a promotion exclusive to Black Belt Poker players, you can automatically win a seat by achieving any of these feats, in any of the first three events:

Bust the host
Bust by the host
Chip leader at the second break
Bubble boy (within five places of the money)
Final table bubble

See here for further details.

The iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) is a mini-series of four online MTTs spanning from November 28 to December 4 with a combined $1,000,000 in guarantees.

The schedule is as follows:

Nov 28 -- Event #1: $100+9 NLH six-max freezeout ($200K GTD)
Nov 30 -- Event #2: $50+5 NLH turbo rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 02 -- Event #3: $100+9 PLO six-max single rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 04 -- Event #4: $125+10 NLH Main Event freezeout ($500K GTD)

Good luck!

Mighty Win for Bulman in Leg 4

2011-11-27T10:07:00.000-08:00

This week, Black Belt Poker was like a Santa's grotto as we entered into the festive spirit and gave away more free gifts than the Arsenal backline. With the iPOPS on the horizon, players were once again showered with value as Black Belt Poker dished out no fewer than seven free seats into the $125+10 Main Event.

The iPOPS Giveaway commenced on Tuesday with leg 4 of the Black Belt Poker League. 113 logged in, but only one could come out on top, and that man was none other than League XI Champion Bob 'myteamouse' Bulman.

A bounty at the recent Black Belt Nottingham Live, Bob had been struggling in the current League campaign with a trio of below-par performances, but he struck back on Tuesday with a timely first place finish, thus turning a token into $152.55 and an iPOPS Main Event seat. What's more, he also secured his place in the Second Chance SNG.

1st myteamouse -- $152.55 & iPOPS Main Event seat
2nd RiverSiren -- $90.40
3rd JimmyTheBhoy -- $56.50
4th D0l4hyd3 -- $45.20
5th mutesuperstar -- $39.55
6th S0lution -- $33.90
7th Elysiumjay -- $28.25
8th sprinterz -- $22.60
9th KBV1TALS -- $16.95
10th elvis18111 -- $6.78
11th liquidpoker101 -- $6.78
12th badbeefy -- $6.78
13th CaptainJack5 -- $6.78
14th BigClub1980 -- $6.78
15th LegendKing1 -- $6.78
16th JumboPeanuts -- $6.78
17th BoatDrink -- $6.78
18th blackbeltkickbox -- $6.78
19th bornTOflirt -- $6.78
20th Sarannedipity -- $6.78

Having snuck into the money in 19th, 'bornToflirt' was able to pick up enough points to hold on to the top spot. Meanwhile, Sarrannedipity's bubble-evading skills mean she remains in second with former League Champion Adam 'JHobbit' Saunders just two points behind in third.

1st bornToflirt -- 371 points
2nd Sarannedipity -- 356 points
3rd JHobbit1 -- 354 points
4th BoatDrink -- 344 points
5th KBV1TALS -- 338 points
6th NPenfold -- 332 points
7th bagpussrocks -- 330 points
8th JaytheHippy71 -- 322 points
9th losbert40 -- 308 points
10th TeeDeeEye1 -- 308 points

11th elvis18111 -- 308 points
12th badbeefy -- 303 points
13th lionrampant27 -- 297 points
14th 45683ah -- 297 points
15th ChipRead77 -- 293 points
16th taylormade777 -- 293 points
17th Georgia20 -- 291 points
18th doochats -- 289 points
19th ACarey -- 285 points
20th tentofollow -- 285 points

Tuesday was a hectic night in that it saw two other value-added tournaments grace the Black Belt Poker felt. First, a $5 satellite to the iPOPS Main Event with one seat added threw out the following results:

1st JumboPeanuts -- iPOPS Main Event seat
2nd GOLDENSOMBRE -- iPOPS Main Event seat
3rd wicky01 -- iPOPS Main Event seat
4th KBV1TALS -- $28.80
5th insider66666 -- $19.80
6th doochats -- $12.15
7th JHobbit1 -- $9.00
8th losbert40 -- $6.75
9th LukeHallinan -- $5.40
10th ourkidsid -- $4.50
11th dougiepete -- $3.60

And soon after, our Nottingham Live Finalst Freeroll - exclusive to those who made a final table in any Nottingham Live event - saw Bruce 'UsainZeus88' Jones best a field that included Warren Wooldridge, Neil Channing and Nottingham Live bubble boy Nick Finn to earn himself entry into all four iPOPS events.

'UsainZeus88' was in fine poker fettle this week as he followed victory on Tuesday with a Mulligan win the very next day. A record-breaking 46 players battled it out for the $690 prize pool, Belt Points and added iPOPS seat, but UsainZeus88 was in unstoppable mood and brushed aside the competition to pick up the booty. He'll be exchanging his seat for a satellite into the iPOPS Live Open.

1st UsainZeus88 -- $276.00 & iPOPS Main Event seat (50 Belt Points)
2nd vinsangel -- $172.50 (30 Belt Points)
3rd insider66666 -- $110.40 (10 Belt Points)
4th xxMohicanxx -- $75.90 (5 Belt Points)
5th originalcynic --$55.20 (5 Belt Points)

An incredible four seats were added to the top four in the final Aftermath event, a $50+5 freezeout on Thursday evening. Black Belt Richard Ashby was among the winners, despite just missing out on a cash prize.

1st NeilsBitch -- $700.00 & iPOPS Main Event seat
2nd AMANESS13 -- $420.00 & iPOPS Main Event seat
3rd beltdarkjf -- $280.00 & iPOPS Main Event seat
4th CHUFTY11 -- iPOPS Main Event seat

If you thought we were mad to give away so many seats this week, then start padding up the solitary confinement as next week we're giving away even more!

Every day from Monday to Saturday, there will be a Bang for Ya Buck tournament in which first prize will have one seat into the iPOPS Main Event added, meaning that if you slip up on the Monday, you can simply have another stab on the Tuesday - for a mere $1 investment. These aren't satellites into satellites; we're literally giving you the chance to qualify for a single buck!

Each event can be found in the tournament lobby under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > iPops Bang For Ya Buck which kicks off daily at 20:00. If you don't already have an account, then opening one is easy: simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

No other sites adds as much value to events as Black Belt Poker. Even when you win your iPOPS seat, it doesn't stop there. If you Bust a Black Belt in the Main Event, we'll jet you off to Prague to play the iPOPS Live - a package worth €1,450. No catch, no charge - just a free added bonus that you can only win by playing on Black Belt Poker.

With so much incentive, if you're not playing the iPOPS on Black Belt Poker, then you're making a minus EV decision.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory
Week 2 - 'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2
Week 3 - Stevie Does It

Black Belt Nottingham Live Results

2011-11-23T13:30:00.000-08:00

Main Event Results:

Event: $125+10 Main Event
Date: 18-20 Nov
Entires: 492
Prize Pool: $61,500

1st Stuart Hyson -- $15,500 ($14,000)
2nd Daniel Robertson -- $9,020 ($9,000)
3rd Arran Fletcher -- $6,000
4th David Buckland -- $4,000
5th Byron Brewer -- $3,000
6th Nicholas Wealthall -- $2,400
7th Paul Lynch -- $1,820 ($1,800)
8th Adam Carey -- $1,300
9th Kevin Corcoran -- $1,000
10th Nicholas Drinkwater -- $750
11th Adam Reid -- $925 ($750)
12th Timotheos Timotheou -- $500
13th Andy Hood -- $500
14th Nigel Hill -- $380
15th Simon Thompson -- $380
16th Kim Vernon -- $340
17th Ryan Carr -- $340
18th Anonymous -- $300
19th Andrew Cooper -- $300
20th Michael Fletcher -- $300
21st Gary Kinnersley -- $320 ($300)
22nd Tim Slater -- $300
23rd Twm Sion Jones -- $300
24th Paul Jenkinson -- $300
25th Benjamin Wooldridge -- $330 ($300)
26th Nicholas Todd -- $300
27th Kyle Smith -- $260
28th Ben Lake -- $260
29th Gareth Ainsworth -- $260
30th Sean Randall -- $260
31st Andrew Wright -- $260
32nd Zahir Aslam -- $260
33rd Scott Harvey -- $260
34th Jack Meldrum -- $260
35th Brian Cunningham -- $286 ($260)
36th Thomas Ambler -- $230
37th Richard Duncan Hodgkins -- $230
38th Chris Nicol -- $353 ($230)
39th Richard Milner -- $230
40th Leo McClean -- $230
41st Ben Meredith -- $276 ($230)
42nd Ashton Clayton -- $230
43rd Philip McGregor -- $230
44th Hasmukh Khodiyara -- $253 ($230)
45th Simon Cawley -- $230
46th Mark Cooling -- $200
47th Hannah Thorburn -- $200
48th Ebrahim Razavi -- $200
49th Jamie Strickland -- $200
50th Joanna Sharp -- $200
51st James Lowrey -- $200
52nd Patrick Pritchard -- $200
53rd Patrick Scott -- $200
54th Beverley Monks -- $200
55th Kenny Prazer -- $180
56th Robert Ayres -- $180
57th Aaron Spence -- $200 ($180)
58th Jean-pierre Carmier -- $180
59th Debra Kimm -- $180
60th Steven Chennells -- $180
61st Catherine O'Brien -- $180
62nd Darius Demetriou -- $198 ($180)
63rd James Bywater -- $170
64th Sean Fennessey -- $187 ($170)
65th Jarrett Owen -- $170
66th Mark Sanders -- $170
67th Daniel Amphlett -- $170
68th Stephen Knowles -- $170
69th Matthew Bennett -- $170
70th Tony Salmon -- $170
71st Sean Spalding -- $170
72nd Tim Atherton -- $160
73rd Luke Tatum -- $160
74th Aidan Doherty -- $160
75th Adam Saunders -- $176 ($160)
76th Richard Hurst -- $276 ($160)
77th Scott McGrory -- $160
78th Ricky Farbrother -- $160
79th Chris Seagriff -- $160
80th John Little -- $160
81st Justin Farmiloe -- $160
82nd Jack Stokes -- $150
83rd David Milligan -- $150
84th Glenn Henderson -- $150
85th Craig Napier -- $150
86th Mhazir Khan -- $150
87th Jason Herbert -- $150
88th Casey Quinlan -- $150
89th Richard Horton -- $150
90th Joshua Sharp -- $150

Bounty Eliminations:

$890 of a possible $5,250 paid.
1 x Purple Belt+ ($250)
3 x Orange Belt (£300)
17 x Yellow Belt ($340)

Jamie Burland by Paul Williams ($20)
Peter Wigglesworth by Dean Cryz ($20)
Chris Edwards by Sarah Priest ($20)
Kevin Williams by Mark England ($250)
Paul Spillane by Sinem Melin ($20)
Richard Ashby by Nick Finn ($20)
David Gentry by Paul Lynch ($20)
Warren Wooldridge by Tristan McDonald ($20)
Julian Thew by Daniel Robertson ($20)
Jerome Bradpiece by Ben Lake ($20)
Tristan McDonald by Gareth Ainsworth ($20)
Paul Marrow by Giovanni Albanese ($20)
Sam Razavi by Andy Potts ($20)
Simon Mairs by Gary Kinnersley ($20)
Bob Bulman by Tom Gurden ($20)
Jake Cody by Richard Hurst ($100)
Andy Miles by Chris Nicol ($100)
Neil Channing by Jean-Pierre Carmier ($20)
Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding by Zahir Aslam ($20)
Ben Meredith by Adam Reid ($20)
Nick Wealthall by Stuart Hyson ($100)

Belt Bonuses:

$1,674 of a possible $12,300 paid.

1st Stuart Hyson -- $15,500 (Orange Belt)
11th Adam Reid -- $925 (Orange Belt)
25th Benjamin Wooldridge -- $330 (Orange Belt)
35th Brian Cunningham -- $286 (Orange Belt)
38th Chris Nicol -- $353 (Orange Belt)
41st Ben Meredith -- $276 (Blue Belt)
44th Hasmukh Khodiyara -- $253 (Orange Belt)
62nd Darius Demetriou -- $198 (Orange Belt)
64th Sean Fennessey -- $187 (Orange Belt)
75th Adam Saunders -- $176 (Orange Belt)
76th Richard Hurst -- $276 (Orange Belt)

High-Roller Results:

All Nottingham Live finalists also won entry into a Freeroll on Tuesday whereby the winner won a season ticket to the iPOPS.

Event: $1,000+90 High-Roller (with re-entries)
Date: 19 Nov
Entires: 27
Prize Pool: $28,000

1st Ben Vinson -- £12,600
2nd Stuart Fox -- £7,560
3rd Matt Perrins -- £5,040
4th Jake Cody -- £2,800

Side Events Results:

Event: £15+5 £750 GTD
Date: 18 Nov
Entires: 175
Prize Pool: £2,625

1st Wesley Davies -- £866.25
2nd John Deabill -- £509.25
3rd James Taylor -- £301.88
4th Mike Tindall -- £210.00
5th Craig Hunt -- £157.50
6th Gareth Deighton -- £118.13
7th David Memmory -- £91.88
8th Thomas Hutchinson -- £65.63
9th Jonathon Morris -- £52.50
10th Adam Goy -- £36.75
11th Jonathan Gill -- £36.75
12th John Powdrill -- £36.75
13th James Wigmore -- £36.75
14th Andrew Mccullagh -- £26.25
15th Matthew Tippin -- £26.25
16th Ian Pears -- £26.25
17th William Swinscoe -- £26.25

Event: £50+6 £2,000 GTD
Date: 18 Nov
Entires: 121
Prize Pool: £6,050

1st Jamie Green -- £2,117.50
2nd Philip Mildon -- £1,210.00
3rd Warren Wooldridge -- £804.65
4th Scott Williams -- £514.25
5th Jay White -- £393.25
6th Patrick Thomas -- £272.25
7th Charles Grant -- £211.75
8th David Porter -- £151.25
9th Victoria Lambert -- £121.00
10th Wakas Aslam -- £84.70
11th Simon Beglarian -- £84.70
12th Paul Thorpe -- £84.70

Event: $100+12 High-Roller Mega Sat (with re-entries)
Date: 19 Nov
Entires: 61
Prize Pool: £7,800

1st Mark Hayes -- £0.00
2nd Stephen Lovatt -- £0.00
3rd Basharat Mahmood -- £0.00
4th Samad Razavi -- £0.00
5th Jack Pilkington -- £0.00
6th Willian Ullauri -- £0.00
7th Waheed Ashraf -- £0.00
8th Paul Romain -- £170

Event: £50+6 tubro £2,000 GTD
Date: 19 Nov
Entires: 124
Prize Pool: £6,200

1st Sean Randall -- £2,170.00
2nd Benjamin Mortlock -- £1,240.00
3rd Oluwashola Akindele -- £824.60
4th Owain Jones -- £527.00
5th Matthew Cox -- £403.00
6th Amjad Mohammed -- £279.00
7th Julie Golds -- £217.00
8th Frank Grainger -- £155.00
9th Stephen Ayres -- £124.00
10th Bruce Jones -- £86.80
11th Sukru Yildirim -- £86.80
12th Gareth Ainsworth -- £86.80

Event: £50+8 Super 50 £7,500 GTD
Date: 20 Nov
Entires: 209
Prize Pool: £10,450

1st Dafydd Elias -- £3,396.25
2nd Gordon Adam -- £1,985.50
3rd Gavin Foster -- £1,191.30
4th Phil Quelch -- £836.00
5th Tasos Grigoriou -- £627.00
6th Bruce Jones -- £470.25
7th Mark Arkley -- £365.75
8th Jose Pena -- £261.25
9th Craig Stonley -- £209.00
10th Emmanuel Sant -- £146.30
11th Adam Ray -- £146.30
12th Martyn Winn -- £146.30
13th Wayne Catchpole -- £146.30
14th Chris Russell -- £104.50
15th Anonymous -- £104.50
16th Michael Limming -- £104.50
17th Darren Rideout -- £104.50
18th Victoria Lambert -- £104.50

Event: £15+5 £750 GTD
Date: 20 Nov
Entires: 118
Prize Pool: £1,770

1st Chantelle Smedley -- £619.50
2nd John Deabill -- £362.85
3rd Paul Brown -- £238.95
4th Connor Brown -- £159.30
5th John Hammond -- £115.05
6th Parmjit Singh -- £79.65
7th Paul Barradell -- £61.95
8th Samual Wynn -- £44.25
9th Chris Tidmarsh -- £35.40
10th Mark Valentine -- £26.55
11th Jason Catchpole -- £26.55

Event: £50+6 £2,000 GTD
Date: 20 Nov
Entires: 66
Prize Pool: £3,300

1st Luke Hallinan -- £1,221.00
2nd Sau Lee -- £759.00
3rd Gareth Jones -- £495.00
4th Habib Chatoo -- £297.00
5th Reuben Marriott -- £231.00
6th Paul Neaves -- £165.00
7th Iftakhar Ahmed -- £132.00

For more information, check out the following links:

Nottingham Live Main Event - Live coverage/upadates
Press release: Hyson Cleans up at Nottingham
Press Release: Vinson Victory in High-Roller

Vinson Victory in High-Roller

2011-11-22T12:01:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, Dusk Till Dawn became the battleground for a 492-strong war, all fighting for the honour of becoming the Sheriff of Nottingham and inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live Champion.

But before a king could be crowned, Black Belt Poker hosted a six-max High-Roller event on the Saturday evening for those with a slightly larger budget.

The £1,000+90 price tag lured an all-star cast of 27 to the felt, including Black Belt Poker sponsored pros Neil Channing, Kevin Williams, Jamie Burland and Sam Razavi. The field also boasted Daniel Elder who had qualified for the reduced price of £110 through an online satellite on Blackbeltpoker.com.

The eventual winner was Ben Vinson. He overcame an incredibly tough final table that also featured Jake Cody, Matt Perrins and heads-up opponent Stuart Fox, to collect £12,600 for first prize.

The tournament ended on a coinflip, Fox the man all in with Kc-Jd versus 4s-4h. Although Fox paired his cowboy, the flop came a decisive 4d-8d-Kh to give Vinson a set. By the 9s turn it was all over and Vinson had bested one of the strongest fields ever to grace Dusk Till Dawn.

"I was really surprised. There weren't really any weak spots," commented Vinson just moments after victory. "Everyone knew what they were doing, and the final was like a who's who of poker. Matt Perrins in particular is one of the toughest I've played against. I rate him a lot and really like his game."

"These guys are capable of doing anything," he continued, "so you have to be on your guard at all times, and think outside of the box. They're never going to be playing ABC. You need to try and outthink them, because they can play no hand the same as the nuts."

Despite his tender years, Vinson has been playing the circuit for over five years and collated in excess of $600,000 in live tournament winnings. His biggest payday came at the 2007 GUKPT Grand Final when he finished fourth for £53,500. Just a fortnight earlier, he finished third in the Blackpool leg for £38,850.

This year, Vinson has been somewhat quieter in comparison, but with a recent cash in Cannes and his High-Roller triumph in Nottingham, he's finishing the year strong and could well be enjoying a turn of fortune as we head towards the festive period. You Vinson, you lose some - Ben's hitting that winning form.

The High-Roller event was just one of a number of tournaments hosted by Dusk Till Dawn over the Nottingham Live weekend. The Main Event was a $125+15 freezeout won by Orange Belt Stuart Hyson who took home a total of $15,500, as well as the illustrious trophy. Poker personality Nick Wealthall also made the final.

For more information, check out the following links:

Nottingham Live Main Event - Live coverage/upadates
Press release: Hyson Cleans up at Nottingham

Stuart Hyson Cleans Up at Nottingham Live

2011-11-21T08:21:00.001-08:00

In the early hours of this morning, Stuart Hyson survived an epic final table to win the year's most sought after title in poker and become the first ever Black Belt Nottingham Live Champion.

400 players were originally pencilled in to grace the exquisite Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham, but after selling out a week before the event, the field was extended so that a total of 492 would ultimately stump up the $125+15 buy-in fee and take their seat in the UK's largest cardroom.

Among them were 21 coveted bounties including poker pros Julian Thew and Jake Cody, as well as London Live II Champion Peter Wigglesworth. Eliminating a bounty could net up to $250 depending on Belt level, and that was precisely the reward reaped by Purple Belt Mark England when he despatched Blue Belt Kevin Williams early on Day 1a.

The day also marked the debut of Koddzilla's Carps, an eight-man team of misfits who'd been sponsored into the event by Black Belt Sam Razavi with 50 percent of winnings going to Cancer Research. Elvis, a panto dame, and Blanka from Street Fighter were among the motley crew, but it was a giant chicken who led from the front, cashing in 53rd and donating his entire $200 winnings to charity - far from a paltry gesture.

107 players returned for Day 2 with Thomas Ambler boasting a monster chip lead of 266,600, over 100,000 clear of Kim Vernon in second. Later that day, Ambler was involved in an incredible pot against a fellow big stack in which he seven-bet shoved Q-3 uncontested. But despite his bravery, he would lose some crucial pots and tumble out in 36th.

With Nicholas Drinkwater feeling the splash of the bubble, our final table was set with Daniel Robertson holding the chip lead:

Seat 1: Arran Fletcher -- 625,000
Seat 2: Stuart Hyson -- 1,331,000
Seat 3: David Buckland -- 723,000
Seat 4: Byron Brewer -- 1,014,000
Seat 5: Adam Carey -- 444,000
Seat 6: Daniel Robertson -- 2,070,000
Seat 7: Kevin Corcoran -- 539,000
Seat 8: Nick Wealthall -- 148,000
Seat 9: Paul Lynch -- 591,000

For a moment, it looked as though poker personality and last bounty standing Nick Wealthall was destined for victory as he climbed three money-rungs and doubled up no fewer than three times. On each occasion he was behind, most memorably when he called the exact river with Ac-3d versus Ah-4h on an eventful 4d-2c-Qs-9c-5d board. It was third time unlucky for Nick, however, as he eventually departed in sixth.

After Arran Fletcher crashed out with Ad-Qc versus Qs-9h on an emphatic 9c-Qd-9d flop, it was left to Stuart Hyson and Daniel Robertson to contend for the illustrious title. And what a classic battle it was; two-hours of roller coaster, back and forth action culminating in one decisive hand as the clock struck 3:00.

All in with As-8d versus Kd-Qc, Robertson - who'd earlier been one coinflip away from tasting victory - just needed to avoid paint to earn a vital double-through. The 5s-2s-Jd flop looked harmless, and the 4s turn narrowed Hyson's outs even further, but the Poker Gods had one last trick up their sleeve when a Kh river hit the felt to bring the inaugural Nottingham Live to its dramatic conclusion.

Robertson had fought a plucky, Rocky-esque war, but when the smoke had cleared and the dust settled, it was Stuart Hyson of Rye in East Sussex who emerged as Champion. In doing so, he earned himself the sparkling trophy and a $15,500 payday, which included an additional $1,400 for being an Orange Belt in the Black Belt Poker Belt-Up Rewards System and $100 for eliminating bounty Wealthall.

Stuart, who was nicknamed 'The Dyson' during the live coverage due to his ability to vacuum up chips, plays on Blackbeltpoker.com under the moniker 'diiscostu' and qualified for the event for just $20. Meanwhile, he worked his way up to Orange Belt to take advantage of the added value on offer.

"I'm absolutely knackered," confessed Stuart just moments after victory. "I came up with the crazy idea that to stay awake I'd get myself a Red Bull and coke, which didn't taste very nice, but did the job. Daniel was a tough opponent and I was relieved to hit that king because I was really tired and knew he could grind it out if he had to."

"I used to work with Stuart at the racecourse and he is a great guy and a worthy champion," complimented Black Belt Neil Channing. "He told me he needed the money because he had a 23 year-old daughter, a 21-year old girlfriend and a bit of a gambling addiction [laughs], so I'm pleased he won."

1st Stuart Hyson -- $15,500 ($14,000)
2nd Daniel Robertson -- $9,000
3rd Arran Fletcher -- $6,000
4th David Buckland -- $4,000
5th Byron Brewer -- $3,000
6th Nick Wealthall -- $2,400
7th Paul Lynch -- $1,820 ($1,800)
8th Adam Carey -- $1,300
9th Kevin Corcoran -- $1,000

(Prize in brackets is standard payout without bonuses)

Bounty Eliminations:

Jamie Burland by Paul Williams
Peter Wigglesworth by Dean Cryz
Chris Edwards by Sarah Priest
Kevin Williams by Mark England
Paul Spillane by Sinem Melin
Richard Ashby by Nick Finn
David Gentry by Paul Lynch
Warren Wooldridge by Tristan McDonald
Julian Thew by Daniel Robertson
Jerome Bradpiece by Ben Lake
Tristan McDonald by Gareth Ainsworth
Paul Marrow by Giovanni Albanese
Sam Razavi by Andy Potts
Simon Mairs by Gary Kinnersley
Bob Bulman by Tom Gurden
Jake Cody by Richard Hurst
Andy Miles by Chris Nicol
Neil Channing by Jean-Pierre Carmier
Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding by Zahir Aslam
Ben Meredith by Adam Reid
Nick Wealthall by Stuart Hyson

Click for Live Updates/Coverage...

Nottingham Live - Day 1B Chip Counts

2011-11-19T16:47:00.001-08:00

Click for Live Updates/Coverage...

Kim Vernon -- 162,900
David Buckland -- 155,000
Paul Jenkinson -- 152,600
Nicholas Wealthall -- 138,000
Andy Hood -- 135,700
Kevin Corcoran -- 122,500
Arran Fletcher -- 115,900
Simon Thompson -- 112,500
Robert Ayres -- 109,100
Zahir Aslam -- 105,200
Jack Stokes -- 101,900
Brian Cunningham -- 98,100
Hasmukh Khodiyara -- 96,700
Stuart Hyson -- 93,300
Nigel Hill -- 92,100
Benjamin Wooldridge -- 91,700
Nicholas Drinkwater -- 87,500
Hannah Thorburn -- 86,200
Chris Seagriff -- 78,600
Gary Kinnersley -- 77,200
Stephen Knowles -- 75,800
Daniel Amphlett -- 74,900
Jarrett Owen -- 71,600
Luke Tatum -- 70,400
Joshua Sharp -- 66,400
Darius Demetriou -- 65,400
Adam Morris -- 61,500
Jean-Pierre Carmier -- 60,100
Philip Mcgregor -- 58,300
Ben Meredith -- 56,400
Richard Horton -- 51,300
David Milligan -- 51,000
Jack Meldrum -- 49,700
Dean Aldred -- 48,300
Sean Fennessey -- 48,200
Aaron Spence -- 46,500
Patrick Pritchard -- 46,200
Adam Reid -- 45,700
Patrick Scott -- 45,200
Adam Goulding -- 43,200
James Lowrey -- 42,400
Adam Saunders -- 40,800
Chris Nicol -- 38,000
John Little -- 37,300
Sean Philburn -- 36,700
Casey Quinlan -- 34,700
Debra Kimm -- 32,000
Richard Hurst -- 30,100
Ashton Clayton -- 29,900
Scott Harvey -- 24,100
Matthew Bennett -- 20,800
Paula Cowling -- 20,700

Bounty Eliminations:

Paul Marrow - by Giovanni Albanese
Sam Razavi - by Andy Potts
Simon Mairs - by Gary Kinnersley
Bob Bulman - by Tom Gurden
Jake Cody - by Richard Hurst
Andy Miles - by Chris Nicol
Neil Channing - by Jean-Pierre Carmier

See here for Day 1A chip counts...

Nottingham Live - Day 1A Chip Counts

2011-11-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Click for Live Updates/Coverage...

Thomas Ambler -- 266,600
Tim Slater -- 147,500
Nicholas Todd -- 129,600
Ben Lake -- 128,100
Andrew Wright -- 122,800
Daniel Robertson -- 115,100
Tim Atherton -- 108,300
Andrew Cooper -- 102,900
Joanna Sharp -- 96,800
Leo Mcclean -- 96,300
Adam Carey -- 94,800
Byron Brewer -- 94,000
Anonymous -- 91,100
Richard Milner -- 82,000
Twm Sion Jones -- 81,500
Kenny Prazer -- 76,600
Paul Singhal -- 75,600
Simon Cawley -- 74,000
Glenn Henderson -- 70,500
Jason Herbert -- 68,600
Nick Finn -- 67,000
Mhazir Khan -- 66,600
Ian Mcdonald -- 62,700
Sean Randall -- 62,000
Catherine Obrien -- 61,700
Aidan Doherty -- 60,300
Scott Mcgrory -- 59,400
Mark England -- 57,600
Richard Duncan Hodgkins -- 56,500
Tony Salmon -- 51,800
Sean Spalding -- 51,600
Justin Farmiloe -- 49,600
Shana Casaletto -- 48,700
Steven Chennells -- 47,600
Timotheos Timotheou -- 47,100
Craig Napier -- 47,000
James Bywater -- 46,800
Ebrahim Razavi -- 43,500
Ryan Carr -- 43,000
Johnny Barr -- 41,000
Michael Fletcher -- 40,800
Kyle Smith -- 40,700
Sarah Priest -- 39,300
Gareth Ainsworth -- 38,300
Mark Sanders -- 35,500
Mark Cooling -- 35,300
Paul Lynch -- 31,300
Stuart Riddell -- 30,600
Alan Darby -- 29,900
Sukru Yildirim -- 28,900
David Hart -- 27,600
Beverley Monks -- 27,000
Ricky Farbrother -- 26,200
Jamie Strickland -- 19,400

Bounty Eliminations:

Jamie Burland - by Paul Williams
Peter Wigglesworth - by Dean Cryz
Chris Edwards - by Sarah Priest
Kevin Williams - by Mark England
Paul Spillane - by Sinem Melin
Richard Ashby - by Nick Finn
David Gentry - by Paul Lynch
Warren Wooldridge - by Tristan McDonald
Julian Thew - by Daniel Robertson
Jerome Bradpiece - by Ben Lake
Tristan McDonald - by Gareth Ainsworth

20 Bounties - We've Gone Coco-Nuts

2011-11-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

Buckle up and get ready for the ride of your poker life; the Nottingham Live is here and in less than a day, 250 poker players will ambush the UK's largest cardroom for the opening day of the newest addition to the poker calendar.

As with previous Black Belt Poker events, the Nottingham Live will be swimming in value, and for the inaugural event, we're serving up an incredible 20 bounties with 10 on each starting day.

Unlike any event with such an affordable buy-in, amateurs can share the felt with experienced pros, and this week will be no different as you'll get to lock horns with seasoned pros such as Nottingham-based Julian Thew. Only one month ago, Julian was holding aloft an unprecedented third GUKPT crown when he won in Coventry. Along with an EPT title and a list of results longer than Mr. Tickle's arms, he's undoubtedly one of the best pros the UK has ever produced.

Now you can play against him at Nottingham Live.

Black Belt Poker will also be well represented with all three Black Belts in attendance - Sam Razavi, Neil Channing, and Richard Ashby - as well as all of our Blue Belts, including most recent acquisition David Gentry who recently final-tabled the London Calling Main Event in his first outing as a Black Belt Poker sponsored pro.

The players who will be entering Dusk Till Dawn with a giant target etched on their foreheads are as follows:

Friday:

1. Peter Wigglesworth (London Live II Champion)
2. Richard Ashby (Black Belt)
3. Warren Wooldridge (Brown Belt)
4. Jerome Bradpiece (Brown Belt)
5. Jamie Burland (Blue Belt)
6. David Gentry (Blue Belt)
7. Julian Thew (Poker Pro)
8. Chris Edwards (BBP Staff Member)
9. Paul Spillane (BBP Staff Member)
10. Tristan McDonald (BBP Shareholder)

Saturday:

1. Neil Channing (Black Belt)
2. Sam Razavi (Black Belt)
3. Andy Miles (Blue Belt)
4. Simon Mairs (Blue Belt)
5. Ben Meredith (Blue Belt)
6. Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding (Blue Belt)
7. Robert Bulman (League XI Champion)
8. Jake Cody (Poker Pro)
9. Nick Wealthall (Poker Personality)
10. Paul Marrow (Poker Personality)

Each bounty will be easily identifiable by a chocolate Bounty bar, which they are under strict orders not to consume. If you eliminate a bounty, then dependent on your Belt level, you will receive a cash prize:

Yellow Belts: $10
Orange Belts: $100
Purple Belts+: $250

Nottingham is renowned for being the home of Robin Hood, and now is your chance to be an expert archer with equal prowess. You know your targets - so if you spot them at your table, pull back you bow, aim and fire, and who knows, you could be racking up those cash prize with multiple strikes.

News - Leg 3: Stevie Does It

2011-11-17T11:17:00.001-08:00

Super Tuesday once again entertained us this week with another poker slobberknocker. As always, the Black Belt Poker League was first and foremost, and 95 were lured to the virtual felt in an attempt to echo the prior achievements of 'JosseWales' and 'JaytheHippy71'.

Although the field drew a number of unfamiliar names - a result, perhaps, of the Nottingham Live - the final table was a mixed bag with first-timers sharing the spotlight with regular attendees such as 'RykanShadow', 'Bambury' and League I winner (think smoke-filled saloons) Adam 'JHobbit1' Saunders.

After the pomp and circumstance transferred into a dogged and bloody battle, it was 'stevegw' who came out with his sword held high ($142.52 was the reward), closely followed by 'craigsidders' who'd turned a token into a $95.00 payday.

1st stevegw -- $142.52
2nd craigsidders -- $95.00
3rd Nanoplankton -- $59.37
4th FlopTheNuts77 -- $45.12
5th Bambury -- $35.62
6th RykanShadow -- $28.50
7th ChipRead77 -- $23.75
8th JHobbit1 -- $19.00
9th merlin52 -- $14.25
10th kippery -- $11.87

League XII has thus far proved to be one of the most open outings to date with none of the three opening leg winners featuring in the top five of the League Standings. Proving that the key to success to consistency is current leader Hasmukh '45683ah' Khodiyara with finishes of 3rd, 26th, and 32nd.

It was this kind of display that witnessed Hasmukh take down the 2011 WSOP Warrior League, which led to a WSOP package where he joined the Black Belt Poker team in the luxury Vegas mansion.

1st 45683ah -- 289 points
2nd taylormade777 -- 278 points
3rd bornTOflirt -- 276 points
4th losbert40 -- 264 points
6th JHobbit1 -- 263 points
6th Sarannedpity -- 262 points
7th JosseWales -- 255 points
8th tentofollow -- 252 points
9th NPenfold666 -- 249 points
10th JaytheHippy71 -- 249 points

If the top 10 are snug, then the next batch are like sardines in an elevator with a mere 23 points separating them.

11th Georgia20 -- 249 points
12th BoatDrink -- 247 points
13th bagpussrocks -- 244 points
14th doochats -- 243 points
15th RykanShadow -- 243 points
16th habbad -- 238 points
17th lionrampant27 -- 235 points
18th TeeDeeEye1 -- 234 points
19th KBV1TALS -- 231 points
20th Bambury -- 226 points

With the League behind them, 20 players decided to try and recoup their losses in the Deepstack Mulligan the following day. In the end, only three achieved that goal, although a total of five collected some added-bonus Community Points.

1st Cranfield -- $150.000 ($50 Belts Points)
2nd paul6543 -- $90.00 (30 Belt Points)
3rd losbert40 -- $60.00 (10 Belt Points)
4th Snotterz (5 Belt Points)
5th russellhansen (5 Belt Points)

On the same evening, the latest Orange Belt Freeroll saw 54 players lock horns. Five reaped the reards, thus earning themselves a slice of a Brown Belt in a future tournament. Congratulations to:

1st rustypokerhead -- $100 sponsorship
2nd stokelad112 -- $50 sponsorship
3rd JustinBieber -- $25 sponsorship
4th ourkidsid -- $25 sponsorship

The final Nottingham Live satellites also took place this week. Four players earned their entry at the very death: 'SchmidtSting', 'AmiDodge1986', 'drinko103' and 'playbadrungood'. Meanwhile, Yellow Belt Daniel 'Elderman10' Elder won entry into Saturday's £1,090 High-Roller event at DTD after fending off Neil Channing in last night's satellite.

As you may have already read, the iPOPS Giveaway graces our screens next week with iPOPS seats being handed out like Smarties. One event treated to the added value will be Leg 4 of the Black Belt Poker League - end the tournament as the last man standing and not only will you be entered into the Second Chance SNG, but you'll also win a a free token into Event #4 of the iPOPS.

We've made you an offer you can't refuse...

Too good to refuse? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory
Week 2 - 'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2

Thanksgiving on Black Belt Poker

2011-11-17T08:34:00.000-08:00

November is a time for giving thanks Stateside with a family gathering and a turkey dinner, but on this side of The Pond, we'll be expressing gratitude by showering our players with more value than a January sale in our iPOPS Giveaway.

Next week, and following the conclusion of the Black Belt Nottingham Live, Black Belt Poker will be hosting three online tournaments with a total of six free seat into the iPOPS Main Event added to the prize pool:

Tue, Nov 22 (20:30) - $5+0.50 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout (1 x seat)
Wed, Nov 23 (20:30) - $15+1.5 Deepstack Mulligan (1 x seat)
Thu, Nov 24 (20:30) - $50+5 Deepstack Freezeout (4 x seats)

In addition, the winner of Leg 4 of League XII will also receive a free iPOPS seat. The Black Belt Poker League is a $5+0.50 No Limit Hold'em freezeout that takes place every Tuesday at 19:30.

It doesn't end there. In an exclusive offer to Nottingham Live players, anyone who makes the final table of any of the Black Belt Poker sponsored events spread across the three days (Friday - Sunday) will earn entry into our Nottingham Live Finalist Freeroll.

Scheduled for Tue, Nov 22 (21:00), the Nottingham Live Finalist Freeroll will see players battle it out for an iPOPS season ticket, the winner earning entry into all four iPOPS events.

The iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) is a mini-series of four online MTTs spanning from November 28 to December 4 with a combined $1,000,000 in guarantees.

The schedule is as follows:

Nov 28 -- Event #1: $100+9 NLH six-max freezeout ($200K GTD)
Nov 30 -- Event #2: $50+5 NLH turbo rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 02 -- Event #3: $100+9 PLO six-max single rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 04 -- Event #4: $125+10 NLH Main Event freezeout ($500K GTD)

Unique to Black Belt Poker, we're offering players even more opportunities to play the Main Event by completing one of five tasks during Events #1 to #3. And if you can eliminate a Black Belt from the Main Event, we'll send you over to the Czech Republic to play in the iPOPS Live Open. See here for more details.

With Belt Bonuses and cash bounties, it promises to be pouring value in Dusk Till Dawn, and the November rain will continue with our iPOPs Giveaway and Bust a Black Belt Promotions. So, tuck in your napkin, grab a glass of wine and prepare to dig into our poker roast, only on blackbeltpoker.com. You'd be clucking mad not to.

Click here to donwload the poker client.

Nottingham Live: Last Chance Saloon

2011-11-16T09:19:00.000-08:00

In an unexpected twist, this week's Black Belt Nottingham Live has enjoyed a surge of late entries with seats being snapped up quicker than the Olympics, and despite adding 25 seats only three days ago, both days are close to selling out yet again.

As a result, Black Belt Poker have decided to add another 25 seats to both days, thus ensuring that anyone who wishes to play in the most fun event of the year can still secure their place at Dusk Till Dawn.

Registration is available exclusively through the poker client via Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day1A/1B. If you don't yet have an account, then simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

The Nottingham Live is just two days away with Day 1A commencing on Friday at 12pm. Players will be competing for what is currently a $56,375 prize pool with added value in the form of Belt Bonuses and cash bounty prizes.

Tonight, at 20:30, also sees the final satellite grace the cyber felt. This truly is last chance saloon as Black Belt Poker once again guarantee two seats in our $20+2 No Limit Hold'em qualifier.

The evening's action doesn't end there. Also at 20:30, we have our $15+1.5 Deepstack Mulligan in which the top five receive Belt Points on top of the standard prize pool, whilst at 19:00 we have a $10+1 feeder into a $100+10 High-Roller satellite at 21:00.

Good luck at the tables, and we look forward to seeing everyone in Nottingham.

If you fancy a flutter, then click here to bet on the winner of Nottingham Live.

For more information on the event including satellites, hotels, side events and more, see our FAQs.

High-Roll to Nottingham

2011-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

The Black Belt Nottingham Live is almost upon us, and with the likes of Jake Cody, Neil Channing and Julian Thew gracing the Dusk Till Dawn felt, the tournament is destined to be a high profile event with amateurs offered the chance to battle seasoned pros across the live baize.

The $125+15 Main Event is an affordable, fun-filled tournament accessible to all, but in order to cater for the more wallet-heavy in attendance, we'll also be holding a £1,000+90 High-Rollers six-max event on the Saturday evening at 7pm.

If there's a grand currently weighing down your pocket, then direct buy-in is available via the DTD cashier.

The tournament is scheduled to be a two-day event (dependent on numbers), with a 15,000 starting stack and 40-minute blinds. Re-entries and late registration will be allowed for the first six levels.

If £1,090 threatens to overstretch your bankroll, then don't worry, as on Wednesday, November 15 at 21:00, Black Belt Poker are hosting an online satellite with a $100+10 buy-in with a minimum of 18 entries.

But wait, if you don't even fancy stumping up $110, we have an even cheaper route: just two hours earlier at 19:00, there will be a $10+1 feeder, meaning that you could be a high-roller in Nottingham for just $10.

Both satellites can be located via the cardroom lobby under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments.

If you can't make the online satellites or fancy a last-ditch attempt at High-Roller glory, then Dusk Till Dawn will be guaranteeing an incredible five seats in a live mega satellite at 3pm on the day of the tournament. The buy-in will be £100+12 with players starting with 5,000 in chips.

The High-Roller event runs adjacent to the Main Event, so if you're registered for the former but still alive in the latter come kick-off, you'll be entitled to a full refund. With four avenues, and satellites from as little as $10+1, this is an opportunity not to be missed.

The Nottingham Live commences on Friday, November 18-20. As well as the aforementioned tournaments, there will also be side events spread across the days with buy-ins ranging from £15 to £50, including a Super 50 with a £7,500 guaranteed prize pool.

For more information, check out our Nottingham Live FAQs.

Blue & Improved

2011-11-14T07:43:00.000-08:00

Black Belt Poker already boast two UKIPT Champions, but in 2012 we're giving you even more incentive to complete the hat-trick with an incredible offer exclusive to Blue Belt players.

If you are a Blue Belt on January 1, 2012, you'll be eligible for an entire season's worth of UKIPT Main Events in addition to your standard sponsorship package. No Spending Points will be deducted and you'll still receive Prize Points - this is added value at no added cost!

The Blue and Improved offer is open to everyone. If you've been eying up Blue Belt, then now is the perfect time to work your way through the Belt-Up Rewards System and reap the rewards of being a Black Belt Poker sponsored pro.

To qualify for each leg of the UKIPT, all you have to do is ensure that you are Blue Belt during the month of the tournament. If you are, then Black Belt Poker will buy you in to that month's UKIPT Main Event, whether it be in Brighton, Galway, Nottingham or Newcastle.

The UKIPT is a popular series of tournaments spread across the UK and Ireland with buy-ins ranging from €500 to €1,000. Players featured include Vicky Coren, JP Kelly, Julian Thew and Jude Ainsworth.

In 2010, Jamie Burland became the first Black Belt Poker Champion when he took down the Brighton leg for £65,400. The following season, Black Belt Sam Razavi echoed that feat when he triumphed in Cork for €71,000. Sam would ultimately finish Season 2 as the Leaderboard Champion, earning himself free entry into each leg of the upcoming season.

Now you have a chance to join him.

As well as the standard $1,500 per month in live tournament backing, there are numerous advantages to being a Blue Belt on Black Belt Poker. Not only do you receive an array of training benefits, but you are also made to feel a part of a team with the chance to raise your profile through the many media opportunities that arise.

So, in 2012, make sure you're not singing the blues, but actually being blue as we look to take the upcoming UKIPT season by storm and crown a third consecutive champion.

Interested? Check out our promotions page and Belt-Up Rewards System for more details.

50 Seats Added to Nottingham Live

2011-11-13T05:20:00.001-08:00

The fashion for modern day poker festivals has been low entry events with players embracing a deep structure and a chance to turn a small investment into a sumptuous payday.

The Black Belt Nottingham Live has proved no exception as players sold out Day 1B a week prior to kick-off, and are on the verge of snapping up the remaining Day 1A seats.

As a result of the demand, Black Belt Poker, in accordance with Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club, have decided to open up another 50 seats, with 25 added to each starting day.

If you've been holding back before registering, or were simply unable to make Day 1A, then now is your chance to participate in the most fun-filled, affordable event of the year. But don't delay, as seats are sure to sell quicker than a Neil Channing signed photo.

Registration is available exclusively through the poker client via Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day1A/1B. If you don't yet have an account, then simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

The Nottingham Live commences on Friday, November 18, and is a three-day $125+15 No Limit Hold'em event in which 450 players will battle it out over a now $56,250 prize pool. There will also be mouth-watering bonuses with a potential $250 per bounty and up to 20 percent added to all cash prizes.

If you suffer an early crash in the Main Event, then don't fret as there are plenty of side events available to suit all bankroll sizes, including a £15+5 freezeout on Friday and a £1,000+90 six-max High-Roller event the following evening. DTD are even holding a £100+12 mega satellite into the High-Roller with an incredible five seats guaranted. There will also be SNGs and cash games available throughout the three days.

If you fancy a flutter, then click here to bet on the winner of Nottingham Live.

For more information on the event including satellites, hotels, side events and more, see our FAQs.

'JaytheHippy71' Rocks Leg 2

2011-11-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

The second outing for the latest Black Belt Poker League graced the virtual felt last Tuesday, as 104 success-hungry poker fanatics returned to the cyber baize to once again battle it out for the Super Tuesday crown.

Seven days earlier, it was Barry 'JosseWales' Styles who took the proverbial bull by the horns when he reigned supreme in the opening leg, and this time he was in tip-top form once again as he continued his money-making formula with a second consecutive cash.

Top honours, however, fell in the hands of 'JaytheHippy71', who bested a brand new lineup of finalists in order to snap up the $140.40 booty. In doing so, he also joined 'JosseWales' in the Second Chance SNG, a one-table war in which all eight leg winners receive a second bite at the star-prize cherry.

1st JaytheHippy71 -- $140.40
2nd PaulAoKRoper -- $83.20
3rd bagpussrocks -- $52.00
4th stokelad112 -- $41.60
5th lionrampant27 -- $36.40
6th forget2piknik -- $31.20
7th MajorMustard -- $26.00
8th GGlitter69 -- $20.80
9th BoatDrink -- $15.60
10th losbert40 -- $10.40
11th Georgia20 -- $6.24
12th D014hyd3 -- $6.24
13th taylormade777 -- $6.24
14th IanLeBruceBBP -- $6.24
15th Nanoplankton -- $6.24
16th 10Royals -- $6.24
17th JosseWales -- $6.24
18th megaranaxx -- $6.24
19th ourkidsid -- $6.24
20th brigal19 -- $6.24

For either of these two players, it's possible that they won't need that second life, as they lead the way after two legs, 'JosseWales' with his nose in front. Meanwhile, Hasmukh '45683ah' Khodiyara is echoing the consistency that led to him becoming the 2010 WSOP League Ultimate Warrior with 3rd and 26th place finishes.

1st JosseWales -- 246 points
2nd JaytheHippy71 -- 238 points
3rd 45683ah -- 225 points
4th lionrampant27 -- 216 points
5th taylormade777 -- 213 points
6th ACarey -- 206 points
7th NeilChanning -- 198 points
8th bagpussrocks -- 197 points
9th tentofollow -- 196 points
10th bornTOflirt -- 194 points

Just missing out on the prize spots, but still well within reach, are a number of familiar monikers including League XI runner-up Andy 'BoatDrink' Butcher. Reigning champion Bob 'myteamouse' Bulman is far from 'mighty' this time around with a start that would make my 15-year old Ford Fiesta look reliable: 132nd and 73rd.

11th Sarannedpity -- 190 points
12th BoatDrink -- 190 points
13th adygolf -- 182 points
14th PaulAoKRope -- 181 points
15th losbert40 -- 180 points
16th Georgia20 -- 180 points
17th doochats -- 173 points
18th JHobbit1 -- 171 points
19th AMANESS13 -- 170 points
20th Iceman78Danny -- 170 points
21st liquidpoker101 -- 170 points

Whilst 'myteamouse' is stuttering in the League, he's running rampant elsewhere. Not only did he win this week's Yellow Belt Freeroll (congratulations to 'maffew1' who triumphed in the White equivalent), but he was also one of two winners in the Bang for Ya Buck Nottingham Live satellite.

Bang for Ya Buck offered players the chance to qualify into the upcoming Black Belt Nottingham Live for just $1, and it was this carrot that lured precisely 100 hopefuls into their armchairs. The other seat, meanwhile, went to the curiously named 'friedliceplick' who will be joining 399 others at the luxurious Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club.

This wasn't the only avenue to Nottingham, as our thrice-weekly satellites once again produced four more seats. They went to: 'NLsoldier07', 'gnomeeee', 'HammerHorror' and 'megaranaxx'. I tip my hat to you all, in particular 'gnomeeee' who earned his ticket for just $6 in Tuesday's $3 rebut.

Finally, Wednesday's Deepstack Mulligan once again found a winner, that wo/man being 'Yosemity2207'.

1st Yosemity2207 -- $142.50 (50 Belt Points)
2nd myteamouse -- $85.50 (30 Belt Points)
3rd Snotterz -- $57.00 (10 Belt Points)
4th losbert40 (5 Belt Points)
5th MUSTBENICE11 (5 Belt Points)

If you would like to join in with any of the above tournaments, then be sure to check out next week's schedule as we inch closer to Nottingham. Next week will be your last chance to unearth your golden ticket, so make sure you take a stab at one of our satellites, including our ongoing $20 SNGs that can be found in the Black Belt Poker lobby.

Desperate to join in? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - 'JosseWales' shoots to League XII victory

Sam Trickett Joint Favourite to Win Nottingham Live

2011-11-11T06:00:00.001-08:00

With the Black Belt Nottingham Live precisely one week away, Boylesports.com have decided to run a book for all entrants with recently announced bounties Jake Cody and Sam Trickett joint favourites at 25:1 to take down the lion's share of the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool and become the inaugural Champion.

Few could argue with the decision. With a near $8 million in live tournament winnings between them and more silverware than the Manchester United trophy cabinet, Sam and Jake are undoubtedly two of the country's most talented players. Whilst Jake boasts the fastest Triple Crown in poker, Sam - who is sponsored by Titan Poker - is a high-rolling machine, winning almost A$3 million at the Aussie Millions and partaking in some of the world's biggest cash games in Macau.

Snapping at their heels like a starved alligator is Black Belt Poker co-founder and 2008 Irish Open Champion Neil Channing at 33:1, whilst sharing the same odds is Blue Belt and UKIPT Brighton Champion Jamie Burland. Meanwhile, Jerome Bradpiece is priced at 40:1 with fellow Brown Belt and former London Live finalist Warren Wooldridge not too far behind at an enticing 50:1.

Also available for a punt are Black Belt Poker sponsored pros Richard Ashby, Kevin Williams, Sam Razavi, Ben Meredith, Andy Miles, Simon Mairs, and recently crowned Blue Belt David Gentry. Past League winners are also featured, including League XI Champion Robert 'myteamouse' Bulman who comes in at an alluring 100:1.

If you fancy spicing up your day, then click here to place your bet on the winner of the Black Belt Nottingham Live.

The Nottingham Live is scheduled for November 18-20 and marks Black Belt Poker's debut at the UK's largest and most celebrated cardroom, Dusk Till Dawn. As well as 20 bounties, Black Belt Poker are also adding up to 20% onto all prizes, meaning that you could potentially add thousands to your prize.

Day 1B has sold out, but there are still seats available, but you need to be quick. Registration is available through the poker client only at Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day1A. If you don't yet have an account, then simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

For more information on the event including satellites, hotels, side events and more, see our FAQs.

UK's Hottest Talents Head to Nottingham

2011-11-10T09:47:00.001-08:00

As has become customary with Black Belt Poker live events, pros and amateurs alike share the felt in a bid to become Champion, with first-time players having the opportunity to face some of the game's greatest poker prodigies. The Nottingham Live is no exception, as we announce Jake Cody and Sam Trickett as two of the bounties for the inaugural event.

With in excess of $5 million in tournament winnings, Sam is considered by many to be the UK's hottest talent. In the last 12 months, he has sky-rocketed to stardom with an endless run of big-money scores including final tables in the WSOPE and Partouche Poker Tour. His most lucrative achievement, however, was first and second in the two biggest tournaments he'd ever played: the A$100,000 and A$250,000 High-Roller events at the 2011 Aussie Millions.

Even before his trip to Melbourne, Sam was turning heads. In 2008, he became Luton GUKPT Champion and then final-tabled two WSOP events a couple of years later. Following an EPT final table in Vilamoura, he captured his second title just a month later when he won the World Open VI for $200,000. Meanwhile, he has become the face of Titan Poker, where he currently plays some of the highest stakes available online.

If those accolades send a shiver down your spine, then consider the contents of Jake's trophy cabinet. Earlier this year, the poker whiz from Rochdale lapped up his first WSOP bracelet to date, defeating Yevgeniy Timoshenko in the finale of the $25,000 Heads-Up event to best what was likely one of the toughest line-ups ever assembled.

Victory also marked the completion of the Triple Crown, which includes his EPT Deauville and WPT London triumphs. Jake achieved this incredible feat quicker than anyone else before him. In total, he boasts over $2.8 million in live tournament winnings, and this will be his third Black Belt Poker appearance to date after competing in both London Live events.

It is therefore a great honour that Sam and Jake will be gracing us with their presence at Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club, and playing as bounties in the event. There will be 20 bounties in total, and cash bonuses for removing them from the tournament. Everyone will receive $20 for eliminating a bounty, but if you are an Orange or Purple (or above) Belt, you will earn $100 and $250 respectively for each scalp.

The Nottingham Live is just over one week away, scheduled for November 18-20, but it's not too late to enter and secure your shot at the incredible bonuses on offer. If you fancy competing against the likes of Sam and Jake and taking your shot at a guaranteed $50,000 prize pool, then this is your chance.

Day 1B has sold out, but there are still seats available, but you need to be quick. Registration is available through the poker client only at Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day1A. If you don't yet have an account, then simply click here to download the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

For more information on the event including satellites, hotels, side events and more, see our FAQs.

iPOPS: Bust a Black Belt

2011-11-08T05:22:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for giving, and this year Christmas is coming early at Black Belt Poker with our Bust a Black Belt promotion.

In a special offer exclusive to Black Belt Poker players, if you eliminate Neil Channing, Richard Ashby or Sam Razavi from event #4 of iPOPS, you'll win a package to the iPOPS Live worth €1,450, including entry into the €700+70 iPOPS Live Open.

The iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series) is a mini-series of four online MTTs spanning from November 28 to December 4 with a combined $1,000,000 in guarantees.

The schedule is as follows:

Nov 28 -- Event #1: $100+9 NLH six-max freezeout ($200K GTD)
Nov 30 -- Event #2: $50+5 NLH turbo rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 02 -- Event #3: $100+9 PLO six-max single rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 04 -- Event #4: $125+10 NLH Main Event freezeout ($500K GTD)

Event's #1 to 3 will be hosted by a Black Belt with a free tournament token into Event #4 up for grabs for achieving any of the following feats:

Bust the host
Bust by the host
Chip leader at the second break
Bubble boy (within five places)
Final table bubble

Complete any of these tasks and you'll receive entry into the $125+10 iPOPS Main Event on December 4, where you'll get to compete for a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. And if you are able to eliminate a Black Belt from this final event, you'll be on your way to Prague to test your skills at the live felt.

This is a truly i-popping offer with value you won't find anywhere else. The promotion is only available to Black Belt Poker players, so if you don't play it on Black Belt Poker, you won't be eligible for any of these added bonuses.

The iPOPS tournaments can be found in the poker client on the left hand side. If you don't already have an account, then creating one is easy. Simply download the cardroom software by clicking here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Once you iPOP, you just can't stop… just make sure you do so on Black Belt Poker.

Terms and Conditions:

- only those who play via Black Belt Poker are elligible
- to bust a host, you must eliminate them from the event (i.e. void if they decide to rebuy)
- players can not win multiple event #4 seats
- only one iPOPS Live package can be won
- package winner will represent Black Belt Poker at the event
- Black Belt Poker have the right to publish the name of anyone who wins an iPOPS Live package
- standard blackbeltpoker.com terms and conditions apply
- all decisions made by Black Belt Poker are final
- prizes are non-refundable, non-transferable, and cannot be converted to cash. The only exception is if a player makes the final 27 of Event #4 having also Bust a Black Belt. He then has the choice of playing iPOPS Live as well as the concluding stages of Event #4, or receiving the cash equivalent for his iPOPS Live package.

Gentry: A Class Above at London Calling

2011-11-07T04:17:00.000-08:00

Last night, Blue Belt David Gentry finished fourth place in the London Calling Main Event at the Fox Poker Club in his first ever tournament as a sponsored pro. His performance netted him £6,000, as well as 19,221 in Belt Points.

In all, 120 players paid £540 to battle it out across the two days, including Orange Belt Dawn Cooke and Green Belt Paul Romain, the latter fresh off a DTD Monthly Deepstack final. On this occasion, however, Paul was unable to repeat that feat, the honour instead going to David who entered the final nine seventh in chips.

On a final table that witnessed more all-ins than the hokey cokey, David's coin appeared to be buttered the right side when he completed a hattrick of double-ups: first, he miraculously unraveled Ah-As with Kc-Qs on an ensuing Js-9s-Qd-Ts-8c board; then he won with 8-8 versus K-9; before surviving yet again when his Ah-7h improved to a flush against Kd-Jh.

Sadly, the rollercoaster soon dipped the other way when David doubled up a short-stack with A-J versus 7-7. And a few hands later, he was catapulted from the ride: three-bet shoving with Kc-Jh, but being looked up by Ah-Ts which ultimately held firm on an thrill-less Qs-4h-2d-5d-6c board. His assassin was 25-year old stockbroker and eventual champion Chris Gordon.

Despite walking the plank, David still collected some sumptuous booty for his troubles and kicked off his Black Belt Poker career in spectacular fashion. In addition to picking up £6,000 for fourth place, David also earned 19,221 in Prize Points, which equates to almost an entire month of Blue Belt maintenance.

A 26-year old former dealer from Broadstairs, Kent, David is a full-ring cash game pro who worked his way through the Belt-Up Rewards System to become the latest Black Belt Poker sponsored pro, joining the likes of Jamie Burland and Kevin Williams as a Blue Belt and receiving $1,500 in live tournament backing every month.

Click here to read an interview with David in which he discusses his ascent through the ranks, life as a pro, and his aims for the future.

In other news, former Graders Joe Roberts and Tom Drew also featured on final tables. Joe came third in the H.O.R.S.E. event, whilst Tom captured the title in the six-max event for a £2,700 payday.

1st Chris Gordon -- £17,000
2nd Bruno Fernandes -- £14,000
3rd Simon Hemsworth -- £7,200
4th David Gentry -- £6,000
5th Terrence Mitford -- £4,700
6th Chuck Clark -- £3,000
7th Willie Tann -- £2,400
8th Alan Mansbridge -- £1,800
9th Simon Brooks -- £1,200

'JosseWales' Shoots to League XII Victory

2011-11-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

It seems like only yesterday that Adam 'JHobbit1' Saunders was busy tearing up the virtual felt to capture the inaugural League title. Over two years on and the Black Belt Poker League is back once again for its twelfth outing, the fields having swelled to 100-plus, and the added value making Super Tuesday an unmissible evening of poker festivity.

This time, 133 players set about their journey to League glory with all eyes on reigning Champion Bob 'myteamouse' Bulman, whose League XI victory earned him free entry into the upcoming Black Belt Nottingham Live. On this occasion, however, his venture endured a bumpy start when he bubbled the wooden spoon in 132nd.

After a hard-fought battle, first blood would ultimately be drawn by Orange Belt Barry 'JosseWales' Styles. He defeated Kim insider66666' Vernon to capture the $179.55 first prize. Meanwhile, League XI runner-up and pacesetter Karl 'KV1TALS' Briggs got off to another explosive start with a fifth-place finish, whilst Black Belt Neil Channing also made the money in nineteenth.

1st JosseWales -- $179.55
2nd insider66666 -- $106.40
3rd 45683ah -- $66.50
4th badbeefy -- $53.20
5th KBV1TALS -- $46.55
6th Sarannedipity -- $39.99
7th Mrdroodle -- $33.20
8th bornTOflirt -- $26.60
9th tentofollow -- $19.95
10th luckyed147 -- $13.30
11th huzi9mm -- $7.98
12th ACarey -- $7.98
13th taylormade777 -- $7.98
14th NPenfold666 -- $7.98
15th KidDonut -- $7.98
16th themackem1968 -- $7.98
17th Iceman78Danny -- $7.98
18th doochats -- $7.98
19th NeilChanning -- $7.98
20th UsainZeus -- $7.98

As a result - and many thanks to my maths A-level for finally coming into use - the League Standings currently look as such after one leg.

1st JosseWales -- 158 points
2nd insider66666 -- 150 points
3rd 45683ah -- 146 points
4th badbeefy -- 142 points
5th KBV1TALS -- 139 points
6th Sarannedipity -- 136 points
7th Mrdroodle -- 133 points
8th bornTOflirt -- 130 points
9th tentofollow -- 127 points
10th luckyed147 -- 125 points

Triumph not only places 'JosseWales' at the top of the tree, but also secures him a spot in our Second Chance SNG. Brand new to Black Belt Poker, any player who wins a leg over the course of the eight weeks will be automatically eligible for a SNG taking place on December 21 with the eventual winner receiving the same star prize as the overall champion.

Before Santa Clause descends the chimney tops, however, Black Belt Poker are dishing out our own seasonal gifts at the Black Belt Nottingham Live, due to grace the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club from November 18-20. Registration is currently available through the Black Belt Poker client, but you can also gain reduced entry through one of our thrice-weekly satellites.

This week, we gave away another five guaranteed seats, including two in Wednesday's qualifier which witnessed an incredible $100 overlay.

Monday, $10+1 freezeout, 19 runners, one seat guaranteed:

1st Nanoplankton -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd gingerninja11111 -- $25.00
3rd jokerage -- $15.00
4th deanmac1 -- $10.00

Tuesday, $3+0.3 rebuy, 20 runners, one seat guaranteed:

1st ACarey -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd gnomeeee -- $5.00
3rd russellhansen -- $3.00
4th HammerHorror -- $2.00

Wednesday, $20+2, 9 runners, two seats guaranteed:

1st myteamouse -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd GOLDENSOMBRE -- Nottingham Live seat

If you would like to join the above players in Nottingham, then be sure to check out our qualifiers next week, including Thursday's Bang For Ya Buck at 20:30, a one-off satellite with a buy-in of just $1. With two seats guaranteed, many are forecasting an overlay, thus making this an incredible opportunity to qualify for the year's most fun-filled event for a single buck.

For the second week running, the Deepstack Mulligan rewarded the top five players with Belt Points, in addition to the standard prize pool. In the end, it was Sean 'Snotterz' Fennessey who rose highest, besting a field of 31 (of which included Black Belt Sam 'KODDZILLA' Razavi and Blue Belt Ben 'AsboKid666' Meredith) to snap up the 50 Belt Points and $186.00 first prize. Triumph also marked a hat-trick of Mulligan wins for the Scot.

1st Snotterz -- $186.00 (50 Belt Points)
2nd 7onyB -- $116.25 (30 Belt Points)
3rd tentofollow -- $74.40 (10 Belt Points)
4th nakgeela4 -- $51.15 (5 Belt Points)
5th ZoeRiZZ0 -- $37.20 (5 Belt Points)

In other news, Malcolm 'lionrampant' Sievweright and Carey 'CareyBearBBP' Hollick lapped up the two Nottingham Live packages (including spending money) in Wednesday's Nottingham Live Freeroll, whilst 'Iam2real2deal' and 'booterswex' won this week's White and Yellow Belt Freerolls on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Next week, we're once again inviting you to take the Black Belt Poker tour through Valueville with yet more satellites, freerolls, and deep-stacked tournaments, all at affordable prices and with juicy prizes/money added.

Meanwhile, Leg 2 of the League will commence at 19:30 on Super Tuesday. Even if you missed the opening leg, you can still become Champion and join the Black Belt Poker pros at the Vic in December. And remember, if you participate in all eight legs, we'll instantly credit your account with 200 Belt Points, regardless of position. It's value too good to be ignored.

Want a piece of the pie? Then click here to download the software and open an account following the simple step-by-step process provided.

Play Nottingham Live for a Single Buck

2011-11-04T05:17:00.000-07:00

Black Belt Poker thrive on offering players the chance to win a lot from a little, and in less than a week's time, we'll be giving you exactly that with our Bang For Ya Buck Nottingham Live satellite.

At 20:30 on Thursday, November 10, we'll be offering players the chance to qualify into the inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live for just $1. What's more, we're guaranteeing two seats worth $125+15 each, with the winners heading to the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club to battle it out with 400 others for a $50,000 prize pool.

This is a one-time opportunity and available to all players. To participate, all you have to do is start up the Black Belt Poker client and locate the event in the lobby via Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Notts Live Bang For Ya Buck.

If you're yet to open an account, then doing so couldn't be easier: simply click here to download the poker software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

The tournament will be a $1+0.10 Not Limit Hold'em event with one rebuy and add-on, meaning that you can qualify for a single buck, with a maximum expenditure of just three dollars. For those looking to save the pennies, this is an incredible chance to secure your seat in the most fun-filled event of the year for a bargain-bucket price.

The Nottingham Live is fast approaching and will hit DTD shores this November 18-20. The event will be a feast of value with Belt Bonuses, pro bounties and more! Day 1B may have sold out, but seats are still available for Day 1A. If you would like to buy-in directly, then registration is available through the poker client at Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day1A.

Don't forget, that even if you have already bought in, you can still win a cheap seat via any of our satellites, and receive an immediate refund on your original buy-in by unregistering from the event. Satellites run thrice-weekly at 20:30 on Monday to Wednesday, followed by the Bang For Ya Buck satellite on Thursday.

Don't miss out on your chance to turn a small acorn into a giant money tree.

For more information on the Nottingham Live, please see our FAQs.

Day 1B of Nottingham Live - Sold Out!

2011-10-28T05:43:00.000-07:00

The November Nine are still dreaming of bracelet-gold; we're yet to light our sparklers for Bonfire Night; our doors haven't even been graced by the ghouls and ghosts of Halloween!

Yet, with over three weeks to go, Day 1B of the Black Belt Nottingham Live has already sold out.

Earlier today, the final seats for the second starting day were snapped up quicker than a hiccup as players looked to secure a seat into the most exciting event of the year. Making its debut this November 18-20, the Nottingham Live is a $125+15 No Limit Hold'em freezeout boasting pro bounties, Belt Bonuses and a mouth-watering $50,000 guaranteed prize pool.

In addition to the Main Event, there will also be five side events spread across the three days, including a two-day £1,000 High Roller event taking place at 7pm on Saturday. Players can register for these tournaments and the other side events at the Dusk Till Dawn cashier.

With three days remaining, it's not too late to increase your Belt Level and take advantage of the sumptuous added value on offer. Play the event as an Orange Belt and you'll receive $100 for each bounty and 10% added to all prizes, but play as Purple, and you'll earn $250 per bounty and an amazing 20% added!

With 15,000 starting stacks and 40-minute blind levels, the Nottingham Live provides players with a fun-filled, yet competitive tournament for an affordable price. 200 players have already booked their place in Saturday's starting day, but there are still seats available for Day 1A on the Friday. However, they will sell out, and fast, so don't delay, register now before it's too late.

Registration is via the Black Belt Poker poker client only. To buy in directly, locate the event in the lobby at Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Nottingham Live Day 1A. Alternatively, you can purchase a token using Spending Points, or qualify through one of our three weekly satellites. If you haven't donwloaded the software, then you can do so by clicking here.

For more information, please see our FAQs.

Razavi Tops UKIPT Leader Board

2011-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

With the London EPT marking the conclusion of this season's UKIPT, Black Belt Poker sponsored pro Sam Razavi has been crowned UKIPT Leaderboard Champion, winning buy-ins and accommodation for the entire third season.

Sam topped the table with 240.35 points, fending off a tough chasing pack that included serial casher Rupinder Bedi, double finalist Chris Dowling, and Edinburgh Champion Fintan Gavin.

Despite being an online cash game pro, Sam secured victory with four in-the-money finishes totalling an impressive $108,754. These included cashes in Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cork, where he left with the title in hand, thus giving Black Belt Poker its second Champion to date after Jamie Burland won Season 1's Brighton leg.

The final results were as follows:

1st Sam Razavi -- 240,35
2nd Rupinder Bedi -- 220,9
3rd Chris Dowling -- 206,95
4th Paul Nash -- 194,7
5th Nick Abou Risk -- 192,3
6th Mike Hill -- 178,8
7th Fintan Gavin -- 167,5
8th Richard Lawlor -- 165,25
9th Richard Haile -- 165,1
10th Sam MacDonald -- 164

Fellow Black Belt Poker pros Jamie Burland and Kevin Williams finished 14th and 19th respectively with a combined five cashes.

A former thespian from Brighton, Sam was a product of the Black Belt Poker Grading, which led him to Sidney where he final-tabled the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$225,000. His sixth place finish awarded him enough Prize Points to join Neil Channing and Richard Ashby as one of three Black Belts earning $10,000 a month in live tournament backing.

"Although I have a long way to go to cement a name for myself in tournament poker," commented a jubilant Sam, "I've enjoyed consistently deep runs throughout 2011. I only decided to put my foot into tournament poker at the start of this year, so to then go and top the UKIPT leaderboard is the icing on the cake. It should put a temporary 'cork' into the mouths of those people who think I just sit around all day waiting for fish without working on my game."

"With regards to Season 3 of the UK," he continued, "and in the words of Tony G: ''I'm going to destroy you. I'm going to send you all home. Go on. On your bike!''"

Before Season 3, however, Sam will be busy with the Champion of Champions, which is due to be filmed prior to the opening leg.

In the meantime, he will be sharing his knowledge to debuting players in a live Dojo Session at the Black Belt Nottingham Live. Tickets are a snip at just 300 Spending Points and are available via the Black Belt Poker Store under Live Events.

In the Nick of Time

2011-10-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

After finishing second in January's event, the Black Belt Poker faithful returned to the APAT UK Team Championships this past weekend with the goal of climbing one more rung and bringing home the coveted team title.

'The British Cowboy' Jon Woodfield jumped into the saddle once more, captaining an eight-player team that included a trio of Orange Belts in Richard Hurst, Chris Osborne and Nick Mazur. They were joined by Alan Lake, Michelle Gascoine, and future husband-wife combo Adam Sharples and Julie Holness.

In the end, 184 runners ambushed the G Casino in Luton, thus creating a £9,200 prize pool. 50 percent would end up in the welcome hands of the top three teams, whilst the other half would be spread across the highest individual finishers.

Although Black Belt Poker boasted two players in the top 50, only one man made it to the money, Nick Mazur, and with the final table set, he lay in a respectable fourth place with 195,000. The then-leader was Rob Swindells of the Gambling Network Forum with 353,000.

Thankfully, Black Belt Poker's lone soldier enjoyed a fruitful start when he eliminated Phil Laws in ninth, Nick's aces holding against kings in an unavoidable cooler. A few spots later, and Nick found the bullets again, this time snipering down fourth-place finisher John Murray who'd moved all in from the button with 4-2.

After disposing of Karl McDonald in third (A-J improving versus T-T), Nick found himself heads-up for the title against final hurdle Ian Thompson of the APAT Forum. Armed with a substantial chip lead, Nick saw off his foe an hour later with 7-4 versus K-J, all in on the turn of a J-4-x-4 board. A harmless river and Nick was the Champion, earning himself £1,300 and giving Black Belt Poker back-to-back titles following Niall Farrell's triumphant performance in January.

As per that occasion, Black Belt Poker weren't quite able to compliment individual success with a team victory for the desired double. That honour instead went to Gambling Network Forum (who boasted two finalists) whilst The Hendon Mob came second. Team Black Belt didn't miss out entirely, however, as their pooled performance was enough to pick up third for a highly respectable £920, placing them above no less than 20 other teams.

"I'm glad I managed to secure some money for the team," beamed Champion Nick Mazur later than night. "I'm also very happy that the boss agreed to give me the morning off since I've just got in after a few beers and jaegerbombs with Jon!"

"The structure of these APAT games are superb," added Chris Osborne, "and there are loads of play in them if anyone is looking for live games to play."

So, all in all, a profitable journey for Team Black Belt, in particular Nick who left with some silverware in hand. Our thanks go out to Jon for organising the team, and the team members themselves for keeping Black Belt Poker on the podium.

Individual results:

1st Nick Mazur -- £1,300
2nd Ian Thompson -- £700
3rd Karl McDonald -- £450
4th John Murray -- £350
5th George Lawson -- £250
6th Gary Peniket -- £200
7th Rob Swindells -- £170
8th Peter Lawton -- £150
9th Phil Laws -- £130

Team results:

1st Gambling Network Forum (120 points) -- £2,300
2nd The Hendon Mob Forum (108 points) -- £1,380
3rd Black Belt Poker (105 points) -- £920

4th APAT Forum (101 points)
5th Hetton Social Poker League (98 points)
6th Blonde Poker (91 points)
7th A World Of Poker (89 points)
8th Live Pub Poker League (89 points)
9th Newcastle Poker Forum (89 points)
10th Punters Lounge (80 points)
11th Black Country Poker Club (44 points)
12th APAT Luton Club (41 points)
13th Lee Barrett Poker Nights (38 points)
14th Bristol Meetup (36 points)
15th Elite Amateur Poker League (35 points)
16th Eatmystack Forum (34 points)
17th Chorley Poker League (21 points)
18th London Poker Meetup (20 points)
19th Maple Dragon Poker Club (18 points)
20th APAT Champions (10 points)
21st FISO (8 points)
22nd Betfair Forum (0 points)
23rd iLovePlayingPoker (0 points)

Deepstack Mulligan: Value to a Tee

2011-10-24T03:58:00.000-07:00

Every Wednesday at 20:30, Black Belt Poker host the Deepstack Mulligan. At just $15+1.5, the tournament offers players an affordable avenue into the world of deep-stacked poker, serving up a blind and level structure that gives skill the utmost chance to prevail over luck.

Starting this week, Black Belt Poker will now be offering Belt Points for the top five finishers in the Mulligan, as well as the usual cash prizes.

Belt Points will be awarded as follows:

1st 50
2nd 30
3rd 10
4th 5
5th 5

The Mulligan is a small tournament mainly populated by community players, so with five prizes up for grabs, it now presents a great opportunity to add some vital points to your Belt Points balance, whilst aiding your Belt maintenance/promotion for the month.

If you're yet to taste the value on offer at Black Belt Poker, then now is the perfect time to join, in particular with the upcoming Nottingham Live hitting Dusk Till Dawn shores this November.

To sign up, simply download the Black Belt Poker client and follow the step-by-step instructions provided. The tournament can then be found in the tournament lobby under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments > Deepstack Mulligan.

The Mulligan isn't the only great tournament exclusive to Black Belt Poker. As well as thrice-weekly satellites into the Nottingham Live (20:30, Mon-Wed), we also host three freerolls for various Belts, including a $50 White Belt Freeroll every Wednesday at 20:00.

On Tuesday, November 01, the Black Belt Poker League will return for its twelfth outing with players once again battling it out over the course of eight legs of $5+0.50 No Limit Hold'em. This time, the winner will be invited to the Black Belt Poker Christmas party where they'll get to wine and dine with the pros, before participating in a £100 SNG with the likes of Neil Channing and Richard Ashby.

For more details on League XII, and any other of our promotions, check out the site now.

iPOPS Live: Czech-Raise to Prague

2011-10-23T04:45:00.000-07:00

This December 9-11, Black Belt Poker are offering players the chance to exchange the online world for the live felt and celebrate the festive season in style with the first ever iPOPS Live Open.

Set to grace the Corinthia Hotel in Prague, the iPOPS Live Open will be a €700+70 No Limit Hold'em freezeout with players Czech-raising their way through two days of hot poker action. Entry will initially be exclusive to network players, with open registration on the day of the event.

Players currently have three opportunities every week to qualify for the event via the following super satellites:

Sundays (19:00) -- €80+8 NLH freezeout
Wednesdays (19.00) -- €50+5 rebuy
Thursdays (19:00) -- €80+8 NLH freezeout

As always, Black Belt Poker are also supplying an array of feeders and catering for all wallet sizes with tiered qualifiers starting from as little as $0.66+0.06. There will also be also be numerous SNGs running throughout the week.

If you're fortunate to earn entry into a super satellite and then go on to secure your seat into the iPOPS Open Live, you will receive a package worth €1,450. The package includes:

€770 buy-in for the Main Event
€255 for 4 nights of accommodation
€25 for handling fees.
€400 for flights and spending.
Players' party December 9 at 20:30.

The iPOPS Live Open will also play host to the conclusion of the iPOPS (iPoker's Online Poker Series), taking place from November 28 to December 4 and serving up a cool $1,000,000 in guarantees. The final 27 players in Event #4's $125+10 freezeout will be flown to Prague where they will play to a finish on December 10.

December is usually a quiet month in poker, but iPoker are ensuring that Christmas comes early with the iPOPS. So, whether you wish to play the live event, or soak up the guarantees in the online mini-series, be sure to do so on Black Belt Poker and we'll see you in Prague.

Going Live with Sensei Razavi

2011-10-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

Excitement is reaching boiling point as the inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live is fast-approaching and now less than four weeks away. Scheduled for November 18-20, the Nottingham Live will see players from across the nation ambush the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club to participate in the year's most affordable and fun-filled event.

For many, the Nottingham Live will be their first foray into the world of live poker, and some will likely be anxious about making that nerve-wracking transition from the virtual felt to green of the live baize and competing in a 400-runner field in the UK's largest poker cardroom.

But don't worry, as help is available in the form of Black Belt and UKIPT Cork Champion Sam Razavi.

Armed with a decade of experience at the live felt, Sam will seek to guide you through those first steps in a one-off live Dojo Session. Starting at 7pm on Friday, November 18, our 'Going Live' Dojo Session is the perfect opportunity for Day 1B players to learn from one of the game's best players before entering the battlefield themselves the following day.

An poker pro from the mean streets of Brighton, Sam burst onto the Black Belt Poker scene when he was one of two winners in Grading III, earning himself an Aussie Millions package. Several weeks later and Sam was A$225,000 richer courtesy of a sixth place finish in the Main Event and had enough Prize Points to become the first player ever to work their way through the Belt-Up Rewards system to Black Belt. He would late go on to win UKIPT Cork and become the overall UKIPT Leaderboard Season Two Champion.

Oozing in onfidence and a master of 'table talk', Sam is the perfect host and will be on hand to answer any questions you may have regarding the live experience, as well as warning you about some of the pitfalls debutants tend to stumble into. And if anyone can tell you about what live tells to be aware of, it's Sam, whose thespian background has made him an expert of reading players and detecting bluffs.

If you would like one of the game's best young(ish) players to help quench those last-minute nerves and introduce you to the world of live poker, then sign up now by purchasing a token with your Spending Points. Tickets are a bargain at just 300 Spending Points, and can be located in the Black Belt Poker Store under 'Live Events'. But don't delay, as the Session is limited to 10 seats and will sure to sell out long before the event.

League XII: A Black Belt Poker Christmas

2011-10-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

O come, all ye faithful, the new league is upon us, and we're once again decking the halls with boughs of value with a festive star prize, as well as some added bonuses yet to be seen on Black Belt Poker.

League XII is coming to town on Tuesday, November 01 at 19:30. Players will compete over eight weeks of $5+0.5 No Limit Hold'em shenanigans with the final leg concluding on Tuesday, December 20.

For many, all they want for Christmas is the chance to meet Neil Channing, but in League XII, the lucky winner will receive an invite to the Black Belt Poker Christmas dinner on Thursday, December 22 at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino where he or she will dine with our entire team of sponsored pros.

After the mistletoe and wine of dinner, the Champion will then be entered into a one-table £100 SNG to battle it out across the live felt against the BBP pros, including the likes of UKIPT winners Jamie Burland and Sam Razavi, and bracelet-winner Richard Ashby.

Points for each leg will be awarded in reverse order, so that in a 50-runner event, 50th would earn 1 point, and 1st 50 points. The top 10 finishers per leg receive the following additional points:

1st 25 Points
2nd 18 Points
3rd 15 Points
4th 12 Points
5th 10 Points
6th 08 Points
7th 06 Points
8th 04 Points
9th 02 Points
10th 01 Point

Once again, 10 players will be having themselves a very merry Christmas with some juicy added prizes:

1st Invite to BBP Christmas Party & Seat in £100 Pro SNG
2nd 1,000 Belt Points
3rd 850 Belt Points
4th 725 Belt Points
5th 600 Belt Points
6th 500 Belt Points
7th 400 Belt Points
8th 300 Belt Points
9th 200 Belt Points
10th 100 Belt Points

The BBP Wonderland doesn't end there, however, as on Wednesday, December 21, we'll be hosting a Second Chance SNG online for all leg winners. The winner will then join the overall Champion at the Christmas party to play and participate in the Pro SNG, thus meaning that even if you fall behind in the standings or join proceedings as late as Leg 8, you still have a shot at the star prize!

And it doesn't end there. In keeping with the season of giving, we'll be dishing out an additional 200 Belt Points to anyone who participates in all eight league legs, absolutely free and regardless of position.

So here it is, Merry Xmas, everybody. On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me 12 drummers drumming; on the 12th league, we're going to shower someone in added value and add them to an illustrious list.

This time, it could be you...

League I: Adam Saunders
League II: Mark Brassington
League III: David Meunier
League IV: Andy Brisland
League V: Trevor Myers
League VI: Mark Ranson
League VII: Tom Drew
League VIII: Trevor Ingman
League IX: Jamie Burland
League X: Tom Drew
League XI: Bob Bulman
League XII: ?

League XII can be located under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments in the tournament lobby. To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

iPOPS: $1,000,000 in Guarantees

2011-10-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

Start plucking the turkey and hanging up the stockings as Christmas has come early for Black Belt Poker players this year with our latest mouth-watering promotion: iPoker's Online Poker Series.

Starting November 28, iPOPS is a mini-series of four online tournaments that will see players fight it out for an incredible $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, including $500,000 for the Main Event.

The schedule is as follows:

Nov 28 -- $100+9 NLH six-max freezeout ($200K GTD)
Nov 30 -- $50+5 NLH turbo rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 02 -- $100+9 PLO six-max single rebuy ($150K GTD)
Dec 04 -- $125+10 NLH Main Event freezeout ($500K GTD)

If you are lucky to make the final 27 of the Main Event, then you will be whisked off to the Czech Republic where the tournament will play to a finish at the Corinthia Hotel in Prague. You'll also be playing alongside the first ever iPOPS Live Open, a €700+70 freezeout taking place on December 10-11.

With such huge guarantees, there's a very high chance that the iPOPS will boast overlays, in particular the Main Event which will require a hefty 4,000 entrants in order to reach the guarantee - the maths suggest that this could be yet another visit to Valuetown.

If the buy-ins put a strain on your bankroll, then don't fret, as Black Belt Poker are serving up satellites from as little as $0.1+$0.01, as well as the usual array of SNG qualifiers. And for those looking to play in the iPOPS Live Open, qualifiers are also available via the tournament lobby.

Don't miss out on this i-popping promotion!

Click here for more information.

Academy - PLO: The Action Game

2011-10-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

In less than a week's time, Black Belt Poker will be ambushing the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London for our penultimate Academy of the year. Scheduled for Saturday, October 22, the topic of discussion will be: PLO: The Action Game.

Although Hold'em may be the game of choice for many players, Omaha is quickly increasing in popularity as players go in search of a more action-packed game. As a result, there is a lot of value in Omaha, and our mentors will be on hand to teach you just how you can take advantage of all that value and become a winning Omaha player.

And who better to learn from than bracelet-winner Richard Ashby? An online pro with decades of Omaha experience, Richard has played at some of the highest stakes available, competing against many of the biggest names in the game including Phil Ivey, Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Patrik Antonius and Ilhari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies.

Richard will be joined by poker theorist and Bluff Europe Columnist Alex Rousso. Like many before him, Alex decided to make the transition from two cards to four, and has been making his living at the Omaha cash tables ever since. Armed with an in-depth knowledge of the game, Alex will take you through all the nuances of the four-card format, as well as ensuring you have the fundamentals in place to profit from what many believe to be the future of the game.

Very rarely will you be offered an intensive course in Pot Limit Omaha, but we're serving up that opportunity this Saturday with lectures, demonstrations, and workshops within smaller groups. Our mentors will also be happy to answer any questions or queries you might have.

"If this one doesn't get 25 people involved," commented Black Belt Poker co-founder Neil Channing, "then I really will wonder what people expect. To spend a day learning from one of the world's best for less than a hundred quid is amazing value."

Tickets cost a mere £99. If you would like to attend, then drop us an email as soon as possible at training@blackbeltpoker to discuss payment options and secure your seat. Alternatively, you can purchase a token in our Store under Live Events using Spending Points accrued at the Black Belt Poker tables.

See you there!

Jerome Bradpiece Finals WSOPE Event #3

2011-10-13T10:06:00.001-07:00

After four years in the English Capital, this week marked the debut of the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, a tourist hotspot in the French Riviera which also plays host to the hugely popular Partouche Poker Tour.

One player who pursued the WSOPE down the English Channel is Black Belt Poker pro Jerome Bradpiece. Having already cashed in Event #2, Jerome further lined his pockets with a final table finish in Event #3's Pot Limit Omaha freezeout, ultimately departing in fifth place for €57,912.

A respectable 180 stumped up the €5,300 entry fee, including a seemingly endless array of poker talent: Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius, Jason Mercier, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier and recent Hall of Fame nominee Barry Greenstein. But despite the esteemed opposition, Jerome finished Day 1 third in chips with 128,500, before surviving turbulent winds on Day 2 to make the final table in seventh place with 146,000.

The final lineup was tougher than a two-dollar steak with the likes of Ramzi Jelassi, Erich Kollmann, November Niner Eoghan O'Dea and Sam Trickett, the latter holding a mammoth chip lead with almost double that of Steve Billirakis in second. It was also an eclectic final, with Britain boasting the only duplicated flag.

After O'Dea seeped first blood in ninth, Jerome dispatched of Canadian Sam Chartier before climbing another two rungs when Kollmann and Konstantin Uspenskiy departed in seventh and sixth respectively.

With five remaining, Jerome was left as the short stack, but would enjoy a fortunate double-up after moving all in with Kh-Jh-Td-5d on a 7s-Js-Jd flop. Despite Trickett holding Ks-Kc-Jc-5c, Jerome snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when the As turn was pursued by a house-filling Tc river.

Those chips proved to be a temporary luxury, however, as Jerome doubled up American Billirakis shortly after, flat-calling a three-bet preflop with 6s-6h-2s-2h before open-shoving the Qs-8s-4c flop. Billirakis made the call with Ah-Ac-Th-7d and duly held firm on a harmless 8c turn and 3d river.

This setback left Jerome as the short stack once again, and upon returning from the dinner break, he moved his final chips in on a 9c-Kc-2s flop with Kd-Qc-Td-9d. Nemesis Billirakis' Jd-Tc-7c-3d improved to a flush and Jerome was forced to settle for fifth.

Although he later commented, "Cheers for the funk. I'm pretty gutted at the moment, but I'm sure I'll see the upside soon," this confirmed a return to form for the Brown Belt and former GUKPT Walsall Champion who has now cashed an impressive eight times since July for over $100,000, including a win in a London Calling Mini Festival side event in which girlfriend Sarah Berry finished in the runner-up spot.

In total, Jerome now has $602,502 in live tournament winnings, but makes his bread and butter online at Black Belt Poker where he plays Pot Limit Omaha cash, along with Black Belt Richard Ashby who had been railing him throughout the final. In this event, Jerome sold a small percentage of his action to a number of Black Belt Poker members, including Blue Belt Kevin Willams who'd shrewdly purchased a two percent share.

Following Jerome's demise, it was Billirakis who took top honours, adding to the gold he won in Vegas four years prior when he became the youngest bracelet-winner to date having only been above the minimum age for 11 days. Trickett, meanwhile, finished fourth and, like Jerome, will have to wait before adorning his wrist with a first bracelet win.

1st Steve Billirakis (United States) -- €238,140
2nd Michele Di Lauro (Italy) -- €147,171
3rd Ramzi Jelassi (Sweden) -- €105,937
4th Sam Trickett (United Kingdom) -- €77,642
5th Jerome Bradpiece (United Kingdom) -- €57,912
6th Konstantin Uspenskiy (Russia) -- €43,950
7th Erich Kollmann (Austria) -- €33,922
8th Samuel Chartier (Canada) -- €26,610
9th Eoghan O'Dea (Ireland) -- €21,221

The End Is Now; Bullseye for Bulman

2011-10-13T03:39:00.000-07:00

The eleventh Black Belt Poker League drew to an exciting close last night as four Merry Men secured their seat into the inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live in November. Not only do they receive buy-in to the $125+15 Main Event, but they'll automatically be entered into a last-longer with the last man standing (or sitting, rather) earning entry into the 2012 Black Belt London Live.

Heading into the final Leg, the top four was populated by Bob 'myteamouse' Bulman, Andy 'BoatDrink' Butcher, Nick 'nickhem1' Hemming, and Karl 'KBV1TALS' Briggs, and despite the chasing pack snapping at their heels like starved alligators, impressive performances from all four poker gladiators led to them holding firm to those spots and walking away with a star prize in their hands.

Although both 'nickhem1' and 'KBV1TALS' final-tabled (the latter losing the heads-up battle), the eighth and final leg was won by the debuting and fittingly named 'Th3End1sN1gh'. He defeated a super tough lineup to pick up the final bragging honours of League XI, as well as $81.61 in prize money.

Also notable in his presence was Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland, who had been running hotter than the sun following wins in both previous legs. Vying for a record-breaking third consecutive League win, Layland just missed out on an incredible feat by departing in third.

1st Th3End1sN1gh -- $81.61
2nd KBV1TALS -- $56.10
3rd Elysiumjay -- $34.42
4th stevegw -- $25.50
5th ChipRead77 -- $19.12
6th TheZartog -- $25.50
7th nickhem1 -- $12.75
8th sceaga2 -- $10.20
9th RykanShadow
10th UliKoko

The overall Champion - of whom will now also receive a personalised Black Belt Poker hoodie - was 'myteamouse'. He'd already sewn up his seat heading into the event, but finished in style with a highly credible 16th place finish.

1st myteamouse (614 points) -- Nottingham Live seat & personalised hoodie
2nd KBV1TALS (587 points) -- Nottingham Live seat
3rd BoatDrink (574 points) -- Nottingham Live seat
4th nickhem1 (571 points)-- Nottingham Live seat

Despite the final League standings and scores, there were a handful of players who were still in touching distance of a Nottingham Live seat, but ultimately fell the wrong side of Lady Luck. '1895IAIAN', for example, was a mere six points behind fourth place 'KBV1TALS' at the start of play, but a disappointing 39th place finish saw him slip into sixth.

5th MrDroodle (526 points) -- 600 Belt Points
6th 1894IAIN (526 points) -- 500 Belt Points
7th sceaga2 (522 points) -- 400 Belt Points
8th Elysiumjay (509 points) -- 300 Belt Points
9th tristiano (506 points) -- 200 Belt Points
10th stevegw (505 points) -- 100 Belt Points

A number of players were close, but no cigar, with poor 'RykanShadow' dropping from 9th to 11th, replaced in the top 10 by 'stevegw', whose second consecutive final table was just about enough to see him pick up some prize points at the death.

11th RykanShadow (500 points)
12th dajaroo (467 points)
13th mork1971 (453 points)
14th ourkidsid (441 points)
15th PaulFauret (438 points)
16th Touagorimou (435 points)
17th BoraBoraBoy (429 points)
18th lionrampant27 (423 points)
19th ACarey (421 points)
20th StakattakBBP (418 points)

With the Nottingham Live nearing, players flooded into this week's satellites in an effort to earn their seat at a reduced rate. Four players achieved that feat" Geoff 'G3OFF' Douglas, Barry 'JosseWales' Styles, 'AnthonyZuzs85' and 'jaws30'. Mulligan honours went to 'CreamfieldsAA'.

If you were unable to find momentum in League XI, then don't fear as League XII is just around the corner and will commence in three weeks time on Tuesday, November 1. Details of the event will be announced shortly.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - New League, New Records
Week 2 - Godlike Performance from Chaplin
Week 3 - And It Was All Yellow
Week 4 - Alan Steer to Victory
Week 5 - Winning With Fennesse-y
Week 6 - Elysiumjay Denies Golden Boy
Week 7 - Elysiumjay Does the Double

Elysiumjay Does the Double

2011-10-07T09:10:00.001-07:00

You've heard the saying: you wait ages for a bus then all of a sudden two come at the same time. Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland can empathise with that.

It wasn't exacly centuries ago, but the last time the Orange Belt tasted victory in the BBP League was back in Leg 8 of League IX. Since then, things haven't been going as well.

But then, last week, Lady Luck returned as he took down Leg 6 of our latest League. It seems she liked him so much, she decided to stick around for another week too!

On Tuesday night, Elysiumjay bested a field of 58 runners in the penultimate leg of League XI to win $92.80 and 83 points. That win has lifted him into 10th place in the overall standings.

Despite that, it's not all rosey. Jason is cursing at the moment because he missed Leg 5, which he says was due to "laptop failure". To have any chance of finishing within the top four spots, he is hoping for a big turn out in the eighth and final leg, as well as an unprecedented third win on the spin.

Yellow Belt Steve 'stevegw' Westcott vastly improved on last week's 30th place exit to finish second this time around. He picked up a $63.80, 75 points and is currently breathing down Elysiumjay's neck in 11th place.

Coming in third was Gary 'browndog0' Brown. The Orange Belt, who was absent last week, claimed $39.15 and 71 points. He is 35th in the overall standings with 312 points.

1st Elysiumjay -- $92.80
2nd stevegw -- $63.80
3rd browndog0 -- $39.15
4th 1894IAIN -- $29.00
5th Ourkid888 -- $21.75
6th uSayMrE -- $17.40
7th newrhino -- $14.50
8th S0lution -- $11.60
9th Snotterz -- $0.00
10th generalshifty -- $0.00

So, as we approach the final leg of League XI, 'myteamouse' still clings on to the top spot with a total of 578 points. The Orange Belt's 21st place exit for 39 points in Leg 7 was enough to keep him ahead of the chasing pack.

Yellow Belt Andy 'BoatDrink' Butcher remains second with 541 points. He edged a few points closer to 'myteamouse' after finishing in 15th for 44 points.

This week, third and fourth place swapped hands. After weeks of chasing, Nick 'nickhem1' Hemming finally leapt past 'KBV1TALS' after finishing 16th to claim 43 points. He is now third in the overall standings with 520 points. 'KBV1TALS', now fourth with 519 points, finished in 36th place for 24 points.

1st myteamouse -- 578 points
2nd BoatDrink -- 541 points
3rd nickhem1 -- 520 points
4th KBV1TALS - 519 points
5th 1895IAIN -- 513 points
6th Mrdroodle -- 485 points
7th tristiano -- 475 points
8th sceaga2 -- 474 points
9th RykanShadow -- 455 points
10th Elysiumjay -- 445 points

11th stevegw -- 445 points
12th dajaroo -- 439 points
13th ourkidsid -- 436 points
14th Touagorimou - 418 points
15th Ourkid888 -- 417 points
16th mork1971 -- 416 points
17th PaulFauret -- 398 points
18th StakattakBBP -- 397 points
19th ACarey -- 396 points
20th generalshifty -- 392 points

With Nottingham Live seats going to the top four finishers, this league has been hotly contested throughout. The current top four may have held those positions for most of League XI, but it's far, far from over. As history has proven, anything can happen, and there are still a few players that could creep in to snatch those coveted seats.

Join us again next Tuesday for the climax of League XI. Who will win those seats to our inaugural event in the East Midlands? Find out here on Black Belt Poker!

Previous reports:

Nottingham Live Bonuses: Last Chance Saloon

2011-10-05T04:55:00.000-07:00

With the Nottingham Live gracing the poker circuit in November, this month is your last chance to ascend the Belt-Up Rewards System and hit Dusk Till Dawn shores as one of our VIP players.

All entrants receive a minimum of $20 for every bounty eliminated, but if you play as an Orange Belt, you will receive our VIP package and earn a welcome $100 per bounty. What's more, we'll add an incredible 10% to any winnings!

To become Orange Belt, you need to reach the 500 Belt Points threshold before November 1. Your journey is dependent on numerous factors such as stakes, session length and playing style, but you should also take into account the potential for community points, as well as our one-month Belt Boost for new sign-ups.

If Orange Belt seems like a doodle, then you'll be pleased to know that we're offering a VIP Plus Package for anyone who hits Purple Belt or above. If you are Purple at the turn of the month, then bounties will earn you a hefty $250, with a juicy 20% added to all prizes.

At the 2011 London Live, Black Belt Poker paid out an additional $4,075, including $1,600 to third-place finisher and Green Belt Gareth Alder. Meanwhile, if Champion Peter Wigglesworth had been Purple or above, he would have earned an extra $3,204, excluding any bounties he may have despatched of along the way.

If you would like to follow in the footsteps of Gareth and ensure you take full advantage of all the benefits on offer in Nottingham, then be sure to hit the table over the next few weeks and start racking up the points, whether you're a brand new player, or a Black Belt Poker veteran.

In the meantime, signing up is easy: simply locate the tournament in Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments and select your preferred starting day.

The Black Belt Nottingham Live makes its debut this November 18-20 at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham. The event will be a $125+15 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout offering a deep blind and clock structure for an affordable price. Every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we hold satellites from as little as $3, with five seats guaranteed every week.

Click here for more information on our Belt-Up Rewards System.

Elysiumjay Denies Golden Boy

2011-09-29T03:54:00.000-07:00

The race to Nottingham heated up this Tuesday as 65 players took to the virtual felt for the sixth leg of the latest Black Belt Poker League. With the finishing line in sight, every decision was now vital, and could prove the difference between winning a free seat into the Black Belt Nottingham Live, or being forced to come up with the $125+15 entry fee via other means. Naturally, participants sought the former, and Leg 6 had the potential to separate the close-knit pack currently vying for a free ride.

After former Champion Andy 'RedKiteBlackBelt' Brisland snapped up the bubble, the final table was set, with 10 new faces from last week's line-up. Among them were first-time finalists, as well as debutants in the League.

One of those was 'GOLDENSOMBRE', who despite an incredible performance, wasn't quite able to mark his arrival with a win, ultimately succumbing to Orange Belt Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland at the death. Consequently, it was 'Elysiumjay' who picked up the $104.01 cheque.

1st Elysiumjay -- $104.01
2nd GOLDENSOMBRE -- $71.50
3rd rustypokerhead -- $43.87
4th SUGGADADDI -- $32.50
5th BoatDrink -- $24.37
6th BigClub1980 -- $19.50
7th insider66666 -- $16.25
8th Mrdroodle -- $13.00

194 players have competed in the League so far, and of them, it's 'myteamouse 'who holds firm at the top with 539 points after a credible 24th place finish. The other members of the top 10 seemed to merely shuffle around with the only new addition being 'MrDroodle'.

1st myteamouse -- 539 points
2nd BoatDrink -- 497 points
3rd KBV1TALS -- 495 points
4th nickhem1 -- 477 points
5th 1894IAIN -- 446 points
6th sceaga2 -- 444 points
7th Mrdroodle -- 443 points
8th tristiano -- 441 points
9th ourkidsid -- 434 points
10th RykanShadow -- 430 points

Breathing down their necks, however, are the following motley crew:

11th dajaroo -- 402 points
12th Touagorimou -- 390 points
13th mavperth -- 386 points
14th BoraBoraBoy -- 383 points
15th PaulFauret -- 380 points
16th mork1971 -- 378 points
17th Perseus10 -- 374 points
18th lionrampant27 -- 374 points
19th Essxhg -- 373 points
20th StakattakBBP -- 370 points

League XI is just one of many avenues into the Nottingham Live as we also run three satellites a week with buy-ins ranging from $3 to $20. On Monday, top dog was 'beatyouto' who secured his seat for $10.

1st beatyouto -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd ACarey -- $10.00
3rd blackbeltninja -- $6.00
4th daveyb15 -- $4.00

On Super Tuesday, he was followed by 'RedEyeJohnnyB', who became the second person to win a seat for just $3.

1st RedEyeJohnnyB -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd AlwaysMissing -- $36.50
3rd Pickwell73 -- $21.90
4th Snotterz -- $14.60

17 players turned up last night for the $20 satellite, with 'jcruickshank' and 'bally73' the two players picking up the guaranteed seats.

1st jcruickshank -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd bally73 -- Nottingham Live seat
3rd OUTTOBEATYOU1983 -- $30.00
4th discostu241 -- $18.00
5th slapdash1248 -- $12.00

Also last night, we hosted our weekly Deepstack Mulligan...

1st slapdash1248 -- $75.00
2nd Elysiumjay -- $45.00
3rd Snotterz -- $30.00

... preceded by the White Belt Freeroll which attracted a field of 126:

1st D0l14hyd3 -- $13.50
2nd Riverlady23 -- $8.00
3rd 1PedroMex -- $5.00
4th danderfluff -- $4.00
5th donielyons -- $3.50
6th daveyation -- $3.00
7th ourkidsid -- $2.50
8th FLYINGPROFISH -- $2.00
9th HERB1DIAN -- $1.50
10th DierDIKKKU -- $1.00

Finally, and perhaps the highlight of what has been an action-packed week, we witnessed the debut of a brand, spanking new Orange Belt Freeroll: The Barney Rubble. If offering a total of nine tournament tokens into the $10+1 $6,000 GTD MTT wasn't enough, Black Belt Poker have also agreed to double any winnings, meaning that if a player happens to take down the event, they could be in for a very handsome payday indeed.

About to set off on that adventure are the following three players:

1st JHobbit1 -- 5 tokens
2nd russellhansen -- 3 tokens
3rd LegendKing1 -- 1 token

Congratulations to all of this week's winners, and our thanks to those of you who participated in the festivities. If you're watching from the wings and would like to get involved, then signing up couldn't be easier: simply click here to donwload the software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Learn Omaha With Chufty

2011-09-28T07:51:00.000-07:00

This October, the Black Belt Poker Academy returns to Vic shores with its latest instalment of poker wisdom and game-tweaking. On this occasion, players will be invited to take their PLO game into the pit stop and allow our pros to turn them into well-oiled Omaha machines.

Although Hold'em may be the game of choice for many players, Omaha is quickly increasing in popularity as players go in search of a more action-packed game. As a result, there is a lot of value in Omaha, and our mentors will be on hand to explain how you can take advantage of all that value and become a winning Omaha player.

PLO: The Action Game takes place on Saturday, October 22 and will be hosted by professional Omaha cash game pro and Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso. Joining Alex will be Black Belt and Omaha specialist Richard 'Chufty' Ashby.

Richard - who was recently voted Best Mixed Games Player at the 2011 British Poker Awards - is one of the game's most talented Omaha players, and boasts experience at all levels, including the nosebleeds in which he took on world-renowned players such as Tom 'durrrr' Dwan and Ilhari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies at the highest stakes available online.

In 2010, Richard proved that he was equally adept at the tournament felt when he won bracelet-gold in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event for $140,467 at the WSOP. Just over a week later, he added a further $378,027 for second in the $10,000 HORSE Championship event. The following year, he made two more final tables for a combined $378,027.

For the incredible price of just £99, Alex and Richard will guide you through the ins-and-outs of life at the Omaha felt, covering a wide range of topics such as tournaments, polarity and playing short-stacks. The full schedule will be as follows:

- Introduction: The Action Game
- Two PLO concepts: Domination & Duplication
- Workshop: Full-Ring Games
- Two PLO Concepts: Nuttiness & Polarity
- Workshop: Six-Max Games
- Watch the pro: Chufty
- Workshop: Short-Stackers - How to Deal with Them & How to Be One
- Workshop: Tournament PLO
- Final session: Watch the Pro / Live Hand Analysis

To secure your ticket for Saturday's event, or any future Academy, please drop us an email at training@blackbeltpoker.com to discuss payment options. Alternatively, you can purchase a token in the Black Belt Poker Store under Live Events.

If anyone knows anything about 'Action' and 'Omaha', it's Richard, and he'll be on hand to share his secrets through demonstrations and workshops. Don't miss out on what is a unique opportunity to hear from one of the best, about a game many predict as being the future of poker.

Winning With Fennesse-y

2011-09-21T06:04:00.000-07:00

This week's League winner was a familiar face to the Vegas 11.

Earlier in the year, Sean 'Snotterz' Fennessey won one of 30 guaranteed seats in iPoker's mega WSOP satellite, and so joined fellow Black Belt Poker qualifiers Greg Moore and Jeremy Rickard in the Main Event in Vegas.

In a one-off deal unique to Black Belt Poker, if any of our qualifiers finished in the money, we'd buy them into next year's Main Event as an added bonus. Although Greg Moore achieved that feat - ultimately finishing 157th for $54,851 - Sean was close, but no cigar when he departed on Day 3.

However, he's bounced back with a vengeance in this week's Super Tuesday to snap up Leg 5 of League XI for $114.00. In the process, he overcame 75 others, including 'nickhem1' and 'mork1971', both of whom were enjoying their second League final table in as many weeks.

1st Snotterz -- $114.00
2nd Touagorimou -- $76.00
3rd JosseWales -- $47.50
4th Werrrrd -- $36.10
5th UliKoko -- $28.50
6th mork1971 -- $22.80
7th Ourkid888 -- $19.00
8th nickhem1 -- $15.20
9th sprinterz -- $11.40
10th SUGGADADDI -- $9.50

Sean's triumph didn't enable him to break into the top 10, those honours instead being left to 'sceaga2' and 'dajaroo' whose 16th and 13th place finishes were enough to see them to sneak into the prize spots.

At the top, 'myteamouse' remains on his throne despite a disappointing (by his high standards) 31st, whilst 'KBV1TALS' has closed the gap to just 10 points after being eliminated in 15th.

By this stage, the men are usually being sorted from the boys, but there is still a ferocious battle going on for those two other Nottingham Live seats. 'Nickhem1''s second 8th place finish means he jumps to 3rd, whilst 'ourkidsid', 'RykanShadow', 'tristiano' and '1894IAIN' are all still in contention.

1st myteamouse -- 497 points
2nd KBV1TALS -- 487 points
3rd nickhem1 -- 436 points
4th BoatDrink -- 426 points
5th 1894IAIN -- 414 points
6th tristiano -- 403 points
7th dajaroo -- 401 points
8th RykanShadow -- 396 points
9th sceaga2 -- 393 points
10th ourkidsid -- 388 points

With the top four failing to pull away, and three legs still remaining, it's still feasible for the chasing pack to enjoy a late surge and win free entry into the Nottingham Live, as well as a last-longer for the London Live.

11th Mrdroodle -- 381 points
12th Essxhg -- 359 points
13th BoraBoraBoy -- 354 points
14th Perseus10 -- 353 points
15th StakattakBBP -- 346 points
16th mavperth -- 343 points
17th Ourkid888 - 341 points
18th Touagorimo -- 341 points
19th PaulFauret -- 336 points
20th stevegw -- 334 points

60 minutes after the starting whistle blew for the League, the latest Nottingham Live satellite commenced with 22 players battling it out for that one guaranteed seat. He may have enjoyed League glory, but Snotterz picked up the wooden spoon on this occasion, tree-topping honours being left to Nick 'Penfold666' Mazur who became the first player to secure a trip to Dusk Till Dawn for just $3.

1st NPenfold666 -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd ACarey -- $8.00
3rd Pickwell73 -- $4.80
4th BigClub1980 -- $3.20

The day prior, the $10 satellite enjoyed a small, but valuable overlay as just 13 players took a shot. The eventual winner was Purple Belt Chris 'seven7777777s' Brider, whilst poor 'discostu241' will be forced to return to The Simpsons empty-handed after bubbling in second.

Tonight is another feast of poker action as both the $15+1.5 Deepstack Mulligan and the $20+2 Nottingham Live satellite (two seats guaranteed) hit our virtual screens, simultaneously kicking off at 8.30.

Also, for those of you who have been Tangoed, don't forget that at 8pm we're serving another Orange Belt Freeroll to tickle your palette. Tonight's event is our 'Slice of the Action' Freeroll with four lucky winners receiving shares in Sam Razavi's EPT London venture.

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Previous reports:

Week 1 - New League, New Records
Week 2 - Godlike Performance from Chaplin
Week 3 - And It Was All Yellow
Week 4 - Alan Steer to Victory

Koddzilla's Carps; Your Black Belt Needs You

2011-09-19T05:07:00.001-07:00

Aussie Millions finalist and UKIPT Champion Sam Razavi is giving Black Belt Poker members the unique opportunity to play the inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live for free.

The Nottingham Live is a $50,000 guaranteed No Limit Hold'em event, scheduled for November 18-20 at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club. For just $125+15, players get to play a deep-stacked, added value, fun-filled event with Belt bonuses and pro bounties of up to $250.

As a Black Belt in the Belt-Up Rewards System, Sam receives $10,000 a month in live tournament backing, and now he's giving you the chance to be a sponsored player for a day. Instead of 50-50 with make-up, his terms are 50-50 with costume (exc. Belt Bonuses).

This means that you can become a sponsored player just by wearing a silly costume. It can be a pirate, Freddy Krueger, Little Bo Peep, whatever tickles your fancy. You may even choose to play as one of Nottingham's most celebrated icons, Robin Hood, or, better yet, Maid Marian.

Sam is a professional heads-up cash player, who plays under the moniker 'KODDZILLA'. In 2010, he won an Aussie Millions package via the Black Belt Poker Grading, and went on to finish sixth for €225,000. It didn't end there, as just a few months later, he became the UKIPT Cork Champion, winning a further €71,000.

The Nottingham Live is all about value, and Koddzilla's Carps will get to keep 100 percent of any Belt Bonuses or bounties, but this will also be a plus EV tournament for charity as Sam has kindly agreed to donate his 50 percent of the winnings from the Carps to Cancer Research, the UK's leading cancer charity.

"At the London Live, I had to walk into the Vic looking like a tube of toothpaste with a bright, white judo suit," laughed Sam. "It's about time others share the humiliation. So, whichever nine players suggest the most ridiculous costumes, they'll have the honour of being one of my prize Carps."

"It's about time the fish rose to the the top, but it'll be for a good cause if they do. 50 percent is going to Cancer Research, who are the world's leading charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Hopefully all my nine Carps can make the final and we'll help save even more."

Anyone who wishes to participate will need to submit their request to snoopy@blackbeltpoker.com, along with details of what costume they intend to wear. In four weeks time, on Monday, October 17, Sam will announce the nine players who have been selected. Those players will then become Kodzilla's Carps and compete in Day 1B of the Nottingham Live as one of Sam's sponsored players.

Alan Steers to Victory in Leg 4

2011-09-15T10:07:00.001-07:00

This week, Super Tuesday returned for another thrilling night of poker festivities as the Black Belt Poker League reached its halfway point. Leg 4 attracted 80 runners in all, many of whom were still in with a chance of mounting a late attack on the league standings.

With Andrew 'thehingster' Hingston bubbling in eleventh, we were left with our final table and a completely different lineup to last week… except for one man: Bob 'myteamouse' Bulman, who impressed yet again with a fifth place finish to go with his victory seven days prior.

On this occasion, the podium ceremony was left to the following trio of attendees: 'bagpussrocks', '1894IAIN' and, finally, Alan 'tealcSVU' Steer, who (ahem) steered to victory for a $120.00 payday.

1st tealcSVU -- $120.00
2nd 1894IAIN -- $80.00
3rd bagpussrocks -- $50.00
4th Essxhg -- $38.00
5th myteamouse -- $30.00
6th RykanShadow -- $24.00
7th BoraBoraBoy -- $20.00
8th nickhem1 -- $16.00
9th mork1971 -- $12.00
10th eixip50 -- $10.00

Myteammouse's consecutive final table appearances means that he extends his lead at the top and now sits on a healthy 451 points, 26 ahead of his nearest competitor. The top three remain the same, perhaps suggesting that the most competitive battle will be the one for that fourth Dusk Till Dawn seat. Currently, several players are in contention including 'nickhem1', 'RykanShadow' and '1894IAN', who replaced Leg 2 winner 'tristiano' in fourth after his third place finish.

1st myteamouse -- 451 points
2nd KBV1TALS -- 425 points
3rd BoatDrink -- 383 points
4th 1894IAIN -- 367 points
5th nickhem1 -- 363 points
6th tristiano -- 353 points
7th ourkidsid -- 351 points
8th RykanShadow -- 341 points
9th Mrdroodle -- 339 points
10th Perseus10 -- 338 points

Also still in with a shout of snapping up a star prize and securing one of four seats into the inaugural Nottingham Live are the following motley crew, including serial Leg winner Mike 'sceaga2' Shaw:

11th dajaroo -- 337 points
12th sceaga2 -- 332 points
13th stevegw -- 332 points
14th PaulFauret -- 328 points
15th StakattakBBP -- 323 points
16th Essxhg -- 323 points
17th BoraBoraBoy -- 310 points
18th Ste4dy3ddie -- 303 points
19th paul6543 -- 302 points
20th mavperth 298 points

For those wondering what happened to the Mulligan… it's been moved, to 8.30pm every Wednesday. This week, top honours when to 'mutesuperstar'... who refused an interview.

1st mutesuperstar -- $90.00
2nd paul6543 -- $54.00
3rd bagpussrocks -- $36.00

Throughout the week, we've also been hosting Nottingham Live satellites, where players can qualify for the year's most fun-filled poker event for as little as $3. Monday's $10 freezeout was won by the curiously named 'SKULLMANglobal'…

1st SKULLMANglobal -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd ujokingme -- $60.00
3rd retxabam -- $36.00
4th plusEVldn -- $24.00

… whilst Tuesday's $3 rebuy saw Kevin 'S0lution' Birt lap up a seat for just $9 with fourth place finisher 'MajorMustard' almost achieving the feat without the need for a rebuy.

1st S0lution -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd Snotterz -- $35.00
3rd ACarey -- $21.00
4th MajorMustard -- $14.00

Then, one day later, 13 players turned up to compete for a further two spots. With two seats guaranteed, the event boasted a nice little overlay, and once again showcased the value on offer. 'Brigal19' and 'Touagorimou' were the welcome recipients.

1st brigal19 -- Nottingham Live seat
2nd Touagorimou -- Nottingham Live seat

Finally, congratulations to former Grader Andy 'RedKiteBlackBelt' Brisland for besting a field of 133 to take down last night's White Belt Freeroll. Tonight sees $100 added to the Yellow Belt Freeroll, so don't miss out.

And that's a wrap, folks, for another week. Join us again next time for what should be another hectic week of pokers, including Leg 5 of the League, three Nottingham Live satellites, the Yellow and White Belt Freerolls, the Deepstack Mulligan and our 'Slice of the Action' Orange Belt Freeroll in which the winners will receive a piece of Sam Razavi's action in the London EPT.

He won four Orange Belts over $16,000 last time - could be worth a go…

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.Previous reports:

Week 1 - New League, New Records
Week 2 - Godlike Performance from Chaplin in Leg 2
Week 3 - And It Was All Yellow

Play Nottingham Live for Free

2011-09-13T09:41:00.001-07:00

Falling short in the satellites? Propping up the table in the League? Don't quite have enough points to purchase a token? If you tick those boxes, then don't fret, as we're offering you yet another way of securing your seat at the inaugural Black Belt Nottingham Live with our Nottingham Live Freeroll.

Just days after announcing the 'Barney Rubble', the Nottingham Live Freeroll will replace Merchandise Madness for the months of September and October as the fourth Orange Belt Freeroll, taking place on the first week of the month.

For no buy-in fee whatsoever, players will get to battle it out over the virtual felt for two juicy Nottingham Live packages worth $250 and $200 respectively, meaning that not only will you win the $125+15 buy-in, but you'll also have some spending money to boot.

The Black Belt Nottingham Live takes place on November 18-20 at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham, offering players a deep-stacked and fun-filled event at an affordable price. As well as Belt bonuses and bounties, Black Belt Poker have guaranteed a $50,000 prize pool.

This is your chance to play for free!

The Nottingham Live Freeroll is exclusive to Orange and Purple Belts. To enter, simply locate the tournament in the Black Belt Poker client under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments. The first event will take place at 8pm on Wednesday, September 5.

"I heard once that poker players like free stuff," commented Black Belt Neil Channing, "This is a perfect example of how we like to give away free stuff to our players, as well an opportunity to play in what I'm confident will be the most fun live event of the year."

If you're a White or Yellow Belt and wondering how you can take advantage of this incredible value, then all you have to do is work your way up to Orange Belt by the turn of the month. Even if you've never deposited a dime, it's not to late to hit Orange. For more information, check out our Belt-Up Rewards System now.

See here for information on all Orange Belt Freerolls.

No Cigar for Docherty & Burland

2011-09-13T08:06:00.001-07:00

Black Belt Poker were once again out in full force this weekend, with the majority of troops marching to Dublin to tackle the latest stop of the UKIPT and vie for the final title before October's Grand Final.

A mere 718 flocked to the Ballsbridge Inn, including flag-fliers Kevin Williams, Tom Drew, Joe Roberts and Cork Champion Sam Razavi. They all hit the deck prior to the money, leaving David Docherty and Andy Miles to cover the front line.

Although Andy was stretchered off in 31st for €1,530, David gave his best war cry and charged all the way to the final table, armed with 958,000 (sixth in chips) and the chance of becoming Black Belt Poker's third UKIPT Champion to date.

David was wounded early on when he clashed with chip leader Jason Tompkins. On a four-way flop of Qc-7s-4s, David flat-called a c-bet of 180,000, and then 244,000 on the Kd turn, before folding to an all-in on the 8h river.

Down to 660,000, David became the first casualty of the day when he moved over the top of Joeri Zandvliet's open of 82,000 with Ah-Jc. The Dutchman made the call with 8h-8s which stood firm on an uneventful 9s-6d-9h-Qc-7h board to send the Scottish pro back to base.

This pot catapulted Zandvliet into a commanding lead. He went on to become the last man standing, capturing his second UKIPT title - after winning last year's Manchester leg - not to mention the small matter of the €83,500 treasure chest. David, meanwhile, was forced to settle for a consolidatory €8,000.

"I'm pretty gutted to be honest," confessed David. "I was feeling very confident this morning despite being one of the shorter stacks. It sucks to bust in eighth and I do feel like I could have done one or two things differently, but ultimately you have to win some showdowns anyway. If I win the flip against Joeri, I have 1.2 million and overtake him in chips. That would have been a big momentum switch, but it wasn't to be on this occasion."

1st Joeri Zandvliet (Netherlands) -- €83,500
2nd Chuck Fabian (USA) -- €49,600
3rd Robert Csire (Hungary) -- €22,650
4th Max Silver (United Kingdom) -- €22,650
5th Jason Tompkins (Ireland) -- €17,600
6th Noel O'Brien (Ireland) -- €13,950
7th Roy Curtis (United Kingdom) -- €10,450
8th David Docherty (United Kingdom) -- €8,000

On the other side of the Irish Sea and deep in the heart of the East Midlands, fellow Vegas 8 member Jamie Burland was also enjoying a deep run and final table appearance, this time in the Sky Poker Tour Grand Final.

A respectable 374 stumped up the £200+20 buy-in fee before taking their seats at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham alongside the likes of Carlo Citrone, Ian Frazer and Tony 'tikay' Kendall.

Jamie made the final with 20 big blinds, but suffered the same fate as David when he was snipered down in eighth. He received £1,712 for his efforts.

1st James Williams -- £22,264
2nd Astel Cowan -- £13,015
3rd Kristian Downer -- £7,809
4th Alan Jenkinson -- £5,480
5th Saifon Lambe -- £4,110
6th Daniel Green -- £3,082
7th Sian Dyson -- £2,397
8th Jamie Burland -- £1,712
9th Richard Beauchamp -- £1,370

And so ended a weekend of close-but-no-cigar moments for Black Belt Poker; we advanced to the nitty-gritty, but were unable to get our mitts on the big bucks. But the road is long, and as another tournament closes, another one opens. Next mission: Operation EPT London.

Barney Rubble Up With BBP's New Freeroll

2011-09-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

This month, Black Belt Poker have decided to introduce a brand spanking new tournament to the current schedule of Orange Belt Freerolls.

Making its debut on Wednesday, September 28, the Barney Rubble will give Orange Belts the opportunity to win some cold, hard cash without having to stump up a single cent.

For the grand entry fee of zero, players will compete for an incredible 9 tokens into the weekday $6,000 Guaranteed $10+1 freezeout at 7.30pm. The winner will receive 5 tokens, second 3, and third 1.

If that wasn't enough value to shake a stick at, if you cash in the tournament after entering with one of our tokens, we'll double your prize. Whether it's a min-cash or a first place payday, we'll match that figure!

They say that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably isn't, but on this occasion, it really is as good as it sounds! All you have to do is make the money and drop us an email so we can confirm the results and credit your account with however much you cashed for.

The Barney Rubble will temporarily replace the Enlightenment Freeroll, and take place on the fourth week of every month, at 8pm.

The Orange Belt Freerolls have been hugely popular with over 50 players consistently participating each week. In May, our three Slice of the Action freeroll winners received in excess of $16,000 courtesy of Sam Razavi who won UKIPT Cork. The Barney Rubble is your chance to join the ever-increasing list of players who have turned a small investment into thousands of dollars courtesy of Black Belt Poker.

The Barney Rubble is exclusive to Orange and Purple Belts. To enter, simply locate the tournament in the Black Belt Poker client under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments. Registration is absolutely free.

With our Nottingham Live VIP packages for our higher Belts, the Barney Rubble freeroll is yet another reason why you should be aiming to go that extra step and turn your Yellow Belt into an Orange one. The present and future are bright, and they're both Orange!

And It Was All Yellow

2011-09-08T07:28:00.001-07:00

When Coldplay sang: 'And it was all yellow,' they must have been referring to Black Belt Poker's League XI - with three legs done and dusted, the top six in the League Standings are all of the Yellow Belt variety.

In fact, Leg 3 winner was Yellow Belt and unknown entity 'myteamouse'. He bettered a field of 110 that included a host of familiar, and rather scary faces, as well as Blue Belts Simon 'AlwaysMissing' Mairs, who 'missed' in 96th, and Brown Belt Sam 'KODDZILLA' Razavi, who escaped the wooden spoon by just one place in 109th.

Instead, the pokers were left to the likes of regulars Carey 'CareybearBBP' Hollick, Darren 'TheZartog' Meredith and Andy 'Mrdroodle' Erskine, all of whom spiked the final table for the umpteenth time. Above them, 'PaulFauret' finished third, whilst runner-up honours were left to 'beltdarkjf' who succumbed to eventual winner 'myteamous'. The reward? $148.50 and 135 juicy league points.

1st myteamouse -- $148.50
2nd beltdarkjf -- $88.00
3rd PaulFauret -- $55.00
4th Mrdroodle -- $44.00
5th rattersbrfc -- $38.50
6th dajaroo -- $33.00
7th 2LAMCHOP2 -- $27.50
8th TheZartog -- $22.00
9th CareybearBBP -- $16.50
10th Loukas1977 -- $11.00
11th kkklwubu2 -- $6.60
12th AngelVickie48 -- $6.60
13th lcm54 -- $6.60
14th Wally19 -- $6.60
15th 1894IAIN -- $6.60
16th DididavidBEL09 -- $6.60
17th KBV1TALS -- $6.60
18th PKRLocke -- $6.60
19th Touagorimou -- $6.60
20th MullionWoman -- $6.60

And those 135 points were just enough to see myteamouse capture the overall lead, with the ever-consistent 'KBVITALS' just one sole point behind after completing a hattrick of top 20 finishes. Behind them, Andy 'BoatDrink' Butcher slips into third, despite bubbling Tuesday's Leg.

1st myteamouse -- 365 points
2nd KBV1TALS -- 364 points
3rd BoatDrink -- 346 points
4th tristiano -- 319 points
5th dajaroo -- 318 points
6th stevegw -- 315 points
7th ourkidsid -- 304 points
8th Ste4dy3ddie -- 303 points
9th PKRLocke -- 287 points
10th nickhem1 -- 286 points

Just a few points separate the next batch, which includes Leg 1 winner 'jymjam' (who was mysteriously absent this week) and 'Ste4dy3ddie' who has lived up to his name with finishing positions of 10th, 43rd and 24th. Currently seated in that fourth Nottingham Live seat spot, however, is last week's champ Tristan 'tristiano' Chaplin, who although dropped a place this week, is still in a strong position after a credible 27th place exit.

11th Mrdroodle -- 285 points
12th Perseus -- 272 points
13th 1894IAIN -- 270 points
14th sceaga2 -- 267 points
15th paul6543 -- 264 points
16th PaulFauret -- 260 points
17th RykanShadow -- 258 points
18th doochats -- 255 points
19th StakattakBBP -- 254 points
20th mavperth -- 254 points

There are still five legs remaining, so be sure to watch out for these three pokateers too:

21st lcm54 -- 252 points
23rd jymjam -- 252 points
27th CareybearBBP -- 235 points

Normally, this is the point where I say that the Mulligan followed 60 minutes later, but this week, we increased that delay to 24 hours and experimented with a debuting Wednesday Mulligan. 20 runners didn't quite match the record-breaking 42 of two weeks prior, but it created a cool $150.00 first prize, which went to Paul 'paul6543' Romain.

1st paul6543 -- $150.00
2nd ourkidsid -- $90.00
3rd nickhem1 -- $60.00

The results of this week's Nottingham Live satellites are also in. Four more seats were created, two of which were snapped up by former League Champions. Congratulations to all the winners; we look forward to seeing you at DTD in November.

Monday, $10 freezeout (23 runners) :

1st RedKiteBlackBelt -- $140.00
2nd seven7777777s -- $45.00
3rd daveyb15 -- $27.00
4th jfdiwins -- $18.00

Tuesday, $3 rebuy (33 runners)

1st JHobbit1 -- Nottingham Live Seat
2nd Touagorimou -- $50.80
3rd ujokingme -- $31.75
4th losbert40 -- $20.32
5th myteamouse -- $13.97
6th ChipRead77 -- $10.16

Wednesday, $20 freezeout (15 runners)

1st UliKoko -- Nottingham Live Seat
2nd BLAPOFISH -- Nottingham Live Seat
3rd plusEVldn -- $10.00

Super Tuesday returns next Tuesday for more poker fun and frolics… but will the League remain "all yellow"? In 'Clocks', Coldplay sang: 'Curse missed opportunities' - check out our schedule so you won't be cursing your missed opportunities next week:

Monday, Sep 12 (8.30pm) -- $10+1 Nottingham Live satellite freezeout, one seat guaranteed
Tuesday, Sep 13 (7.30pm) -- League XI, Leg 4: $5+0.50 No Limit Hold'em freezeout
Tuesday, Sep 13 (8.30pm) -- $3+0.30 Nottingham Live satellite rebuy, one seat guaranteed
Wednesday, Sep 14 (8.00pm) -- White Belt $50 Freeroll
Wednesday, Sep 14 (8.00pm) -- Orange Belt Freeroll: Season Ticket Giveaway
Wednesday, Sep 14 (8.30pm) -- $20+2 Nottingham Live satellite freezeout, two seats guaranteed
Wednesday, Sep 14 (8.30pm) -- Deepstack Mulligan: $15+1.5 No Limit Hold'em freezeout
Thursday, Sep 15 (8.00pm) -- Yellow Belt $50 Freeroll

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.Previous reports:

Week 1 - New League, New Records
Week 2 - Godlike Performance from Chaplin in Leg 2

BBP Win Two British Poker Awards

2011-09-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

It's rare that salivating poker enthusiasts and hordes of scantily clad models share the same air without a pole in the vicinity, but this past weekend, that unlikely encounter marked the fifth outing for Poker in the Park, the world's largest poker festival and hotspot for curvaceous beauties.

With Leicester Square undergoing a makeover and off limits, Hanover Square in the heart of Monopoly's most wallet-emptying property provided the temporary abode, with Starbucks picking up the unwitting toilet duties from Burger King and ensuring that purchases from the bar found a legal and non-grassy home.

As always, attendees were treated to an array of activities, such as tuition, freerolls, heads-up, chess and mahjong, whilst a festival stage formed the centrepiece with live music, card magic and the highly-crowd-pleasing Indian poker. Meanwhile, the lecture tent returned once more, housing talks from several Black Belt Poker pros including Nik Persaud, Neil Channing, Sam Razavi and the artist formerly known as 'Mr. G-Bucks', Kevin Williams.

On the Sunday afternoon, comedian Lucy Porter joined forces with Bluff Europe editor-in-chief Michael Caselli to host the 2011 British Poker Awards, a celebration of "the players who have done us so proud on the world stage", as well the bloggers, social media users and poker leagues that "have kept us entertained through a challenging year in poker."

At the start of the year, our Black Belts conferred over Mission Trophy Cabinet, agreeing that Sam Razavi would take over brick and mortar duties (see UKIPT Cork, May '11), whilst messieurs Ashby and Channing sacrificed podium-topping to take home silverware from PITP V. They achieved that goal with two illustrious titles: Best Mixed Game Player and Best Blogger.

"Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who voted for me," commented Channing humbly. "I have written the blog for seven years now and, generally, I love to write it - I'm just glad people still want to read it. I haven't won anything for ages, so it's nice to get something for the trophy cabinet."

Also leaving with hand-luggage were Sam Trickett, Chris Moorman, JP Kelly, Vicky Coren, Jake Cody, and Kara Scott, as well as the collective forces behind Two Plus Two and Champion Poker League. Meanwhile, Jason Mercier opted not to travel across the Atlantic to accept his award for Best International Player, whilst John Duthie pipped Neil for 'Best Contribution to Poker', despite the latter continual donations to opponent's pockets.

Over the two days, Black Belt Poker had a strong presence, both in and out of the limelight, as many community members made the jaunt to show their support and taste the delights on offer. Showered with seven nominations, it wasn't quite the clean sweep we were optimistically searching for, but the two titles were warmly received and with Neil's Irish Open trophy looking a bit worn, certainly gives us something else to buff on a rainy Sunday.

Our appreciation goes out to everyone who cast their vote Black Belt Poker's way; we look forward to thanking you in person at the inaugural Nottingham Live…

Nottingham Live: Giving It Away

2011-08-30T09:49:00.001-07:00

Fireworks are set to fly this November as the Black Belt Nottingham Live makes its hotly anticipated debut in the East Midlands, home of Robin Hood.

And like the Nottingham swordsman, we're going to be 'giving it away' by serving up an array of sumptuous Belt Bonuses for you to feast upon.

Despite a slimmer buy-in of $125+15, we've decided to echo the bonus packages from the London Live, meaning that we're once again adding up to 20% on all cash prizes and $250 on the heads of our soon-to-be announced bounties.

All players have the option of entering the tournament armed with one of three of the following packages:

Standard Package
Yellow Belts
$20 for eliminating a bounty

VIP Package
Orange Belts
$100 for eliminating a bounty
10% added to all prizes

VIP Plus Package
Purple Belts (and above)
$250 for eliminating a bounty
20% added to all prizes

To see how you can reach each Belt Level and take advantage of the value on offer, check out our Belt-Up Rewards System. To qualify for a package, you must be the relevant Belt colour on the day of the tournament.

To register for the event, you can either buy in directly by locating the tournament in Scheduled > London Live > Nottingham Live Day 1A/1B or, alternatively, purchase a token from the Black Belt Poker Store using Spending Points.

If you don't already have an account, then opening one is easy: simply download the poker client and follow the step-by-step process provided.

We're also hosting weekly satellites on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8.30pm. For as little as $3, you can secure your seat into the Main Event and enjoy one of the best-structured, affordable and fun-filled events on the poker calendar.

So, what are you waiting for? Start targeting that next Belt Level for your chance to become Sheriff of Valuetown.

BBP Academy: Cash Is King

2011-08-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

"MTTs for show, cash for dough," and in just one week's time, we'll be showing you how you can get your hands on some of that dough in our latest Black Belt Poker Academy: Cash Is King.

For the incredible price of just £99, our team of expert coaches will guide you through the ins-and-outs of life at the cash felt, covering a wide range of topics such as player identification, dealing with short-stackers, and how to play a deep-stack against tough opponents.

The Academy will hit Vic Casino shores this Saturday, September 3, with poker theorist Alex Rousso leading the way. Joining him on the flanks will be World Heads-Up Champion Nik Persaud, as well as Black Belt Sam Razavi.

Although Sam may have stolen the spotlight with his recent UKIPT Cork title, he is also an established online cash game pro having been a winning cash game player for the last several years. Late last year, he was one of just two winners of Grading III, where players were assessed on their cash game play over a four-week period.

If you want to follow in Sam's footstep, then be sure to book your seat for Cash Is King.

To secure your ticket for Saturday's event, or any future Academy, please drop us an email at training@blackbeltpoker.com to discuss payment options. Alternatively, you can purchase a token in the Black Belt Poker Store under Live Events.

As Neil himself said: "One day's intensive tuition to take your cash game to the next level for 99 quid. You can't say fairer than that."

Turn a Little into a Nottingham Live Seat

2011-08-26T10:16:00.000-07:00

A popular rock band may have sang about the "cold November rain", but this Fall we're inviting you to spend three days under the warmth of the Dusk Till Dawn roof with the hotly anticipated Black Belt Nottingham Live.

It'll still be raining indoors, but raining value as we serve up the usual array of bounties, Belt bonuses and a guaranteed $50,000 prize pool, all for the snap-call, bargain price of $125+15!

The Nottingham Live offers players the unique opportunity to turn a little into a lotto, but from Monday, August 29, you'll have the chance to qualify for even less with our weekly satellites.

Not only can you qualify for as little as $3, but we're also guaranteeing an incredible four seats into the Main Event, regardless of runners.

The full satellite schedule is as follows:

$10+1 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout
Mondays, 8.30pm, 1 seat guaranteed into Nottingham Live

$3+0.3 No Limit Hold'em Rebuy/Add-on
Tuesdays, 8.30pm, 1 seat guaranteed into Nottingham Live

$20+1 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout
Wednesdays, 8.30pm, 2 seats guaranteed into Nottingham Live

All the above satellites are now available for registration in the online cardroom lobby. If you don't already have an account, then opening one is easy: simply download the poker software and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Alternatively, you can purchase a token via the Black Belt Poker Store. To use Spending Points, sign in to the online community, select Store and find your chosen satellite in the Online Tourney Tokens tab

To register for the Nottingham Live, you can either buy in directly by locating the tournament in Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments >Nottingham Live Day 1A/1B or by purchasing a token from the Black Belt Poker Store.

Don't forget that League XI continues this Tuesday with four winners over the eight legs receiving free entry into the Nottingham Live. With just one leg in the bag, it's not to late for you to compete for one of those fantastic prizes and secure you seat in the most exciting event of the year.

New League, New Records

2011-08-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, and it's a new league as a record-breaking 159 turn up for the hotly anticipated opening leg of League XI, shattering the previous record of 132 to make this the largest field in Black Belt Poker League history.

The field was a melting pot of talent with Black Belts Neil Channing and Sam Razavi mixing it up with the likes of Jamie Burland, Owen Robinson, Andy Miles, Gareth Alder and the only son-and-father combo (that we know of…), Warren Wooldridge and Papa 'Bambury' Wooldridge. On this occasion, senior bettered junior by 48 places.

Despite a gaggle of former League Champions, performances were lacklustre as League II winner Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington was the best of the best with a disappointing 53rd. With reigning Champion Tom 'Werrrrd' Drew absent without leave, early signs suggest we may have a brand new King of the Poker Castle.

The early pacesetter is mystical entity 'jymjam', who defeated the equally enigmatic KBV1TALS heads-up to claim the $214.65 prize. Also on the final table were familiar faces Andy 'BoatDrink' Butcher, Simon 'ourkidsid' Herrick and Mark 'SebastianKat' Cooper, whilst poor Simon 'TheSimian' Morris was the bubble boy in 21st.

1st jymjam -- $214.65
2nd KBV1TALS -- $127.20
3rd BoraBoraBoy -- $79.50
4th doochats -- $63.60
5th BoatDrink -- $55.65
6th ourkidsid -- $47.70
7th SebastianKat -- $39.75
8th stevegw -- $31.80
9th lcm54 -- $23.85
10th Ste4dy3ddie -- $15.90
11th disciple999 -- $9.54
12th chillisaucemayo -- $9.54
13th donielyons -- $9.54
14th FlaxseedGoji -- $9.54
15th FlopTheNuts -- $9.54
16th LuckyJJhazan -- $9.54
17th sceaga2 -- $9.54
18th dajaroo -- $9.54
19th browndog0 -- $9.54
20th Essxhg -- $9.54

After just one outing, it doesn't take Stephen Hawking to calculate the League Standings…

1st jymjam -- 184 points
2nd KBV1TALS -- 176 points
3rd BoraBoraBoy -- 172 points
4th doochats -- 168 points
5th BoatDrink -- 165 points
6th ourkidsid -- 162 points
7th SebastianKat -- 159 points
8th stevegw -- 156 points
9th lcm54 -- 153 points
10th Ste4dy3ddie -- 151 points

The Deepstack Mulligan is a $15+1.5 deep-stacked event that follows the League each week at 8.30pm. As with the League, the Mulligan also enjoyed record-breaking numbers, peaking at 42 and creating a prize pool of $630.

The recipient of the lion's share was former Grader Carey 'CareybearBBP' Hollick. She post-pipped Ian 'mork1971' Goodwin to shower herself in $252.00 of spondoolies. Ste4dy3ddie - who finalled in the League - felt the splash of the bubble in sixth.

1st CareybearBBP -- $252.00
2nd mork1971 -- $157.50
3rd nickhem1 -- $100.80
4th RedKiteBlackBelt -- $69.30
5th jdogbbp -- $50.40

League XI is like no other league before; this time, we're offering an incredible four prizes with winners receiving a free seat into the recently announced Black Belt Nottingham Live, as well as an automatic last-longer for next year's London Live, and a personalised 'League Champion' hoodie for the winner.

The Nottingham Live is a brand new event being held at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club this November 18-20. The buy-in fee is $125+15 with a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. If you would like to register, then you can so via the cardroom lobby.

Fancy a free Nottingha Live seat? Then be sure to join us next week for Leg 2. To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Become Sheriff of Nottingham in League XI

2011-08-18T10:10:00.001-07:00

This November, we're giving you the chance to become Sheriff of Nottingham as the Black Belt Poker League returns with its bow drawn, ready to fire an arrow at the tree of value.

Four merry men will earn themselves a star prize, each feasting on a free seat into the recently announced Black Belt Nottingham Live.

They will then battle in a last-longer for a free 2012 London Live seat, whilst the Champion will get to play in a one-of-a-kind Black Belt Poker personalised hoodie, emblazened with their name and League achievement.

The Black Belt Nottingham Live is braced to hit the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club this November 18-20 with a $125+15 price tag and $50,000 guaranteed prize pool. For a bargain-bucket price, you'll get to play in the UK's most popular cardroom alongside top pros such as Richard Ashby, Neil Channing and Aussie Millions finalist Sam Razavi.

League XI commences Tuesday, August 23 at 7.30pm, exclusively on Black Belt Poker. As usual, the League will run over eight legs, taking place every Tuesday. The event can be located in the lobby under Scheduled > Black Belt Tournaments and costs $5+0.50 to enter. You can also buy in using Belt Points by purchasing a token in the Black Belt Poker Store.

Points for each leg will be awarded in reverse order, so that in a 50-runner event, 50th would earn 1 point, and 1st 50 points. The top 10 finishers per leg receive the following additional points:

1st 25 Points
2nd 18 Points
3rd 15 Points
4th 12 Points
5th 10 Points
6th 08 Points
7th 06 Points
8th 04 Points
9th 02 Points
10th 01 Point

Once again, we're offering some incredible prizes to those who make it into the top 10:

1st Nottingham Live Seat, London Live Last-Longer & Personalised Hoodie
2nd Nottingham Live Seat & London Live Last-Longer
3rd Nottingham Live Seat & London Live Last-Longer
4th Nottingham Live Seat & London Live Last-Longer
5th 600 Belt Points
6th 500 Belt Points
7th 400 Belt Points
8th 300 Belt Points
9th 200 Belt Points
10th 100 Belt Points

Last time, Blue Belt Tom Drew became the first ever double League winner when he took down the tenth League to date. As a result, he got to script and star in his very own poker scene alongisde the Black Belt Poker team with Jesse May commentating from the booth.

Tom Drew's done it twice, but next time - as the giant blue finger would say - it could be you...

Previous Winners:

League I: Adam Saunders
League II: Mark Brassington
League III: David Meunier
League IV: Andy Brisland
League V: Trevor Myers
League VI: Mark Ranson
League VII: Tom Drew
League VIII: Trevor Ingman
League IX: Jamie Burland
League X: Tom Drew
League XI

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Academy: Poker in the Modern World

2011-08-17T04:49:00.000-07:00

If you're struggling to keep up with all the latest technologies and want to learn more about how you can further your game in the current climate, then look no further than our latest Black Belt Poker Academy: Poker in the Modern World.

Poker is a constantly changing game and staying ahead of the pack is hard work, but this Saturday, August 20, our expert tutors will make simple some of the cutting-edge tools required to win at the online felt.

Joining Bluff Europe columnist Alex Rousso will be cash game pro Kevin Williams, who recently won iPoker's weekly $200,000 GTD tournament for $42,000. Together, they will cover a range of topics from poker trackers, HUDs, odds compilers, PokerStove, forums and more.

We spoke to poker coach Alex Rousso about the Academy:

http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/articles/read/Academy-Modern-World

The Academy will take place at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London with the following schedule:

- Introduction: getting the most from poker tools
- Talk: hand review using trackers
- Workshop: Poker Tracker vs. Hold'em Manager
- Talk: optimising your HUD
- Workshop: using HUDs
- Watch The Pros: using HUDs
- Talk: avoiding red herrings
- Talk: Hand review using trackers
- Workshop: further tracking software advice
- Mini Workshops: odds & equity software, training advice, or live satellites

As was recently announced, all Academy tickets are now just £99, or a bargain £400 for four. To book your ticket for Saturday's event, or any future Academy, please drop us an email at training@blackbeltpoker.com to discuss payment options. Alternatively, you can purchase a token in the Black Belt Poker Store under 'Live Events'.

Black Belt Live Heads to Nottingham

2011-08-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

November is traditionally the time for sparklers and bonfires, but this year we're serving up more fireworks than an Olympic opening ceremony with the inaugural... Black Belt Nottingham Live.

Following the success of the London Live, we decided that one affordable, well-structured, added-value tournament a year wasn't enough for our players, so are proud to announce our latest poker bonanza taking place at the highly acclaimed Dust Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham.

Scheduled for November 18-20, the Nottingham Live will be a No Limit Hold'em freezeout with a buy-in to suit all wallet sizes. For just $125+15, you'll get to play a deep-stacked event alongside both amateurs and pros alike including Richard Ashby, Sam Razavi and Jamie Burland.

"We never really planned to have two live events a year," commented Neil Channing, "but we've been so overwhelmed with the popularity of our London Live, that we decided to host another one in Nottingham. I love getting to know our players, and these events are a great opportunity for people to meet the other members of the community, and hopefully plenty of new faces too."

"DTD's an amazing venue," added Black Belt Poker CEO and WSOP finalist Warren Wooldridge, "and we're all looking forward to playing there. Rob and his team do a great job and I think our players will really enjoy playing an affordable event in such a nice card room. It's also a great chance for those in other parts of the country to experience a Black Belt Poker live event."

Black Belt Poker are guaranteeing a $50,000 prize pool, as well as adding value with Belt Bonuses and pro bounties. And for those looking to qualify for a bargain price, we'll also be hosting an array of satellites in the weeks leading up to the event.

Registration will open this Monday, available exclusively through the Black Belt Poker online cardroom.

In the meantime, if you haven't yet created an account, doing so couldn't be easier: simply download the poker client and follow the simple steps provided. If you encounter any problems, then please don't hesitate to contact customer support.

Magnificent Seven

2011-08-08T06:16:00.001-07:00

It's time to get out your posh frocks and hit the red carpet as the British Poker Awards makes its second appearance to date. Coinciding with this year's Poker in the Park, the ceremony will take place on the main stage at 3pm on Saturday, September 3 with appearances from a plethora of stars from the UK poker scene including Liv Boeree, Sam Trickett and Jake Cody.

As always, there are numerous categories for you to cast your vote, such as 'Best International Player' and 'Best Poker League', with a couple of other news one thrown into the mix including the somewhat controversial 'Best Social Media User'.

Last year, Black Belt Poker sponsored pros Neil Channing and Richard Ashby walked away with silverware, and this time they're in contention again with no fewer than six nominations between them, in addition to a minor appearance on the list from yours truly.

Best Cash Player - Richard Ashby
Mixed Game Player - Richard Ashby
PLO Player - Richard Ashby
Online Player - Richard Ashby
Best Blogger - Neil Channing, Snoopy
Best Contribution to Poker - Neil Channing

Like a flock of magpies chasing a milk float, we love shiny stuff here at Black Belt Poker, so please help us brighten up the office by voting for the aforementioned in their respective categories. To cast your vote, simply go to thebritishpokerawards.com and tick the relevant boxes. Once you've submitted your votes, you'll then be thrown into a free draw in which one lucky person will win a free seat into the weekly £300 event at Palm Beach.

With the exception of Neil inexplicably being excluded from the 'Personality of the Year' category, this year's ceremony should be great fun, especially if Black Belt Poker can capture some gold. The website states: "The second annual British Poker Awards isn’t about self-congratulatory back-slapping; it’s about honouring the players who have done us so proud on the world stage this year," but you know what, we could do with a quick back-slap to soften the blow of recent bad beats, so cast your vote now.

CEO Receives Promotion

2011-08-03T10:18:00.000-07:00

Warren Wooldridge has become the latest player to scale the ranks of the Black Belt Poker Belt-Up Rewards System and become Brown Belt. As a result, he now receives $4,000 in live tournament backing every month.

Warren became CEO of Black Belt Poker 18 months ago and decided to test the product himself by working his way through the Belts. He reached Blue Belt after several months and later earned his spot in the Vegas 11 where he'd get to stay in the Black Belt Poker luxury mansion and spend his sponsorship on WSOP tournaments.

One of those tournaments was Event #54.

Across four days of blood, sweat and tears, Warren battled his way through a mammoth 4,576-thick field to finish third for an incredible $288,946, eliminated when his A-J was cruelly outdrawn by A-9. In doing so, he inflated the Vegas Prize Fund to $9,232.76, which led to 127 Black Belt Poker players receiving $72.70 each.

Although Black Belt Poker backing works on a 50-50 deal, we also offer a unique benefit in the form of Prize Points and award points for any in-the-money finish. Warren therefore received an enormous 433,419 points, which was enough to propel him to Brown Belt and keep him at that level for in excess of 8 months.

This means that he'll have $32,000 in tournament sponsorship at his disposal without the need to play a single hand!

Despite his tender years and youthful looks, Warren is a veteran of the felt and has been a trusted member of the 'poker scene' for many a year. With a long string of results including second in the 2007 Luton GUKPT (an event which long-time friend Neil Channing would win three years later), Warren has collated an impressive $573,911 in live tournament winnings.

"Although I'm CEO of Black Belt Poker, I'm a poker fanatic and love to play whenever I have the chance," commented Warren. "I'm really looking forward to spending my Brown Belt sponsorship on upcoming tournaments and will be making my first stop at the Edinburgh UKIPT in just over a week's time.

"Prize Points are a great benefit that you won't find elsewhere. Our rewards system is structured so that it rewards success in live tournaments. Because I have a family and a full-time job, I don't have as much free time as other players, but this shows just how far you can get even if poker isn't your primary profession."

If you'd like to follow Warren in becoming one of our sponsored pros, then be sure to check out the Belt-Up Rewards System for more information.

Related links:

Warren Wooldridge Finishes Third in Event #54
Event #54 Image Gallery
Event #54 Live Coverage
Neil Channing Blog - 'Who's the Boss?'
Pre-Vegas Blog - 'Moving House is Stressful!'
Vegas 11 Page
Belt-Up Rewards System
Vegas Prize Fund
Vegas Prize Fund Pays Out $9.2K!

Double Werrrrd Score

2011-08-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

He may speak an intangible language, and struggle with some of life's simplest tasks, but beyond the street talk and punctuality slip-ups, is there a sharp poker brain lurking in the murky depths? One that can lead a man to fortunes at the felt, and meticulously break down any opponent that steps in his way? Have we been bluffed all along?

The record books would suggest so.

Last night, and following hours of gruelling mouse-clicking, League X arrived at its conclusion and crowned its first double-champion: Tom 'Werrrrd' Drew.

A Blue Belt on the Belt-Up Rewards System, Tom receives $1,500 per month in live tournament backing and last month cashed in the Brighton UKIPT for £1,200. When he's not making money at the live felt, he can be found lingering in cyber space, either playing heads-up cash or, every Tuesday at 7.30pm, displaying his dominance in the Black Belt Poker League

Tom was a chunky 51 points in front heading into the final Leg; preventing victory would have been like trying to stop a herd of elephants with a pea-shooter, and despite the best attempts of the rest of the 47-strong field, Tom's ninth place finish (and, incredibly, fifth top 10 finish of League X) was more than enough to secure his seat on the throne, and a second visit following his triumph in League VII.

We'd have to confirm with our statisticians, but it looks like Tom is the first player to ever win a League without taking down an individual Leg. In the final outing, that honour belonged to Ian 'mork1971' Goodwin who turned a Spending Points' token into a juicy $94.000 payday.

1st mork1971 -- $94.00
2nd forgot2piknik -- $58.75
3rd rustypokerhead -- $37.60
4th nakgeela4 -- $25.85
5th losbert40 -- $18.80
6th S0lution
7th paul6543
8th eixip50
9th Werrrrd

As a result, Tom finished proceedings with 461 points, 66 ahead of League II Champion Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington who leap-frogged Zoe 'ZoeRiZZ0' Orton-Jay into second with a 10th place finish. Meanwhile, mork1971 jumped up to fourth, whilst last week's winner Dean 'LAYERCAKE35' Watson clung onto a top 10 spot despite coming 35th. The only player to drop out of the prize positions was '1080Sniper' who mysteriously no-showed.

1st Werrrrd (461 points) -- Ultimate Poker Fantasy Package
2nd russellhansen (395 points) -- 1,000 Belt Points
3rd ZoeRiZZ0 (392 points) -- 850 Belt Points
4th brigal19 (376 points) -- 750 Belt Points
5th mork1971 (375 points) -- 600 Belt Points
6th TopMossley (373 points) -- 500 Belt Points
7th bagpussrocks (372 points) -- 400 Belt Points
8th UliKoko (363 points) -- 300 Belt Points
9th RykanShadow (358 points) -- 200 Belt Points
10th LAYERCAKE35 (357 points) -- 100 Belt Points

11th sceaga2 -- 342 points
12th BoatDrink -- 338 points
13th nakgeela4 -- 336 points
14th 1080Sniper -- 336 points
15th thehingster -- 334 points
16th losbert40 -- 323 points
17th stevegw -- 322 points
18th eixip50 -- 300 points
19th tristiano -- 289 points
20th insider66666 -- 271 points

Although Tom will have been busy with a bottle of bubbly, the night wasn't quite over as the $15+1.5 Deepstack Mulligan hit BBP shores just 60 minutes later. Bizarrely, the event was gobbled up by two 'Ourkids', while WSOP online qualifier and winner of this very event last week, Sean 'Snotterz' Fennessey, once again made the money in third.

1st Ourkid888 -- $82.50
2nd ourkidsid -- $49.50
3rd Snotterz -- $33.00
4th losbert40
5th Touagorimou
6th paul6543
7th 99Ranny
8th sexyfilmer6
9th bagpussrocks
10th CareybearBBP
11th SebastianKat

After he's recovered from his hangover (I'm sure the celebrations will have been wild), Tom will be preparing to live out his Ultimate Poker Fantasy. Whilst we can't promise him Liv Boeree or Shannon Elizabeth, we can guarantee a dip into the world of amateur dramatics and a starring role in his own poker video with cameo appearances from Richard Ashby and Neil Channing and commentary from the legendary Jesse May.

As for everyone else, you have another League to look forward to, and a fresh start. League XI kicks-off in three weeks' time on Tuesday, August 23 with a soon-to-be-announced prize. Forget the November Nine, this is where it's at, so don't miss out on your chance to join poker's most illustrious list…

League I: Adam Saunders
League II: Mark Brassington
League III: David Meunier
League IV: Andy Brisland
League V: Trevor Myers
League VI: Mark Ranson
League VII: Tom Drew
League VIII: Trevor Ingman
League IX: Jamie Burland
League X: Tom Drew

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

Over 33% Off All Academies

2011-07-31T04:41:00.001-07:00

The next Academy takes place at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London on Saturday, August 20. The topic will be Poker in the Modern World with Alex Rousso, World Heads-Up Champion Nik Persaud and Blue Belt and recent iPoker $200K GTD winner Kevin Williams.

With the new month comes a new approach to Black Belt Poker Academies. The most notable change is the price; Academies were already a steal at £150, but we've decided to take it a step further by slashing over 33% off the entry fee.

At just £99, attendees can now hear from veteran pros such as Neil Channing and Richard Ashby, as well as UKIPT Champions Sam Razavi and Jamie Burland, for a bargain-bucket price and still have plenty of change left over to put their newly acquired skills into practice.

After garnering feedback, we've also opted to modify the structure of the Academies with a higher concentration of workshops and hand analysis. Players form a wide spectrum of skill level, so we'll be increasing the coach-to-student ratio and improving streaming so that players can be efficiently grouped and receive mentoring based on their own level of knowledge.

"Poker players are always looking for value," commented 2008 Irish Open Champion Neil Channing. "Well, this is about as plus EV as you can get. We're still offering the full six hours of training, but for less than a £100. It's a marvellous offer."

Poker scribe and Academy host Alex Rousso explained: "We want to bring more players, be more inclusive and have more intensive workshops... and it's going to be at a cheaper price. What are you waiting for?"

Poker is a constantly changing game and keeping up with the latest developments is hard work. Our expert tutors will make simple some of the cutting-edge tools and techniques to help you win money online. Attending couldn't be easier with numerous payment options available, including using Spending Points to purchase your ticket - check out our promotions page for all the details.

What's more, if you would like to attend future Academies, then you can take advantage of our five for four offer: for just £400, you can secure your seat in five Black Belt Poker Academies for less than the price of four. The subsequent Academy has already been set: Cash is King with Neil Channing, Sam Razavi and Alex Rousso on Saturday, September 3.

For more information, check out the site, or drop us a line at training@blackbeltpoker.com.

Vegas Prize Fund Pays Out $9.2K!

2011-07-29T05:58:00.001-07:00

The 2011 World Series of Poker was a mixed bag for Black Belt Poker; although a torrid run of bad beats and cold cards left some of our players without a cash, we were graced with three final tables courtesy of Richard Ashby's double and Warren Wooldridge's memorable third place finish.

For the members of the Vegas Prize Fund, however, there's no doubt that this was a lucrative Series.

Earlier in the year, we served up an unbeatable offer: earn or maintain Orange Belt or above in the months of May and June and receive a free share of the Vegas 11's WSOP winnings for five pre-selected tournaments.

For many, this was merely business as usual, and a free slice of the Vegas pie; for others, it was an opportunity to test the Belt-Up Rewards system and taste the many benefits of playing with Black Belt Poker.

In all, our sponsored pros enjoyed the following cashes, 3% of which was destined for the Vegas Prize Fund.

Event 43: Adam Latimer -- $2,815 (260th)
Event 54: Jerome Bradpiece -- $3,088 (184th)
Event 54: Kevin Williams -- $6,012 (78th)
Event 54: Warren Wooldridge -- $288,946 (3rd)

In addition, WSOP Warrior Master League winner Hasmukh Khodiyara donated 1% of his winnings before cashing twice:

Event #54 -- $2,347 (338th)
Event #56 -- $18,346 (34th)

Black Belt Poker therefore locked up a juicy $300,861 into the vault, $9,232.76 of which made its way into the Vegas Prize Fund.

In all, 127 eligible Black Belt Poker players have each earned $72.70 from the comfort of their own armchair.

If you are one of those 127, then claiming your prize couldn't be easier: simply log in to the community and click the link at the foot of our Vegas Prize Fund page before Sunday, August 14. We'll then credit your Black Belt Poker account either on or before Friday, 19 August.

We're constantly looking for reasons to give our players money. Only two months ago, our four 'Slice of the Action' Orange Belt Freeroll winners won in excess of $16,000 thanks to Sam Razavi who took down UKIPT Cork for €46,710.

Check out our promotions page and Belt-Up Rewards System to find out why you should be playing at Black Belt Poker.

News - Elementary, My Dean Watson

2011-07-28T07:48:00.001-07:00

Last Tuesday, 52 runners picked $5+0.50 out of their pockets and converged to the Black Belt Poker cardroom at 7.30pm for the penultimate outing of League X.

Leg 7 witnessed the usual thrills, spills and competitive, but friendly edge that has become a trademark of the BBP League. After all was said and done, a Yellow Belt emerged victorious.

Dean 'LAYERCAKE35' Watson didn't perform so well in Leg 6 and exited in 47th place. However, the man from Milton Keynes bounced back this week to claim the $83.20 first prize, 77 points, and the sweet satisfaction of taking down a League leg. The win has helped Dean leapfrog from 14th into 4th in the overall standings and he now has a total of 344 points.

Second place went to Brian 'brigal19' Gallagher, who won $57.20 and 69 points. The Orange Belt was 13th prior to Tuesday night, but now he's in 6th place in the standings with 340 points.

Fellow Orange Belt Jason 'Elysiumjay' Layland claimed third place, bagging $35.10 and 65 points in the process. He is now in 30th place with 217 points.

1st LAYERCAKE35 -- $83.20
2nd brigal19 -- $57.20
3rd Elysiumjay -- $35.10
4th stevegw -- $26.00
5th insider66666 -- $19.50
6th losbert40 -- $15.60
7th ourkidsid -- $13.00
8th bagpussrules -- $10.40

For the past two weeks, a certain Blue Belt has been leading the way in League X... no doubt eager to win our unique prize of scripting and acting out his very own poker fantasy alongside Black Belts Neil Channing, Richard Ashby and Sam Razavi.

Tom 'Werrrrd' Drew was on fire earlier in the league. He is yet to taste victory in League X, but the Blue Belt has enjoyed four consecutive top 10 finishes. I was beginning to wonder whether he was human. Last week, however, he stumbled out in 26th place, putting my mind to rest. This week, he managed another middling finish, exiting in 29th for 24 points. Despite those hiccups, he still sits in a comfy position with 420 points at the top of the table.

The seat for second place in the overall standings has changed occupants. Zoe 'ZoeRiZZ0' Orton-Jay finished 19th in Leg 7 to win 34 points. The Yellow Belt, and winner of Leg 2, now has 369 points and a chance to still knock 'Werrrrd' off of his perch to become our first ever female league champion.

Leg 1 winner Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington has dropped to third in the standings after only being able to muster up a 40th place finish for 13 points this week.

1st Werrrrd -- 420
2nd ZoeRiZZ0 -- 369
3rd russellhansen -- 356
4th LAYERCAKE35 -- 344
5th TopMossley -- 342
6th brigal19 -- 340
7th bagpussrules -- 337
8th 1080Sniper -- 336
9th UliKoko -- 335
10th RykanShadow -- 333

11th sceaga2 -- 326
12th thehingster -- 323
13th mork1971 -- 303
14th BoatDrink -- 301
15th stevegw -- 296
16th tristiano -- 289
17th nakgeela4 -- 280
18th losbert40 -- 270
19th RedKiteBlackBelt -- 268
20th insider66666 -- 265

An hour later, 15 players entered the $15+1.50 Deepstack Mulligan. Before Sean 'Snotterz' Fennessey left for Vegas to play in the WSOP Main Event (via the WSOP Main Event Mega Satellite), the Orange Belt won this tournament. Now he's back, he's gone and done it again!

1st Snotterz -- $112.50
2nd Ourkid888 -- $67.50
3rd CareybearBBP -- $45.00

With the finishing line in sight, players will have different motives for participating in Leg 8. Some will have their eyes on improving or maintaining their current positions. Some may just want to have a bit of fun before the league is over. Others, however, might want to derail Werrrrd's plans of league glory. If you're one of those people, please note that if Tom Drew is crowned champion after next week's final leg, he will become our first two-time league champion!

So, can Werrrrd hang on for one more week? Or will he fall at the last hurdle? Join us next week on Black Belt Poker for the final leg of League X!

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.

thehingster Binks Leg 6

2011-07-21T14:59:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be enjoying the sunshine of Vegas, but here in London we've been graced by grey clouds and sporadic showers over the past few days. Typical. Yesterday wasn't much better either, but at least something came to the rescue at 7.30pm to brighten up our day.

Last night, Leg 6 of League X commenced in the BBP cardroom. 54 players entered the $5+0.50 tournament, one of whom was Andrew 'thehingster' Hingston. The Yellow Belt finished first and walked away with $86.40 and 79 points for his efforts. That victory has propelled him from 20th spot to 10th in the overall standings. He now has 290 points.

Coming in second was Andy 'RedKiteBlackBelt' Brisland, who bagged $59.40 and 71 points. The League IV champ, who went AWOL for the past two legs, is now 22nd in the table with a total of 232 points.

Fresh from cashing in the WSOP $10,000 Main Event, David 'bh0yw0nder' Docherty is now back on British soil and followed up his recent success by finishing third last night. The Blue Belt won $36.50 and 67 points in his first League X outing to date. He currently sits in the unthreatening position of 82nd.

1st thehingster -- $86.40
2nd RedKiteBlackBelt -- $59.40
3rd bh0yw0nder -- $36.45
4th TopMossley -- $27.00
5th PatchesOHoolohan -- $20.25
6th sceaga2 -- $16.20
7th stevegw -- $13.50
8th nickhem1 -- $10.80

After Leg 6, the top three positions in the league are still being held by the same players.

Unable to keep his run of good form going, Blue Belt Tom 'Werrrrd' Drew stuttered this week and exited in 26th place for 30 points. Despite that, he still leads the way with 396 points! At least we know he's human now.

Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington wasn't able to capitalise on Werrrrd's slip-up and remains in second place. The Yellow Belt, who couldn't improve on last week's 22nd place finish, exited in 46th place this time, picking up 10 points. He now has a total of 343 points.

Third placed Zoe 'ZoeRiZZ0' Orton-Jay performed much better than last week. In Leg 5 she picked up only 16 points after finishing 35th. This week, she secured 11th place for 44 points. Her combined total is 335 points.

1st Werrrrd -- 396 points
2nd russellhansen -- 343 points
3rd ZoeRiZZ0 -- 335 points
4th TopMossley -- 305 points
5th 1080Sniper -- 305 points
6th RykanShadow -- 301 points
7th sceaga2 -- 300 points
8th UliKoko -- 297 points
9th mork1971 -- 292 points
10th thehingster -- 290 points

11th bagpussrules -- 288 points
12th BoatDrink -- 284 points
13th brigal19 -- 271 points
14th LAYERCAKE35 -- 267 points
15th tristiano -- 260 points
16th FlopTheNuts77 -- 254 points
17th eixip50 -- 237 points
18th KGB386 -- 236 points
19th adgolf -- 235 points
20th stevegw -- 235 points

An hour later, the $15+1.50 Deepstack Mulligan attracted seven runners. Brian 'Cranfield' Cunningham claimed the spoils.

1st Cranfield -- $105.00
2nd ourkidsid
3rd russellhansen

There are two legs of League X to go and you still have time to make an impact on the final standings. The winner of League X will be whisked away to a secret location to act out their own scripted poker fantasy alongside Black Belts Neil Channing, Richard Ashby and Sam Razavi.

To download the software, simply click here and follow the step-by-step process provided.