Preview to the Caribbean Poker Classic

Author: Simon Dexter

At 10pm local time next Monday, the fourth Caribbean Poker Classic gets under way at the Marriott Resort and Casino in St Kitts, starting with a Super Satellite that has a 0 + buy-in. If you’re currently rueing another missed opportunity or a particularly bad beat and face the prospect of work next week instead of a jaunt to the Leeward Isles, never fear. Once you’ve finished having to put up with your boss for another day – the one who thinks poker is something you leave by the fire – you can always catch up with the action on our daily blog.

What makes matters even worse is that a week on Sunday (2nd December), when most of us begin contemplating the start of another 40 hours of drudgery, miserable weather and larcenous taxes, the CPC organisers have arranged a ‘Farewell Pub Crawl’. Makes you sick, doesn’t it? But it should also make you determined to get out to a live event in 2008.
The inaugural tournament was held on the island of St. Maarten at the exclusive Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino and online poker players immediately took to the idea of qualifying for a land-based tournament through daily satellites, multi-tiered tournaments and single table tournaments, especially when the prize was so compelling. On offer was a ‘Championship Package’, which included a ,100 event buy-in, round-trip airfare, six nights at the Resort, tickets to the welcome and awards ceremonies and a special welcome gift; a guaranteed seat had a value of ,500.
More than 70% of the first CPC’s qualifiers were players who had won their tournament package online; the rest paid the ,100 buy-in to battle for a prize pool worth in excess of 0,000. One Littlewoods Poker qualifier, Sharbel Koumi, enjoyed a fantastic run and eventually finished third in the main event, a performance which won him ,760.
The initial CPC also featured a pro-am tournament in which three WSOP winners and three European champions faced off against a trio of online hopefuls in a specially televised event. It was one of the Europeans, Steve Vlader, who trousered the ,000 first prize in that particular competition.
The Caribbean’s inherent appeal ensured that almost immediately, the CPC had established its position as an attractive stop on the poker tournament circuit; as the players reluctantly trudged back to the airport, the event organisers vowed to offer even bigger cash prizes the following year. They also decided to change venues, moving from St Maarten to St Kitts, an equally popular choice among players. As word of the CPC swept across message boards and between poker-playing pals, so the numbers involved in qualifying tournaments for the December 2005 event soared.
Two months before the second CPC, a host of land-based stars including Jennifer Tilly, the 2004 WSOP Ladies Champion and Robert Varkonyi, the 2002 WSOP Champion, committed themselves to travelling to St Kitts where the prize pool had risen to .5 million.
One of the other reasons why players were so keen to qualify for the CPC was the extraordinary generosity of the package, now worth an estimated ,000, available to winners.
In addition to the ,300 championship buy-in and nine (not six) nights at the sumptuous Marriott Resort & Royal Beach Casino, the prize package also included ,400 in cash. It was a prize worth winning and the organisers went further by arranging for players to fly to St. Kitts on board the “Private Poker Jet”, described as “a unique poker experience that will offer on-board poker action, in-flight movies featuring poker classics such as Rounders, and poker professionals providing tips and strategies to improve players’ games en route to the Caribbean.” The whole in-flight experience was eventually televised.
The main CPC crown was won by Bjorn Wiik, who defeated Stuart Gunn in a relatively short heads-up encounter to collect 7,000, but the second CPC also saw the name of Littlewoods’ Tony Cascarino come to the fore.
In the pro-am final, Tony managed to overcome a solid Steve Vladar, his pair of kings ultimately getting the better of Steve’s pair of tens. So what do you do when you’ve won your fist major poker prize? “I guess this is the first time I have actually won anything,” said a delighted Tony. “In football, I never won any prize.” He paused, smiled for the cameras and then proceeded to do what every son would – call his mum, opening his conversation with those unforgettable words: “Mum, I have just gotten 100 grand richer…”
For many ‘regulars’, last year’s CPC was the best. By opting to stay at St Kitts’ Marriott Resort (and keeping the buy-in at ,300), online qualification satellites ran virtually non-stop until a few days before the event started.
It was a particularly fruitful event for two Littlewoods Poker players Rakesh Gupta and Ryan Boon who made the final table despite the presence of a series of big-hitters including Willie Tann, Simon Trumper, Dave Colclough, Marc Goodwin, Ram Vaswani and Surinder Sunar.
An on-land debut for Hold ‘Em Blackjack, which combines the intensity of poker with the simplicity of blackjack, was also on the agenda, as it is this year.
With Littlewoods Poker you can be sure they’ll be more opportunities next year to get out and see some of the world, all in the name of Poker. In fact, you can still win a €10k EPT package and choose your destination, so what are you waiting for?