Uk-Poker.co.uk

BlackBelt Poker’s first live event has been a number of months in the making, after it was reported last year that the UK online poker site‘s co-founder, Neil Channing, would be taking the brand to London’s Victoria Casino. The $200+$20 main event will feature a starting stack of 20,000 chips and an estimated prize pool worth around $60,000, which is by no means a modest ‘real world’ start for BlackBelt Poker. Scheduled to begin this weekend, the BlackBelt Poker Live Event will feature some of the very biggest names in UK online poker, not to mention a few that are already familiar with the live tournament format.

Boylepoker has been running a book on the entrants in the run-up to the event and, predictably, it contains few surprises. Indeed, one of the finest young players of international and UK poker tournaments, James Akenhead, has been named as the favourite to take the BlackBelt Poker Live Event title. At 33/1, Akenhead is will perhaps fancy his own chances of success in the forthcoming tournament, not least because he has entered 2010 off the back of a truly spectacular year. In 2009, Akenhead secured two WSOP final tables and won television’s most prestigious event, The Poker Million.

Looking to build on his success of last year, Akenhead is kept in relatively close company on Boylepoker’s book. Praz Bansi and Julian Thew, the latter of whom won the EPT Baden, are nearby on 40/1, whilst BlackBelt Poker’s aforementioned co-founder, Neil Channing, has been given odds of 50/1. Another top poker professional, Nik Persaud, has been offered odds of 66/1, which may be worth a punt as an outside bet. The 300 available seats for the BlackBelt Poker Live Event sold out ahead of schedule, such is the interest in the site’s inaugural real world event.