The largest ever festival to touch down on Irish soil begins tomorrow. Get there. Be there. It's going to be a massive 17 days of poker with the €1,000,000 guaranteed UKIPT Galway Main Event topping a 60 event schedule. There's going to be cash games, a UK vs Ireland Heads-Up Championship, rake-free happy hours and giveaways galore.
If you want some Irish-based craic or Guinness jokes you're just going to have make them up yourself. There's too much poker to waste time on them: the Full Tilt Poker Galway Festival is upon us!
The HUGE schedule
It's true, we did indeed state that there's going to be 60 events. You can see the full UKIPT Galway schedule here, but we'll tell you that there's lots to play, including Omaha and even the Irish Bridge Masters.
Qualify for the €1m Main Event: 8-12 August
Satellites are running on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker round the clock so check out both lobbies to see what suits you best. This Sunday there's a €215 MEGA Qualifier with 15 seats guaranteed. There are €27 and €55 feeders running into that so you could be getting to play the €1,100 event really cheap.
Party time: 27 July & 10 August
Two parties? Two parties!
Festival opening party: Saturday, 27 July @ 7.30pm
UKIPT Main Event party: Saturday, 10 August @ 9pm
Both are being held in the entertainment marquee. Get stuck in and don't forget to bug the new UKIPT Ambassadors. They will dance on command, but only as long as you show your Main Event ticket.*
*They will not dance on command, but they'll almost certainly be more than happy to join you at the bar.
Cash game shenanigans
You can win a €1,100 UKIPT Galway Main Event seat in the exclusive Bad Beat Jackpot promotio (29 July-5 August). One seat per day will be awarded to the player with the highest-ranked losing hand that day. Every cloud has a silver lining...
They'll also be Cash Game Happy Hours between 9pm and 10pm from 29 July-2 August providing some rake-free action. Listen for the bell to mark the start and finish of that.
Cash game rake will be set at 5% capped at €15 (€12 for 5 players or less)
€20/€40 and above will be €25 per player per half hour
€50/€100 and above will be €30 per player per half hour
Open Face Chinese action will hold a €40 per 30 min session charge per table. For example, two players would pay €20 each, but four players would contribute €10 each.
You can also expect to see Gus Hansen in Galway who spoke to Sarah Grant at the EPT Grand Final about the upcoming festival (it was recorded a few months ago).
Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.