I'm a student at St. Andrews university and last semester was voted onto committee as the organiser and liaison for the UK Student Poker championships in 2012. Our poker club is one or the largest in the UK and the tournament was held in St. Andrews student union before numbers increased and the tournament was moved to the Broadway Casino in Birmingham.

The tournament was £30+3 with the main attraction a World Series of Poker seat added to first place.

I would be interested to see how many people here actually played in this tournament and what they thought. What was the venue like? What was the structure like? Was the tournament professional run or do you just want a fun weekend with mates? Was the buy-in right or would you like it increased? Discuss away!

I would also be interested in what uni/college you go to? If there is a poker society and what is it like? How many members are there?

If you are already a student and didn't come to this event your seriously missing out with the sick added value. If your just going to uni this year keep an eye on the thread.

http://www.ukstudentpoker.com/ukspc-2011.html

Thanks, muppet

I played, structure was incredible and think the venue is perfect positioning for attracting a lot of players.

Improvements for next year: Don't let me bust out on the last hand of day 1

yip the venue is a big plus, located on the broadway plaza, with several restaurants, takeways and bars next door as well as travelodge, cinema and bowling alley.

why the fk can't I live in mary ol' England!?
Noone @ my HUGE school plays the poker!

I played last year, the tournament was just about perfect in terms of structure, starting stacks, organisation etc.

Couple of things I might suggest:
- Make it 9 handed instead of 10, tables were a bit cramped and no ones likes 10max!
- It would be cool if you ran a 'high roller' (not that high as most people there are broke students) or something similar along side the Main. £150 buy in or something would get some interest.
-Introduce an online Student Poker Championship and league, societies can compete again each other. Also, maybe hold a weekly online tournament on Sunday nights where society members can win a seat into the UKSPC.

-9max is something we def. want, hopefully the casino aren't nits about space/dealers etc. but going from 10max to 9max does make a big difference, space more than anything.

-high roller is also another good idea, would need a bit more feedback from other societies! maybe attach a trophy and some prestige to this event???

-there is an on-line league run by the sponsors (BETFRED) on the ipoker skin, they give us the added world series seat in return for spamming all the students with their brand. they have freerolls and added value tourneys on sunday nights during term time, it's not well publicised outside their own mailing list and doesn't pull in as many players.

-on-line qualifiers would be good, but we find it works better if most uni's run their own sats during society events, as not everyone plays on-line!

Thanks for the suggestions, keep them coming and we will hopefully make the event a lot better nxt year.

Is there any way to increase the capacity? It sold out ridic early last year.

The casino's unlikely to want to run a high roller as they could just run their own £100 tournament and get more entrants.

will look in to it , there seemed to be some space last year that could be used. with regards to side-events the casino still run their own schedule. the £30 event the night before the tournament turned out to be popular.

I've not yet competed in this even but am the VP of Bolton poker society - apart of the university of Bolton. I would like details of the next tournament so that I can bring my society along to the event

Do i have to be actually be part of a society to attend this event?

Played it twice before, really well run event, awesome structure, broadway is a nice place to play. I like the sound of adding in a "High Roller" event, maybe £100-£200 buy in. I think it would be difficult to increase the buy in for the main without losing numbers with most students being fairly broke but adding a bigger buyin side event would make the trip more worthwhile

+1 to a high roller, bit of a trek from Exeter for a £30 buyin tournament, sure there are cash games but always nice to have some prestige events!

Well worth the trip purely for the juicy cash games and banter!

you dont need to be part of a actual uni affiliated society, just a student at a university in the UK

stay tuned for details, we should have some dates before the end of the year, agree the trip is def worth it just for the banter and cash games, the complex with the casino and supermarket nxt door with cinema bowling restaurant and the travelodge is the nuts. will try and incorporate a high roller but it all depends on if the casino have enough space and dealers.

thanks and any more feedback post here

Great event, structure is good and location great. I'm from UCLan, I'd like to see 9-max and a high roller added too