Pub Poker News: The UK Low Stakes Poker Players Alliance

Pub Poker is already a huge industry in the UK, yet the poker press hardly give it any coverage at all. We really want to get behind pub poker and this week we spoke to Steve Blapo of the UK Low Stakes Poker Players Alliance. They are trying to relax some of the very strict laws in the 2005 Gambling Act, which insist on a £5 maximum stake and a £100 maximum prize pool.

PN: So tell us about what prompted you to form the UK Low Stakes Poker Players Alliance?

Steve Blapo: Pub poker players want a better structure and experience, which they can't really get in the £5 games currently on offer. Some people worry that a £5 game would attract a lot

of drunks, but a £20 game would certainly prevent that. For £20 people take it seriously and they wouldn't drink as much. No matter what the stake for the games is, it doesn't change the landlord's responsibility when it comes to supplying drink to people. Also, in London it usually costs players a fiver to get to the pub and it just doesn't seem worth it to then play in a £5 game.

PN: What exactly is the problem with £5 games right now?

Steve Blapo: Right now, under the Gambling Act, the maximum stake is £5 and the maximum prize pool is £100. I'm getting 30 to 50 players in the pub games I run, and as you know poker players don't always turn up on time. Every time new players join the game we have to go round working out what the stake should be as we can't go over a £100 prize pot, so we keep having to refund players 50p here and there

PN: What changes would you like to see made?

Steve Blapo: First and foremost we want to lift the restriction on the maximum prize pool, it's totally unworkable. Secondly we want to increase the stake limit; we are trying to increase it to £30. Finally I want there to be an option for landlords to apply to their local authority for a one off license to hold a £50 deep stack event. That way the players can choose where to go, they can decide what's a good game with a good structure. We also want to move away from 'pub poker' and emphasis the low stakes element, there is no reason why pubs should have a monopoly on low stakes poker, any building with a council license could hold a game.

Increasing the stakes and prize pools would also mean that the pubs could actually employ proper tournament directors. If you want good quality you need to pay people a proper wage, rather than just giving some kid £20 run the games whenever they feel like it. Right now there is a lot of confusion in the pub leagues for this reason, I have heard of some vendors that will take 40 players worth of £5 stakes but pocketing everything over the £100 prize pool limit. I have also heard of players not buying into the games, stating that they thought it was 'optional' which could obviously cause some serious problems.

PN: Pub Poker has grown incredibly fast, do you think these leagues could take business away from the casinos?

Steve Blapo: Tournaments don't make money for casinos, if casinos offered a good structure there would be no need for this. Tournaments are very labour intensive so the casinos want the players to bust out quickly so they will go to the cash tables and the house games. Players want a place to improve with some deep stack poker, and it benefits the casinos and the online rooms because those that do will move on to the bigger games that they host.

PN: So how is the fight going so far?

We have support from all corners, including pub leagues like the Nutz league and the EPL and event players like Neil Channing. We also have support from four MPs so far (Nick Palmer (Lab), Mark Fields (Con), Mathew Kay (LAB), Mike Hancock CBE (Lib Dem)) and I have a meeting with the gambling commission on August the 11th. Later on this year we plan to organise a game in the middle of Parliament Square, with a buy-in of £5.01 £5.01p which is totally against the law as the max stake allowed in pubs is £5.00. If anyone else dare to break the law by playing 1p over the legal limit they are invited to join us by joining the UK Low Stakes Poker Players Alliance on Facebook.

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