The Oxford Cup VI – by Joe Barnard

Congratulations to Thomas Grundy, who this weekend became the first student to lift the Oxford Cup! With all-new sponsors BadBeat.com adding a GPT London live event package to the pool and offering their Trainee Trader places to the top five students, it couldn’t have finished up better – fourteen students out of the eighteen in the money, six students on the final table, and for the first time ever, two students battling it out heads-up for the title.

In the money:

(The top two split the £4400 evenly and played it out for the GPT seat and title.)

1st – THOMAS GRUNDY, Student (Warwick University)

£2200, GPT London package + BadBeat.com Trainee Trader Programme

2nd – BOB HEATON, Student (Oxford University)

£2200 + BadBeat.com Trainee Trader Programme

3rd – JOHN BLANCHARD

£1200

4th – JUSTIN REES, Student (Bath University)

£800 + BadBeat.com Trainee Trader Programme

5th – CHENG YING, Student (Cambridge University)

£480 + BadBeat.com Trainee Trader Programme

6th – GURVINDER SINGH, Student (Warwick University)

£400 + BadBeat.com Trainee Trader Programme

7th – MARK SCOFIELD, Student (Oxford Brookes University)

£320

8th – DAVE DYER

£240 (4th in the Oxford Cup V)

9th – JENNIFER MASON

£160

10th – GUY TAYLOR, Student (Birmingham University)

£100

11th – JAMES STRUDWICK, Student (Bath University)

£80

12th – JAMES DAVENPORT, Student (Cardiff University)

£80

13th – AL McCLENAHAN, Student (Cambridge University)

£70

14th – IAN MOORE, Student (Cambridge University)

£70

15th – OMAR SHARIF, Student (Oxford University)

£50

16th – B

£50 (8th in the Oxford Cup V)

17th – MARK RAYSON, Student (Oxford Brookes University)

£40

18th – UMAR MEHMOOD, A-level Student (Abingdon & Whitney College)

£40

[Incidentally, in the bubble was Oxford Cup IV winner Neil Wright]

A starting field of 142 players awoke early on Sunday morning (10th June 2007) to battle it out in the traditional £20 no-limit hold’em rebuy tournament that is the Oxford Cup. A 10.30am start at the aptly named ‘University Suite’ of the Paramount Oxford Hotel didn’t stop the chips from flying fast from the outset – a total of 287 rebuys/add-ons brought the prizepool to £8580!

New to this year’s event we also had a real-time ‘Tournament Watch’ updating the BadBeat.com website with all the key hands and stories of the day. Click the link to check it out:

http://www.badbeat.com/Ease/servlet/...ategoryID=1330

Congratulations to all of the weekend’s winners and especially to the students. Once again they have sent a message to the poker playing masses – beware! The Sponsors (University Poker League in conjunction with BadBeat) were scouting for young talent and boy, did they find it! And I would like to personally thank our guest Tournament Director Roy Houghton for doing a marvellous job once again. The event wouldn’t be the same without you, Roy. Also nice one Thomas for coming through a gruelling 12 hour long poker marathon, and still offering to lend a hand with the clear-up!


The main event came after a great day of poker on Saturday also. Cash games and STTs began at New College, (the home of the Oxford University Poker Society when I was running it back in the day), and moved on to the Oxford Union where the BadBeat guys (John and Dave Conroy, with special guest Norman Pace) put on a ‘Poker Masterclass’ in the historic debating chamber. A 62-player University Poker League $500 freeroll followed, and at 8pm BadBeat put £2000 behind the Union’s bar, hic!

$500 Freeroll Winners:

1st – Max Hancock - $125

2nd – Stephanie Au - $90

3rd – Thomas Luce - $75

4th – John Goss - $60

5th – Bob Heaton - $50

6th – Umar Mehmood - $40

7th – Alex Bryant - $30

8th – Jamie Strudwick - $20

9th – Roy Dick - $10

BadBeat also offered a top-quality bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne for the player to make the most impressive play of the day. This was awarded to the current Oxford University Poker Society president Dave Van Reyk for an early re-raise with junk and ‘isolation’ play. Incidentally, freeroll winner Max was the Oxford University poker society president before him! After these guys doing so well I was sure I’d take down the Oxford Cup but alas, I’ll have to wait until lucky number seven…

Also see our Facebook group here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2251108706

Hope to see you all at a poker event again soon!