Merry Christmas to Bournemouth Uni Poker Society
Tomorrow, when your family clears the Christmas dinner plates away and brings out the cards and chips for your festive poker game, a tablecloth will work just fine as felt. But now imagine you’re running a semiweekly game with 40+ people turning up every session. A quality poker table makes all the difference.
Just ask Thomas Upshall, committee member at the Bournemouth University Poker Society.
“At the start of the year our Poker Society faced a dilemma,” Upshall tells us. “We needed new equipment, as no new stuff had been purchased for a few years, but we also didn’t have much money remaining in the account from the previous year. I thought it would be a good idea to email all the big poker sites, and ask if they would want to donate some branded decks of cards to the society.
“PokerStars replied. Stars offered us more than we could have asked for. Having just enquired about cards, they sent over 50 decks of plastic casino cards, as well as a brand new, custom table.”
Merry Christmas to the Bournemouth University Poker Society from all at PokerStars. Here’s to some great games in 2019!
We had a chat with Upshall to find out how the new poker set-up will impact things for the players. Have a read.
PS BLOG: How did you first get involved in the Bournemouth Uni Poker Society?
Thomas Upshall: Personally, I had never played poker before I went to uni. I wanted to join a society but hadn’t played much sport in a while, so poker seemed like the best non-sport society. I signed up at the freshers fair, and went along to the first few free-rolls (called “learn to plays”).
After the first few sessions, and having met a few new people, I just kept coming back. This year (my 2nd) I decided to run for committee. I love the game and the fun that comes with playing it at uni, so I was happy to run and try to improve the society for this year.
As a committee, we try to advertise heavily in the first few weeks of the semesters, we use the freshers fair to get as many sign ups as possible (over 300 this year) then use the “learn to plays” to try and create a fun and inviting atmosphere to welcome new players.
PS BLOG: What are your games like? What do you guys normally play, and how often do you get together?
Upshall: We play two planned tournaments each week on a Tuesday and Thursday with a £5 buy in. They normally last for about 4/5 hours. Tuesdays are played in the student bar called ‘Dylan’s’ where we normally see about 60-80 runners. On Thursdays we play a longer, deeper structure in our seminar room PG11, where we are not constrained by the bars closing. So even though we only see around 40 runners, the tourney still goes on longer. As people bust, we also always have cash games (5p/10p) running. We then try to play again on the weekends, sometimes running even longer tourneys and cash games, and often run cash games on random week day evenings when people are free. We always meet to play poker at least three or four times a week.
PS BLOG: How has the new table impacted your games so far?
Upshall: The table is huge for the society. Not only does it make for a nice final/feature table during our tournaments, it also allows us to better brand ourselves around campus.
As I said earlier, we have a freshers fair at the start of the semester. This is the most significant way for the society to brand itself. A good-looking custom table makes for a good-looking society, and when the society has a good appeal, it will see an increase in membership. The committee has already worked hard to make itself one of a handful of 5-star society’s on campus, and this new table adds further quality to the society. Along with this, the societies who seem more professional, active, and have a growing membership, will receive more funding and support from the Students Union.
PS BLOG: Any goals in the group to play an EPT one day?
Upshall: Many of us in the society have the dream of making it big in Poker. An EPT event, or better yet winning an EPT event, would be a huge goal for anyone. Right now, we are all in the stages of trying to run up bankrolls, but many of us have played some of PokerStars smaller events in London, including events with an added Platinum Pass.
As a society, our key goals are to have fun, meet new people, but most importantly, learn the game. I feel we are in a great position to continue to grow as a society thanks to PokerStars, and with new players comes new knowledge. Hopefully one day, we’ll see a couple of ex-Bournemouth Uni players in massive tournaments like the EPT.
If you want to get involved with the Bournemouth Uni Poker Society, head here.
You can play poker for free on PokerStars. Simply click here to open an account.
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