WSOP 2017: Top 3 UK Players To Watch!

The World Series of Poker may well be a ‘worldwide’ event, but it’s instantly recognizable as an ‘American’ tournament: held there, mostly won by them, and with all the razamatazz which surrounds sporting spectacles in the USA – but that’s not to say the Brits (and Northern Irish of course) can’t shine on our cousins’ soil!

Last year saw 43 bracelets coming back to British shores, along with 3479 cashes totalling a massive $118,247,045 – stats which put the UK third behind only Canada and the USA themselves.

In the Main Event, however, it’s been a tough time for those who speak the ‘Queen’s English’ – only 1990 giving cause for celebration when the Iranian expatriate Mansour Matloubi, who moved first to Wales then London, able to lay claim to such a title.

Last year saw motor-mouth William Kassouf having a good go at lifting the biggest title in the game, but whatever language he speaks it’s as far removed from proper English as you’re likely to get! Had he ‘November Nine-highed’ it like a boss we’d have taken it… but reluctantly.

However, 2017 is a new year and a new Main Event, so who are the main contenders to look out for among the UK contingent? Deep runs are difficult, the bracelet even more so, but one these three chaps might finally reverse the one-sided affair…

Sam Grafton

An unlikely name? Not at all! What the Main Event requires is not a huge portfolio of 6 and 7-figure cashes, but rather be in it to win it in the final couple of days, and Leamington Spa pro Grafton has shown time and again he can go deep in big fields and not be scared of the big names along the way.

Over $700,000 in live cashes shows he knows his way around a table, including a nice win at the Aussie Millions this year, and his online resume is one of $millions scooped in the big events under his pseudonym ‘Sam Squid’.

Definitely one to watch out for if he can survive the initial pressures of the Rio starting days – give him chips, however, and he can use them.

Stephen Chidwick

Pot Limit Omaha, 7 Card Stud, NLHE, Mixed games, Chidwick can play them all, and his $7.5million+ tournament resume testament to the fact that he can also play them all really well!

It’s been ‘close but no cigar’ for Chidwick in his previous adventures in the Vegas summer biggie, a 2nd spot in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better bracelet event in 2015 and it’s surely only a matter of time before he lands some goldenware on his US travels.

The Main Event? Well, he’s run deep almost every time he’s played this year so far – over $1million in cashes from the biggest of the big events – his most recent a $188,250 payday for 6th in the Party Poker Millions Live Main Event in London last month.

Luke Schwartz

Well, here’s a character who many find a bit too abrasive to be likeable, so taking down the WSOP Main Event would likely make him insufferable – but he has always had the talent to do something huge in poker, and who knows, this year might be the one?

His first tournament and cash in 4 years came along just last month in Monte Carlo – followed by a rather nasty verbal assault on Doug Polk which made the headlines almost everywhere.

Does the fact he has no WSOP experience count against him? Of course not – at least not for running very deep. 

Whether he could do the unthinkable and lift the crown if it was within touching distance is another matter. And whether the UK would let him back in with it without signing a ‘stfu clause’ is another one again!

Anyway, three names to follow from the summer invasion by the UK’s poker masses, If you can think of anyone else in with a shout, stick their name in the comments section below.