The Gutshot Poker Club (also known as The Gutshot Poker Collective or simply The Gutshot) was a

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

club, bar, restaurant and

internet cafe The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

located on

Clerkenwell Road Clerkenwell Road is a street in London. It runs west–east from Gray's Inn Road in the west, to Goswell Road in the east. Its continuation at either end is Theobald's Road and Old Street respectively. Clerkenwell Road and Theobalds Road we ...

, London, England. The club opened in March 2004 and closed in 2007. It was founded by Barry Martin and Derek Kelly. The club ran poker ring games, and

tournaments A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

one to three times per day, and hosted four festivals of poker per annum. Amongst the successes achieved by members of the club are: * Tiffany Williamson,

2005 World Series of Poker The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2nd, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7th. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15th marked the close of play, and the largest prize in sports an ...

(WSOP) main event, 15th place ($400,000) *

Roland De Wolfe Roland De Wolfe is an English professional poker player and a former writer for the poker magazine ''Inside Edge''. After winning first prize in an event at the 2004 Gutshot Poker Festival, De Wolfe went on to cash in the $1,000 No Limit even ...

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the fi ...

(WPT) fourth season Grand Prix de Paris winner (€479,680;) WPT fourth season championship, 3rd place ($1,025,505);

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour (WPT), created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Tex ...

(EPT) third season Ireland winner (€554,300); 2007

Irish Poker Open The Irish Poker Open is the longest running No Limit Texas hold 'em poker tournament in Europe and second longest in the world after the World Series of Poker. First organised in 1980 by Terry Rogers, a well known Irish bookmaker, the tourna ...

, 2nd place (€325,000) *

Praz Bansi Pramesh 'Praz' Bansi is a British professional poker player from London, England, who has won two bracelets at the World Series of Poker and is part of the London-based poker group The Hitsquad. Prior to his career as a professional poker pla ...

2006 World Series of Poker The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on June 25, 2006 with satellite events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29. 40 more events in various ...

bracelet winner ($230,209) In addition to many English poker players, former WSOP main event champions

Phil Hellmuth Jr Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event ...

Chris Ferguson Christopher Philip Ferguson (born April 11, 1963) is an American professional poker player. He has won six World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Ferguson is a ...

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a worl ...

Greg Raymer Gregory Raymer, nicknamed "Fossilman," is a professional poker player and author. He is best known for winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event. Early life Raymer's family moved numerous times during his childhood, from his birthplace ...

and

Joe Hachem Joseph Hachem ( ar, جوزف هاشم; ; born 11 March 1966) is a Lebanese-Australian professional poker player known for being the first Australian to win the World Series of Poker main event, which earned him $7.5 million, then a record for al ...

also played at the venue, as well as others such as

Scott Fischman Scott Fischman (born 1980 in Langhorne, Pennsylvania) is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada. Poker career Fischman grew up in South Jersey and moved to Las Vegas at the age of 12. He was introduced to poker by a ...

Howard Lederer Howard Henry Lederer (born October 30, 1964) is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and holds two World Poker Tour titles. Lederer has also contributed to several books on poker strategy and has ...

, Marcel Lüske and

Andy Bloch Andrew Elliot Bloch (born June 1, 1969) is a professional poker player. He holds two electrical engineering degrees from MIT and a JD from Harvard Law School. Blackjack While studying at MIT, Bloch became part of the MIT blackjack team, fea ...

. In May 2006, the Gutshot held the first ever event of the

Showdown Poker Tour A showdown is a duel. The term may also refer to: Places * Showdown Ski Area, in Montana, United States Books * ''Showdown'' (Amado novel), a 1984 novel by Jorge Amado * ''Showdown'' (Dekker novel), a 2006 novel by Ted Dekker * ''Showdown'' ( ...

, a £3,448 buy-in event won by EPT winner Mats Gavatin. On 16 January 2007, the owner of the club was convicted of contravening the Gaming Act. The jury in the case rejected Derek Kelly's contention that poker was a game of skill, and thus exempt from the Gaming Act. Derek Kelly appealed this verdict at the Royal Court of Appeal in London but failed, after which the club closed.The Guardian: Poker verdict heralds action against clubs
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Gutshot.com

The club also had its own

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

software, which survived the closure of the club. Gutshot Poker began on the

Microgaming Microgaming is a privately held gambling software company based in the Isle of Man. The company first developed online casino software in 1994. Overview In May 2009, Microgaming's progressive slot Mega Moolah paid out $6,374,434, the largest ...

network but was transferred to the

Cake Poker Network The Cake Network was a Curaçao based online poker network owned and operated by parent company Cake Gaming NV. Cake Network was founded in 2004 and launched its first network skin, Cake Poker, in June 2006. Other network partners followed, inclu ...

in 2008, and later to iPoker network. It is now part of the

Merge Network Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the com ...

. The main site also includes a popular forum in addition to news, features, strategy articles and blogs.

Notes

External links

Hendon Mob list of major festivals held at Gutshot
Defunct poker companies Gambling companies established in 2004 Gambling companies disestablished in 2007