A wealth of poker festivals and televised events around the London area in April and May confirmed the UK's capital and its surrounding areas as at the forefront of the European poker explosion - besides concurrent festivals at the Rendezvous Casino, Brighton, the Gutshot Cardroom and the Vic in central London, and the Grosvenor Casino Luton, the opening heats of Poker Million - The Masters III was filmed at the studios of Sky TV close to Heathrow and the British Poker Open, shown live on the newly launched Poker Channel, was filmed at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

The latter event was particularly enthralling, with a total of twelve six seater heats, each sponsored by internet cardrooms like PokerStars.com, PartyPoker. com and FullTiltPoker.com, leading into two semis and one final. The field was among the strongest ever assembled on British soil, with the usual European stars like Devilfish competing with international stars like Gus Hansen (who did his usual trick and drew out on the devil), Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer and Full Tilt boys Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Andy Bloch (none of which won their heat - despite all being in the same one!)

The final was an electric affair with London Telegraph journalist Matt Born leading the way after the semis (which each sent three players to the final and took chipcounts to determine their starting positions) and Greg Raymer near the back. American qualifier Adam Dujmovic was the eventual victor though for £85,000 over Swede Hakon Waerstad, but it was Raymer who produced most of the drama, using up "more than my share of luck" to finish third on a night when "many of my reads were just way off". This included a spectacular reraise of Matt Born's QQ with Q8, after which Norway's Andreas Harmeno pushed all in with AK. The final board? J93-T-4, and two players crippled...

Speaking of Americans in the UK those Full Tilt boys weren't missing any promotional opportunities. The Gutshot Card Club in London's fashionable Clerkenwell Road had just played host to its second festival, the Coral-Gutshot Series of Poker, but even more exciting was the Full Tilt night where the boys took part in a £30 tournament and played cash games (Lederer apparently was so fatigued he virtually failed to move a chip in a Pot Limit Omaha game). Surrounded by Art Galleries, Ad Agencies and eateries and set in the trendy the Clerkenwell area the cardroom has been pulling in new clientele from every part of the city and beyond for over a year now: students, bankers lawyers, policemen, you name it, they're there.

Another roaring festival also took place at the Victoria Casino on London's Edgware Road, with a virtual unknown, Andy Church, triumphing over the hoards of hardened players who returned for the second day of the £1,500 No Limit Hold'em Championship event, sponsored by Blue Square. He walked away with first place and the trophy, defeating Stuart Nash in the heads up stage for £110,000 to £61,400. And as if there wasn't enough poker already going on at the time, the UK's most prestigious cardroom also announced that its European Championships main event in August will have a £5,000 buy-in - and that it will be in the same week that the Victor Chandler Poker Cup is on, also a £5,000 event. Bring your wallet if you plan on crossing the Atlantic that week...