The countdown to the 2023 Goliath is on, with the first flight scheduled for July 29 at the Grosvenor Casino in Coventry, United Kingdom. The Goliath has always lived up to its name and seen some incredible attendances, but the 2023 could be the biggest yet, and that could mean a £1.5 million prize pool for a £150 buy-in tournament.
If you are following PokerNews‘ coverage of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, you will no doubt have seen that several events have broken their attendance records. That is happening in tournaments costing $1,500 to $100,000, so imagine if that trend continues in the Goliath festival’s events that are at the more affordable end of the scale.
2023 Goliath Festival Kicks Off July 27
The 2023 Goliath festival shuffles up and deals at midday on July 27, with a £1,000 GUKPT Event kicking off the action. Coventry has proven a popular GUKPT destination of late.
In 2022, the GUKPT Coventry Main Event that was part of the Goliath 10th Anniversary celebrations, attracted 549 entrants, and Jack Hardcastle left them all in his wake. Hardcastle helped himself to a £125,450 top prize.
Grosvenor Poker is pulling out all of the stops to make the 2023 Goliath the biggest and best yet. The bustling schedule has been extended to make room for an eagerly anticipated Mystery Bounty event, a £2,000 High Roller, and a £3,500 Super High Roller. Of course, live satellites for those high-stakes events are available exclusively on Grosvenor Poker.
Kyle Jeffrey Tops 10,584-Player Field to Win 2022 Grosvenor Goliath X Main Event (£200,000)
Returning for 2023 is the ever-popular Joker’s Wild charity tournament. Always ridiculously good fun, this year’s £100 buy-in Joker’s Wild is raising money for the Carer’s Trust. Not only can you have a barrel of laughs and win prizes at the table, but you will be raising money for a fantastic cause.
Cash games players are well-catered for, too, with around-the-clock cash games taking place within the Grosvenor G Casino. Anyone that attended the Goliath last year can attest to those cash games being ever so juicy throughout the festival. Perhaps you’ll be able to buy a couple of Goliath Main Event entries at the cash you win?
An Estimated £1.5 Million Prize Pool for the Goliath Main Event
The 2023 Goliath Main Event features eight flights, each with unlimited re-entries for the first ten levels. Those levels are 30 minutes long, except the turbo-structure flight that has a 15-minute clock.
Each flight plays 18 levels, and they all start at 12:00 p.m. apart from Flight G and Flight H Turbo. Flight G starts at 11:00 a.m. because it will be the most popular start day by far, while Flight H Turbo kicks off at 6:00 p.m. Both of those flights run on August 4.
Day 2, on August 5, sees the clock extended to 40 minutes. The plan will be to reduce the field to only 16 players, although the tournament director may pause the action with four tables remaining if time is knocking on.
The third and final day’s action commences on August 6 and continues until only one man or woman is left standing and becomes the 2023 Goliath Main Event champion.
Jack Hardcastle Takes Down Goliath X GUKPT Main Event (£125,450)
The History of the Goliath
This writer was part of the poker media industry when the inaugural Goliath took place back in 2011. Everyone looked on in awe as the 2011 Goliath drew in 1,765 entrants, and paid champion Lee Rawson a £32,705 prize.
The Goliath broke through 2,500 runners in 2014, has hit more than 5,000 entrants by 2016, and topped out at 9,300 in 2019. Everything was set for a 10,000-strong field the following year, but the COVID-19 pandemic put paid to any live poker plans.
Grosvenor’s online poker site hosted the 2020 and 2021 editions of the Goliath; they saw 2,013 and 2,722 entries, respectively, making them two of the biggest online events Grosvenor Poker has hosted.
Lee Reynolds Wins the Record-Breaking Goliath For £64,601
Goliath returned to the live scene with a bang in 2022, when 10,584 players created a £1,270,080 prize pool for a £150 buy-in, which was and still is unheard of. Kyle Jeffrey emerged victoriously from the 2022 Goliath Main Event, and did so with a bankroll-boosting £200,000 in tow.
Jeffrey called his £200,000 score “life-changing” as he picked up his cheque, and it has been exactly that for the reigning champion. Jeffrey’s massively boosted bankroll has given him the freedom to play in live poker events up and down the country in addition to across Europe. He has enjoyed some poker in the sun in Malta, and in late May, put together a deep run in an €800 buy-in event in Belgium. No doubt, Jeffrey will be in Coventry in an attempt to defend his title.
| Year | Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | £120 | 1,765 | £176,500 | Lee Rawson | £32,705 |
| 2012 | £120 | 1,954 | £200,000 | Les Fenton | £35,800 |
| 2013 | £120 | 2,570 | £257,000 | Jake Skidmore | £29,690 |
| 2014 | £120 | 3,394 | £339,400 | Ryan Foster | £62,320 |
| 2015 | £120 | 4,210 | £421,000 | Miikka Toikka | £70,800 |
| 2016 | £120 | 5,232 | £523,200 | Vamshi Vandanapu | £62,750 |
| 2017 | £120 | 6,385 | £638,500 | Elliot Marais | £85,760 |
| 2018 | £125 | 7,584 | £758,400 | Florian Duta | £101,450 |
| 2019 | £125 | 9,300 | £911,410 | Lee Reynolds | £64,601 |
| 2020 – online | £125 | 2,013 | £231,495 | “WRDortmund7” | £42,248 |
| 2021 – online | £110 | 2,722 | £272,200 | “Whityestar” | £54,460 |
| 2022 | £150 | 10,584 | £1,270,080 | Kyle Jeffrey | £200,000 |
2023 GUKPT Goliath Schedule
Check out the full 2023 GUKPT Goliath schedule in the table below, which details the Goliath Main Event, all side events, and satellites.