Live updates

There is a great atmosphere here early doors with smiles all round, players introducing themselves to their tablemates and taking selfies to commemorate the day. So far the hoodies are down and the earphones holstered and with an average stack now at just over 130 big blinds and a game of poker at the home of the English Premier League champions what’s not to love?

With late reg closing at 1.20pm for the first Day 1 flight today here at Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, players are registering quicker than you can say ‘Diego Costa’.

Charlotte Eaton, Charlie Godwin, Denis Prickett, Julian LeFevre and Henry Stafford are just a few of the players sitting down - and with flights at 3pm (30 minute blinds) and 6pm (20 minute blinds) still to come, we’re going to see a Super Saturday right here in West London!

As the first level draws to a close there are currently 151 entrants spread across 22 tables for the first of three flights here are Stamford Bridge today.

Registration for this flight closes at 13:20 so there is still plenty of time to get involved.

Zhang Yunyi and Puras Aleksandras clashed early in Level 1 here with the blinds at just 50/100. This Day 1 flight has 30-minute blinds throughout, with the starting stack of 20,000 chips giving players plenty of time to get involved. Yunyi and Aleksandras weren’t hanging about.

On a complete board of and with around 7k in the pot already, Puras popped another 2.5k into the middle. Yunyi thought long and hard about it, but raised to 7k, getting a super-quick snap-call. Ynuyi turned over for the nut flush, while Aleksandras, grimacing, flipped to see his set flushed away.

Tonight Chelsea take the long trip to Tel Aviv for their Champions League Group Stage match. Can you and Chelsea both find a win and head to Stamford Bridge happy? We have our GPPT Online Day 1’s on partypoker so you can watch the game and earn your Day 2 stack at the same time.

We can all sit round and debate in detail the upsides and downsides of a project, analyse these on a nice pretty spreadsheet, add a slick power point presentation……but then some bright spark just need to quote Delboy’s famous 4 words “He who dares wins” and those downsides will instantly shrink, and the upsides suddenly become larger.

This weekend, we travel to Stamford Bridge, the home of premiership champions, Chelsea FC, for the first stadium leg of the partypoker Grand Prix Poker Tour. Buying the tables, designing the branding, testing the mobile MTT clock, booking hotels, arranging the staff and overcoming the logistical challenges of transporting DTD’s card room to a football stadium will be delivered, but the shame of only 3 players turning up on Saturday cannot – and this does lurk in the back of my mind because not everyone thinks that your ideas are as cool as you. 100 tables have been purchased so that capacity will not be a problem, the converted ‘poker room’ at Stamford Bridge will look fantastic overlooking the pitch, there is a partypoker lounge for entertainment and relaxation, DTD Girls will milling around to welcome the players, Simon Trumper will announce shuffle up, Michelle Orpe will be hosting and Mad Marty will be doing his thing injecting fun into the proceedings. The full DTD team will be there in force, no half measures have been taken BUT the big question is - are you lot going to turn up and get this Grand Prix show on the road?

This event will succeed or fail at the Stadium on Saturday, where we will need huge numbers in the Day 1s not only to hit the £250K GTE, but for atmosphere and to justify the effort and cost.London is expensive, but for players wanting to keep expenses to minimum, you can choose where to play your Day 1 and players can play multiple Day 1s and take their Highest Stack to through to Day 2:

Online: 8pm Mon-Sat this week on partypoker
Live: 7pm at Aspers on Thu and Fri

OR Live at Stamford Bridge on Saturday 11am, 3pm, 6pm, click here to download the full schedule

I have been through my messages and picked out a few FAQ’s from players and answered below

High Roller, £1000+£100 buy-in, £100,000 Gtd

* Yes, there a plenty of ways to buy-in to the High Roller, but we cannot take any cash at the Stadium due to licensing rules, so your options buy in are;

1. on partypoker
2. Cash Desk at Aspers Casino, London
3. Cash desk at Dusk Till Dawn, Nottingham

If you have any problems buying in, message Simon Trumper on Facebook or email him on simon@dusktilldawnpoker.com and we will find a way to help you, Simon is in London from Wednesday

* No, the High Roller is not online payout, Simon will sort whatever is most convenient for each player, cash, bank wire, Aspers, DTD, pigeon delivery to your house, whatever suits you

* Yes, you can buy straight to Day 2 with 50 big blinds on Saturday at Stamford Bridge without having to give up the whole weekend OR you can play Day 1s;

Online: 8pm Thursday on partypoker
Live: 6pm Friday at Aspers

There is + 1 re-entry allowed on per Day 1, and + 1 re-entry allowed for the first 2 levels of Day 2. Day 1s play 8 levels of 40 mins, 50K chips, 75-150 starting blinds, the Live Day 1 at Aspers finishes around midnight

* Yes, late reg is until 1:20pm Day 2, the same format as all of our High Rollers, you can buy directly into Day 2 for 50 Big Blinds/40 min clock, you must be there in first 2 levels (so by 1:20pm)

* Yes, we have added online satellites at 9pm every night on partypoker Mon-Fri. $100+$9, 2 seats Gtd

* Yes, the High Roller will be streamed on Saturday. Feature table down to the winner

Grand Prix £60+£10 buy-in, £250,000 GTD

* No, we cannot handle any cash at the Stadium, buy-in is through partypoker only, just go to Live Events>Dusk Till Dawn>Grand Prix (On the Mobile App tick DTD & HIGH & REGULAR & TURBO, nothing else) and all the Day 1s are listed in the lobby, you can buy PaySafe vouchers at the shop across the road from the Stadium, we have been to see them and they are stocking up

* Yes, you take your Highest Stack through to Day 2, so you if you have made Day 2 already, you can still come to Stamford Bridge on Saturday and try for a bigger stack

Yes, the blinds are rolled back on Day 2 by 2 levels to 2500-5000, Day 2 has to start at 11am as we need to be done and dusted by 1am for licensing at Chelsea (some stadiums are 2am, but local council at Chelsea want 1am)

Yes, online sats are still running on partypoker, $22 buy-in, 10 seats 6pm, 20 seats 8pm, 10 seats 10pm

Yes, any problems you have we can deal with personally, in addition to the Grand Prix facebook group - we now have Live Chat Support on theGrand Prix web site - bottom right hand corner, click on the orange bar and Jamie, Nicola, Rachel, Glenn, Michelle can help you with any problems. You can use this on your mobile and tablet as well, even if you get lost on way to Stadium just message us and we will help you!

Keep The Faith, you choose where we go from here.

Rob