World Speed Poker Open
The World Speed Poker Open (WSPO) was an international poker tournament held under speed poker rules.
Format
The tournament had a £2,000 entry fee.
Twelve preliminary heats took place, each with six participants. The winner received £2,500 and a place in one of the WSPO semi-finals.
The top three finishers in each of the semi-finals received a seat in the WSPO Final. The winner also received a further £2,500. Players took to the Final the amount of chips they had when their semi-final got down to just three players.
The payout structure for the Final was:
- Winner: £50,000
- Runner-Up: £25,000
- 3rd place: £17,000
- 4th place: £10,000
- 5th place: £5,000
- 6th place: £2,000
Rules
Each player has 15 seconds to make their decision. The clock starts when the player knows how much the bet into him or her is.
Twice per tournament, a player may have an additional 30 second time-out, this idea was the brainchild of Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot.
If a decision is not made during that time period, the hand is declared dead.
To help speed things along, 2 dealers are utilised.
2005 Results
| Event | Winner | Runner-Up | Other Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat 1 (paddypowerpoker.com) | Mike McFadden | Ram Vaswani |
|
| Heat 2 (paddypowerpoker.com) | Oliver Boyce | Kevin O'Connell |
|
| Heat 3 (coralpoker.com) | Tiffany Williamson | Dave Penly |
|
| Heat 4 (partypoker.co.uk) | Jac Arama | Jason Smith |
|
| Heat 5 (partypoker.co.uk) | Lynne Beaumont | Thomas Bihl |
|
| Heat 6 (partypoker.co.uk) | Neil Channing | Korosh Nejad |
|
| Heat 7 (pokerheaven.com) | John Kabbaj | Victor Garcia Camara |
|
| Heat 8 (pokerheaven.com) | Dave Colclough | Henning Bolstad |
|
| Heat 9 (pokerheaven.com) | Tony G | Alex Tsai |
|
| Heat 10 (fulltiltpoker.com) | Adam Richardson | Chris Ferguson |
|
| Heat 11 (interpoker.com) | Emile Petit | Matthew Norman |
|
| Heat 12 (interpoker.com) | Rory Matthews | Piero Milani |
|
| Semi-Final 1 | Emile Petit | Mike McFadden |
|
| Semi-Final 2 | Tony G | Lynne Beaumont |
|
| Grand Final | Oliver Boyce | Emile Petit |
|