Goliath Aims for £1 Million Prize Pool in Post-COVID Return to Live Action

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The largest live No-Limit Hold’em poker tournament outside of Las Vegas, the Goliath, will return to Coventry’s Grosvenor Casino this August for its 10th-anniversary celebration.

goliath
The 10th anniversary Goliath could pay out £1 million this year when the action gets underway at Coventry’s Grosvenor Casino. (Image: Twitter/GrosvenorPoker)

The long-running event was, like so many, a victim of COVID-19. Now, with restrictions a distant memory, the £150 ($180) tournament will emerge from its two-year stint online and reconvene at Grosvenor Casino at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

The first of eight starting flights begins on Aug. 27 and play will continue until a winner is crowned on Sept. 4. Qualifiers are running on GrosvenorPoker.com and the organizers expect the Goliath to be the biggest so far.


2022 Goliath Schedule
Date Flight Time Buy-In Re-Entry
Saturday, Aug. 27 A 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Sunday, Aug. 28 B 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Monday, Aug. 29 C 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Tuesday, Aug. 30 D 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Wednesday, Aug. 31 E 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Thursday, Sept. 1 F 12pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Friday, Sept. 2 G (Turbo) 11am £120+£30 Unlimited
H (Turbo) 6pm £120+£30 Unlimited
Saturday, Sept. 3 Day 2 11am
Sunday, Sept. 4 Day 3 11am

Goliath remains popular after 12 years

Grosvenor’s Goliath has been breaking records since it first ran in 2011. Lee Rawson won the inaugural event, beating what was then one of the largest live tournaments ever held in Europe.

Interest in the Goliath continued to grow and, within a few years, it became the biggest live poker tournament outside of Las Vegas. Until the WSOP started offering events such as the Millionaire Maker, Grosvenor’s Goliath was the biggest poker tournament outside of the Main Event.

Taking the WSOP out of the equation, the Goliath is a huge draw and, with a projected prize pool of £1 million ($1.2 million), organizers expect more than 10K players to ante up later this month.

Back to normal for Grosvenor Goliath

The astute among you will notice the table below lists this year’s Goliath as the 12th installment. However, when you remove the online events in 2020 and 2021, you can see this is actually the Goliath’s 10th live outing.


Grosvenor Goliath Winners

Year Entrants Prize Pool Winner Top Prize
2011 1,765 £176,500 Lee Rawson £32,705
2012 1,954 £200,000 Les Fenton £35,800
2013 2,570 £257,000 Jake Skidmore £29,690
2014 3,394 £339,400 Ryan Foster £62,320
2015 4,210 £421,000 Miikka Toika £70,800
2016 5,232 £523,200 Vamshi Vandanapu £62,750
2017 6,385 £638,500 Elliot Marais £85,760
2018 7,584 £758,400 Florian Duta £101,450
2019 9,300 £911,410 Lee Reynolds £64,601
2020 2,013 (online) £231,495 WRDortmund7 £42,248
2021 2,722 (online) £272,200 Whityestar £54,460
2022 1,101 *Registered so far £1 million (*estimated) TBD TBD

Flanking the celebratory Goliath will be a selection of side events. The £1,000 ($1,200) GUKPT Coventry gets the series underway on Aug. 25. For those with smaller bankrolls, pub poker league RedTooth will have a presence at the series.

Finally, there will be turbos, a women’s event, and something for the seniors. However, all eyes will be on the Goliath to see if it can break the 10K-player mark and pay out more than £1 million.




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