The largest live poker tournament outside of Las Vegas, the Goliath, will return to Coventry’s Grosvenor Casino this August for its 10th anniversary celebration.
The 10th anniversary Goliath could pay out £1 million this year when the action gets underway inside 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 inside Grosvenor Casino at the Coventry Building Society Arena.
The first of eight starting flights gets underway on August 27 and play will continue until a winner is crowned on September 4. Qualifiers are running on GrosvenorPoker.com and the organizers expect the Goliath to be the biggest so far.
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. In fact, until the WSOP started offering events such as the Millionaire Maker, Grosvenor’s Goliath was the biggest tournament outside of the Main Event.
Taking the WSOP out of the equation, the Goliath is a huge draw and, with a projected prizepool of £1 million ($1.2 million), the organizers expect more than 10,000 players to ante up later this month.
Back to normal for Grosvenor Goliath
The astute among you will notice that 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 that it’s actually the Goliath’s tenth live outing.
Grosvenor Goliath Winners
| Year | Entrants | Prizepool | 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 August 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 10,000-player mark and pay out more than £1 million.
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