Robert Clarke Turns a Freeroll Into an 888poker LIVE London Main Event Shot
It's not uncommon for online poker sites to offer freeroll satellites into their live events, but does anyone actually turn a freeroll into a live event seat? They do at 888poker, and Robert Clarke is living proof that it happens.
Clarke leads a busy day-to-day life, working two jobs as a teaching assistant at a special educational needs (SEN) school and doing youth work with SEN children, which doesn't leave much spare time to play poker.
"It's rewarding but demanding. I say this to everyone, and I say it all the time: you don't do this job for money. You do it to give back to the community. And that's why I do it really, to see the kids get to do things that they don't normally get to do."
Working with SEN children requires a person to be patient, empathetic, and observant. Clarke believes the former stands him in good stead at the poker tables.
"Patience, I'd say. When you've got kids that are not having the best day and don't want to do their work and don't want to do this, and they're calling you this and saying that's it, so I have a bit of patience there. This isn't going to be a five-minute job. It's kind of similar to poker, isn't it? Like, you know, you might play for two hours without getting any hands. You might be making a few bets, and someone keeps three-betting you all the time, and it's like, okay, can I have a bit of patience here? Like, this isn't the hand to go with; let's just wait. It does help the patience."
Although Clarke's job is demanding, he does find time to hit the online poker tables at 888poker. Earlier this year, he finished second in a PKO edition of the $109 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed Main Event for more than $7,000. More recently, Clarke decided to try to qualify for the 888poker LIVE London Main Event, a £1,250 buy-in tournament with a £250,000 guaranteed prize pool. He started his quest for glory in freeroll tournaments, eventually bagging himself a seat in the live event.
"Yeah, so there was just like a normal freeroll satellite. There were quite a few people in it, but I qualified, I think it was like top 32 or something like that. I got into the main satellites and then won that for the £1,250 seat."
Clarke entered the mix on Day 1b, bided his time, and ultimately bagged on Day 2. During his time at the tables, he locked horns with the likes of seasoned grinder Dean Clay and the legendary figure that is John Duthie.
"I was up quite early, to be fair, I had a lot of decent hands, pocket aces three times, pocket queens twice. I got up to about 75-80K, but ran a bit slower after that. I went on to the future table toward the end of the day and just kind of bided my time a bit and just made some moves when I could."
During the 14th and final level of Day 1b, Clarke found himself involved in a major pot that could have ended so differently. He was involved in a battle of the blinds with Geore Gergely that resulted in Gergely being all-in for 30,000 chips (10 big blinds) with king-jack and needing help against Clarke's pocket tens. Gergely spiked a jack on the flop, leaving Clarke needing one of the two remaining tens. One of them, the ten of spades, landed on the turn to improve him to a set. A brick on the river saw Gergely bust and Clarke soar to 90,000 chips.
"He needed to go all in, and I had pocket tens. It's kind of a no-brainer for me. Like, he's short-stacked, he's got the blinds coming, so he's jamming, and I hit the turn, so I got a little bit lucky."
Having bagged and tagged at the end of Day 1b, Clarke went to bed a happy man. However, having seen his Day 2 seat draw, which included the likes of Mitch Johnson, Fraser Bellamy, Jamie Walden, and the 2024 888poker LIVE Coventry champion Chris Da-Silva, Clarke's level of happiness may have waned a little, although he remains quietly confident.
"I saw the seat draw this morning and I thought, yeah, there's at least three or four people on 200K plus. There's lots out there that don't. I mean, it can go for or against me, can't it really? I mean, at the end of the day, they're not going to want to lose their chips, so I definitely can't just be very loose and just start playing every hand. I'm an unknown to them; they're not going to know how I play.
"I think I've just got to play it tight for a bit, wait for the hands to come in. I'm the short stack at my table with 80K, but there are others out there with 25-30K. There's plenty of time to play some hands. I haven't got to rush straight into it, you know, it's just let's just see where it takes us. We'll go from there."
There is still a long way to go before the 888poker LIVE London Main Event champion is crowned, but unfortunately, it won't be Clarke, who crashed out toward the money bubble. Does he recommend fellow players heading to 888poker and trying to freeroll their way into the next 888poker LIVE or UKPL event? You bet your bottom dollar he does!
"Yeah, I mean, if you've got the time, granted, it's going to be very hard to win the first one normally because you're going to get a lot of people who are just going all in straight away. You only start with normally 1,000 chips. And it is a bit of a wild card at the beginning, but if you build a chip stack there, try to play it tight and just qualify from the first one. Then, in the second tournament, there are not as many players in it; you can go for the win then. So absolutely go for it. Like, you know, you get to go and visit places that you may not necessarily come to or play in tournaments. I know for certain I wouldn't be able to afford to play in this event."
