It’s the eve of the Black Belt Poker Grading, and those who managed to survive the recent Pre-Grading and the scrutiny of the judging team will no doubt be preparing for a gruelling, but ultimately rewarding six weeks.

Last year’s Grading saw a plethora of familiar names battle it out over an intense four-week period for the honour of being a member of the Vegas 8 and winning their dream trip to Vegas. This year, however, we decided to make the Grading accessible to a wider audience rather than just name pros with a one-week Selection period that allowed anyone to enter.

Those that successfully made it through to the other end will now have to compete with other Graders for the next month and a half. But this time around, the schedule is less hectic, in order to cater for those with full-time jobs or family commitments. Instead of forcing Graders to play a set number of hours a day at a certain level, they will be asked to play a total of 480 any-combination cash table-hours at stakes of $0.25/0.50 plus ($0.50/1 for the final two weeks).

Whilst this means that higher stake players will win or lose more money, we’ll be closely inspecting bbs/100 to ensure that everyone is given a fair assessment. Other judging categories will include ‘commitment’ – completing the hours, attending workshops, and showing a willingness to improve – and ‘contribution’ – submitting editorial content, speaking at workshops, and assisting others.

It’s going to be a slog, but it’ll be worth it with Graders being given the opportunity to not only learn from each other, but also receive exclusive mentoring from Black Belt Poker co-founders and poker pros Neil Channing and Nik Persaud. Of course, there are also the fabulous prizes, with the top performers not only winning a magnificent Irish Open package, but also being awarded Blue Belt status, a total prize equating to 100,000 Belt Points. Even those who just miss out will automatically be promoted to Green Belt, and those who don’t finish the course will earn 2,500 Belt Points for each week completed.

This is an educational process for everyone involved and whilst we expect it to be hard work, it will also be enjoyable and rewarding. Good luck to those starting their journey tomorrow, and keep your eyes peeled as we announce the lucky contestants to be taking part in Grading II: Destination Dublin.