Playing No Limit Texas Hold 'Em from 5pm Saturday September 2 to past midnight on the 3rd, more than 100 players either bought in for £250 or qualified via one of the satellite tournaments that took place throughout the UK in 18 Stanley casinos since early June.

Winner Linda had apparently never played in a UK casino before. Afterward she said: “I still cannot believe that I am the UK Ladies Poker Champion, I have only been playing poker for 15 months so I’m a relative newcomer to the game. I’m absolutely delighted and although it was intense out there, I really enjoyed the whole experience.” As for the suggestion that a women-only tournament might be easier in some way, Linda added: “Women are more cautious poker players than men and I actually find playing against them harder because of it.”

The tournament final was held at Stanley's flagship casino Star City in Birmingham, where Nicky Clements is the general manager. The innovative tournament obviously delighted Nicky, and has provided the casino group with a blueprint for further successful tournaments. She said: “We have been extremely excited about this tournament and are delighted at how well it has gone. As a first in the UK, our tournament has created a platform for women to be taken more seriously in what has been a notoriously male orientated game. Stanley will make this an annual event in the poker diary and a recognised title in the poker world.”

Of course, marketing such a tournament and reaching the right people can be difficult.

Mark Ross, Head of Commercial Operations for Stanley Casinos Provincial was another flushed with the success of the tournament. Some clubs provided more qualifiers than others, says Mark: "Manchester Circus provided quite a few, they did very well. And Reading, obviously the winner came from Reading, they did well."

In terms of 'feminising' the events, the casinos apparently 'pinked things up a bit', with more flowers in the building. Dealers, Mark says, enjoyed the event particularly: "The dealers absolutely loved it, they loved dealing to tables full of ladies… it’s much calmer. They said far more sensible, actually."

As for the mix of experience of the players, Stanley says most of the entrants had played live in casinos before, some were online only players – and of course, the winner had never played in a UK casino before.

Advertising such an event in the UK is a tough proposition, as the casino wanted the broadest selection of entrants it could find – but without being able to advertise in the traditional way, how could they find their players? Mark explains: "worldofpoker.com, which is a poker forum, they were doing some stuff for us, and we put an advert in Poker Europa. Two months of adverts in Poker Europa and a fair bit of marketing within our own casinos, at all our own poker events. We had flyers, leaflets and light boxes in all our own casinos, including the ones without poker rooms. The most effective of these avenues, I feel, was the leaflets that went to the ladies who were already coming in and playing poker in our casinos. They were already playing live, they knew what they were doing and they knew us as well."

Player satisfaction was extremely high too, according to Mark. "They all loved it, really, really loved it, had a really enjoyable time and all desperate for us to hold it again. We'll try and make it an annual event from here on."

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