FRONTIERS OF FUTURE TECH

Live poker continues to boom across the world, and the recent inaugural Lagos Poker Festival (LPF) is no exception.

Held in Nigeria’s economic hub and Africa’s largest city of Lagos, the two-day festival which was held on the 16th & 17th of March 2024, surpassed its guarantee and crowned two champions for the NLHE Main Event and the PLO Side Event.

Lagos Poker Festival Results

The Main Event had a N500,000 ($440) buy-in with 63 entries and was won by Kevin Fan from China for N8,500,000 ($7,450) who defeated Lebanese player Sherif Zacca heads-up. Zacca, whose previous cashes came in the Lebanese Poker Championship and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) took home N5,500,000 ($4,820).

Meanwhile, the PLO Double Board Bomb Pot side event had a N250,000 ($220) buy-in with 24 entries and crowned a female winner as Nigeria’s Rosemary Uzoamaka won N2,000,000 ($1,760) after a heads-up deal with fellow Nigerian Abayomi Oluwaseun, who took home the same amount.

The pair agreed to a heads-up deal, with Uzoamaka emerging victorious to take home the trophy.

Festival Highlights & Growth of Poker in Nigeria

The event, which is owned by 3XC Gaming, an Africa-focused poker-centric gaming operator, was held at the newest and most modern poker room in Nigeria called THE CARDROOM.

The marketing and tournament management was supported by LetsPoker, whose easy-to-use cloud-based interface made the event organization a breeze, with QR-code information booths setup at the event and players/spectators downloading the app and following the action from their phones in real-time.

The event was endorsed by the Lagos State Lotteries & Gaming Authority (LSLGA) as part of their newly launched Africa Gaming Expo (AGE), with the Lagos Poker Festival expected to become a yearly anchor event at the expo, which is to be held every March moving forward.

The festival was marquee sponsored by Providus Bank, one of the largest banks in Nigeria, in a multi-year partnership to help support the event and galvanize poker in Nigeria.

This event also had the full support of premium food & beverage sponsors, including Bature Brewery, SushiBBQ Holic, and the world-renowned Glenfiddich, who also provided the main event champion with a custom engraved Grand Couronne 26 Years Old bottle, fitting for the crowning moment.

With the support of the regulator, the backing of elite sponsors, and the relentless efforts of new operators such as 3XC Gaming driving the growth and popularity of the game, not only with this event, but with additional projects such as the Nigerian Poker League and online poker partnerships within their pipeline, the future of poker looks bright. Watch this space for the next major festival to come out of West Africa.