Rick Trigg: "There Is No Excuse to Not Play the Goliath Online"

Team Grosvenor’s Rick Trigg is a British poker star who, it is fair to say, knows a thing or two about poker tournaments. The Sheffield lad has cashed in more than 10,000 online tournaments, and now has his sights set on becoming the 2021 Goliath Online champion.

Trigg is in rich form having recently triumphed in the 2021 GUKPT Manchester Main Event, a result that padded his bankroll with £134,250. The victory was Trigg’s second in a GUKPT Main Event, with him having won GUKPT Blackpool in 2013. How does it feel to become a two-time GUKPT champion?

"Really good actually! I’d been losing through lockdown and I started doubting myself a little bit but then as soon as I played the £400 and pure bubbled it, I got the sense that I was going to have a good result live sooner rather than later. I just felt like I knew what was going on a lot of the time.

"Before, I’d wear headphones and not really listen to what was going on, but I was really attentive that week, and stayed off the beer for a week as well, and I felt myself really focussing, picking up on things people were doing, picking up tells etc.

"Hopefully, I can try and get a third now and maybe even get three or four [GUKPT Main Event titles] and that would be brilliant."

The GUKPT Manchester Atmosphere Was Great

Trigg spoke to Phil "The Tower" Heald shortly after his Manchester victory, and was full of praise for the atmosphere in the casino. The GUKPT is well-known for being one of the more welcoming tours on the live circuit; it was certainly that was in Manchester.

"Going forwards, I think I’m probably going to play more live poker because the atmosphere there was great, bumping into people I’d not seen for ages, just friendly familiar faces. They’re a good crowd all the GUKPT regulars. It was really fun and everybody had a smile on their face. Luckily for me, I won when there was massive money up top thanks to everyone being keen to play after lockdown."

"I Would Love To Win the Goliath

Being someone who is highly regarded in the online poker world – Trigg has been ranked as high as fourth in the world by PocketFives – having the Goliath taking place online should suit him down to the ground, or will it?

"I would have said Goliath online would have suited me more up to about a year ago, but I would personally prefer it to be live, just because how I feel about my game right now, being able to get reads off players, and I pretty much know where I am in lots of spots now. However, it's online and there probably won’t be anyone in the Goliath Online field that have played more tournaments online than me in their lives, so it should suit me. I’m really looking forward to it, and I’m going to play every day and try get through with a good stack, not saying I’m going to blast any stacks off but my aim is to get a really good stack for Day 2, and then it would be nice to win a Goliath and GUKPT double; that would be amazing.

"I’d love to win it because it’s a £100 tournament so you have everyone playing it. People who play £10 tournaments will take a shot and people who usually play £1,000 tournaments will drop down for this because of the good guarantee. The fact they need 2,500 UK-only players to play means there is either going to be an overlay or a lot of bad players in the field! I mean there’s not 2,500 good players throughout Europe, no offence, so there’s going to be good value either way. Everyone has a good chance. It’s not just a case of running good and playing well, it’s about patience and persistence as well."

Obviously, Trigg is confident of going all the way and becoming the 2021 Goliath Online champion, but if he doesn’t emerge victoriously on August 30, which of his fellow Team Grosvenor teammates does he think will?

"I think the chances are probably similar because they all know how to play well and are used to playing big field tournaments, and are all used to the site and the regulars on the site, so I can’t really pick anyone out.

"If I really had to, maybe Andy Hills because Andy has been a reg on the site, and plays on the site most nights. At the moment, Andy is probably best equipped out of all of us to go really deep, but if I had to make the odds on all of us as to who goes farthest, I’d probably put us all at the same price to be honest because there are so many variables. Let’s hope we all go deep."

There Is No Real Excuse Not To Play!

It is a case of the more, the merrier when it comes to poker tournaments. More players mean more prize money, and it also means there are more chips to be won. For those of you who are on the fence about trying to qualify for the £250,000 guaranteed Goliath Online, which you can do from a single £1, Trigg has a message for you.

"Goliath Online is a must-play. There is no real excuse not to play! Anyone who wants to look down on it because of the buy-in is silly because you can play Day 1s on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, so you can find one day spare to play it. And if you don’t think about the buy-in, think about how it’s going to be around £50,000 for the winner. It’s going to be absolutely massive.

"You’ve got to play it! Even if it’s a bit over your bankroll, there are so many satellites going on around the clock that you can probably wake up at any time and there will be satellites running in the next hour giving away a daft number of seats. Don’t worry about the £100 buy-in because the strength of the field will be similar to £10 or £20 tournaments because there will be loads of recreationals having a shot. Sure, there will be a few solid professionals, but there are that many people playing that you may not even run into them. Even if you do, it will be a good challenge, and you can learn from them.

"My dad always used to say ‘if you lose, learn’ so if you bust, which everyone apart from one player will do at some stage, just try to take something from it and improve your game, and you’ll recoup your buy-in pretty easily."

2021 Goliath Commences on August 25

Day 1A of the £250,000 guaranteed Goliath shuffles up and deals at 8:00 p.m. BST at Grosvenor Poker. UK & Ireland PokerNews has a dedicated Goliath Online live reporting page, which we will fill in with a daily recap, chips counts, and payouts until a champion is crowed. Hopefully, that champion will be you; or at least Trigg!