About Pokercush.com
The Early Years 2003 - A New Era House Rules
In the early part of 2000 Ian Cushion (aka Cush) decided to start hosting regular 5 card draw poker games every fortnight in his home.  Various players attended these games many of which had never played poker before.

After remembering the 1994 movie 'Maverick' starring Mel Gibson where twenty of the best poker players competed against each other to determine who the best was, Cush decided to organise a one-off tournament for his friends.

The date was set.

The game would consist of a total of 16 players playing in four groups of four competing in a five card draw limit poker tournament with the winner of each group would go through to the final.

Each group game would be played every two weeks with the final being played in December.  The tournament was a success and a winner was eventually crowned.

Early the following year Cush and John 'The Cowboy' Cairns had been watching 'Late Night Poker' on Channel Four.

This was the first time these two players had really watched a no limit Texas Hold'em tournament and it was a whole different game to the five card draw games that they had been playing.

Together they decided to organise a game for ten players to compete in a no limit Texas Hold'em tournament and in February 2001, eight players attended this new event and now as this was no limit it didn't take long for the event to become very tense.

The night was a sucess and John 'The Cowboy' Cairns became the very first winner of the no limit Texas Hold'em event.  Due to the popularity of this game many of the players wanted Cush to organise another event.  Cush agreed and decided to host five games that year with an average turnout of eight players attending each game.

Each player wanted to know who the best player was that year so it was worked out on average how each player finished and when the results came through, the 2001 winner was Rob Devitt with Cush coming a close second.

In 2002, an extra game was slotted into the calendar to make six and the average attendance that year was ten players per event.  With the final game being played in November Cush claimed his first title having the best performance that season followed by Michel Mclinden just two points behind him in second.

A record number of 15 players attended the final game that year and not even Cush could have predicted how popular the events were becoming.