Ian JohnFor many Poker players, the festive season is a time to enjoy some quiet time with the family, but after a couple of days of that, you are hungry to get back to the tables and start trying to earn 
some additional cash once again.
While this can be a problem in the real world, involving trips to poker rooms to play in events, Sky Poker offers a far simpler option and that is to play from the comfort of your home, via its fantastic Sky Poker UK Online Poker Series of events.
This December, the 18th in this hugely popular series of tournaments will take place starting on Tuesday 27th December, so what better way to spend that post Christmas, pre-New Year lull than by enjoying some of the best online tournament poker you can find all year long?
Remember, all you need to participate is to be a Sky Poker customer and you can click on the following link to join today and snap up the best poker no deposit bonus UK customers can get their hands on at the present moment in time.
What is the Xmas UKOPS XVIII at Sky Poker?
The UKOPS acronym stands for the United Kingdom Online Poker Series and it is the 18th time that this event has been run since its inception. There are usually 3-4 of these events each year and they are events that are open to online players only, making them far more accessible for all players.
This series will run from 5pm on Tuesday 27th December right the way through until the final tournament gets under way at 10pm on Friday 30th December. Each night there are a total of seven tournaments played and you can buy into these events for a range of buy ins starting at just £5.50 and going up to £550 for the High Roller event.
That means across the 28 different tournaments there is a total of £175,000 in prize money guaranteed up for grabs which someone has to win. Join in from your laptop, desktop, mobile or tablet PC and land a big prize and you could be celebrating this Christmas like a true Poker legend.
For some of the higher buy in events, Sky Poker is running a number of satellite tournaments each day on the Sky Poker site allowing players to try and play their way to a seat at the tables for considerably less than the stated buy in shown below.
Sky Poker are also running the UKOPS Total Player Leaderboard for the duration of this event, which we will explain in more detail once we have had chance to look at the full schedule of tournaments across the four days of action.
What is the UKOPS XVIII Tournament schedule?
The full list of UKOPS XVIII Tournaments, together with the time the tournament starts, the size of the buy (including registration fee), the prize money on offer for that tournament, the amount of time between blinds and the starting stack size are outlined below:
Tuesday 27th December
| Tournament | Time | Buy In | Prize Money Guaranteed | Blinds | Starting Stack Size |
| UKOPS 1 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 5pm | £11 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 2 – £2,000 Deep Stack | 7pm | £22 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 5,000 |
| UKOPS 3 – £15,000 High Roller | 7.30pm | £220 | £15,000 | 12 mins | 5,000 |
| UKOPS 4 – £15,000 Bounty Hunter | 8pm | £110 | £15,000 | 12 mins | 5,000 |
| UKOPS 5 – £2,500 Bounty Hunter | 8.30pm | £5.50 | £2,500 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 6 – £5,000 Bounty Hunter | 9pm | £22 | £5,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 7 – £4,000 Turbo Bounty Hunter | 10pm | £55 | £4,000 | 7 mins | 5,000 |
Wednesday 28th December
| Tournament | Time | Buy In | Prize Money Guaranteed | Blinds | Starting Stack Size |
| UKOPS 8 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 5pm | £11 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 9 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 7pm | £22 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 10 – £1,000 PLO | 7.30pm | £22 | £1,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 11 – £10,000 Rebuy | 8pm | £55 | £10,000 | 12 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 12 – £3,000 Rebuy | 8.30pm | £5.50 | £3,000 | 10 mins | 2,000 |
| UKOPS 13 – £5,000 Bounty Hunter | 9pm | £22 | £5,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 14 – £4,000 Turbo Bounty Hunter | 10pm | £55 | £4,000 | 7 mins | 5,000 |
Thursday 29th December
| Tournament | Time | Buy In | Prize Money Guaranteed | Blinds | Starting Stack Size |
| UKOPS 15 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 5pm | £11 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 16 – £2,000 Freezeout | 7pm | £22 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 17 – £25,000 High Roller | 7.30pm | £530 | £25,000 | 15 mins | 10,000 |
| UKOPS 18 – £15,000 Bounty Hunter | 8pm | £110 | £15,000 | 12 mins | 5,000 |
| UKOPS 19 – £2,500 Bounty Hunter | 8.30pm | £5.50 | £2,500 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 20 – £5,000 Rebuy | 9pm | £22 | £5,000 | 10 mins | 2,000 |
| UKOPS 21 – £4,000 Turbo Bounty Hunter | 10pm | £55 | £4,000 | 7 mins | 5,000 |
Friday 30th December
| Tournament | Time | Buy In | Prize Money Guaranteed | Blinds | Starting Stack Size |
| UKOPS 22 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 5pm | £11 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 23 – £2,000 Bounty Hunter | 7pm | £22 | £2,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 24 – £1,000 PLO8 | 7.30pm | £22 | £1,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 25 – £30,000 Main Event | 8pm | £110 | £30,000 | 15 mins | 10,000 |
| UKOPS 26 – £3,000 Freezeout | 8.30pm | £11 | £3,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 27 – £5,000 Bounty Hunter | 9pm | £22 | £5,000 | 10 mins | 3,000 |
| UKOPS 28 – £4,000 Turbo Bounty Hunter | 10pm | £55 | £4,000 | 7 mins | 5,000 |
Are there other prizes to be won in this event?
Yes there are, for six of the biggest events, the winner of each of these events will also win a prestigious UKOPS bracelet. The events where a bracelet will be awarded to the winner are as follows:
- Tues 27th Dec – UKOPS 3 and UKOPS 4
- Wed 28th Dec – UKOPS 11
- Thu 29th Dec – UKOPS 17 and UKOPS 18
- Fri 30th Dec – UKOPS 25
Essentially these are all the events in the tournament with a total prize fund of £10,000 or more and it is these events which are most likely to be available for players to satellite into on the Sky Poker site in the weeks leading up to the event.
The UKOPS Total Player Leaderboard
This exciting new addition to the UKOPS events was added a few tournaments ago and is back once again by popular demand. Sky Poker have set aside a bonus kitty of £5,000 to award to the 
players who perform most consistently over the entire UKOPS series of tournaments.
Each player who performs well will be given a number of player points based on their finish in all but one of the 28 tournaments taking place (the High Roller Freezeout event on Thursday 29th December is excluded). As the series progresses the points a player accumulates will accrue with each event they play in and a league table then takes shape.
At the end of the series, the players with the highest number of total player points will earn an additional cash prize from the Total Player Leaderboard contest in addition to any winnings they accrue in each individual tournament.
The UKOPS is one of the most popular online poker events of the year and with most people having some time to themselves over Christmas, what better reason do you need to participate and see if you could take home a cash prize or maybe even a coveted UKOPS Bracelet.
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