The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC)

If you’ve ever cashed in a live poker tournament, your name is probably already in The Hendon Mob database. Since 2018, the team behind that database has also been running its own tournaments: The Hendon Mob Championship, or THMC.

THMC is built for the players who fill most of the database: recreational and grassroots tournament players who want a proper trophy and a real field at a buy-in they can afford. This guide brings everything together in one place: what THMC is, the 2026 calendar, prize money, rules, satellites, venues, the players who have made their name in it, and how to get a seat.

We update the calendar, champions and prize money sections after every stop, so bookmark this page if you follow the series.

The Hendon Mob vs The Hendon Mob Championship

These two names get mixed up all the time, so here’s the difference.

The Hendon Mob (the database)

The Hendon Mob started as a group of four London professionals: Joe Beevers, Barny Boatman, Ross Boatman and Ram Vaswani. Their website launched in 2001 and grew into the world’s best-known record of live tournament results. The Global Poker Index (GPI) bought it in 2013, and GPI’s player rankings are built on Hendon Mob data. If you want to look up a player’s earnings, biggest scores or country ranking, that’s the database.

The Hendon Mob Championship (the tournaments)

THMC is the live tournament series run by GPI and The Hendon Mob. It’s the same company stepping out from behind the database and putting on events for the community it records. Every THMC cash is recorded on the winner’s Hendon Mob profile, like any other live result.

What Is The Hendon Mob Championship?

THMC was announced in June 2018, and the first event ran at the Malta Poker Festival that November. It cost €250, drew 491 players from 18 countries and built a prize pool of more than €100,000. That set the template the series still follows: an affordable buy-in, several starting flights and a custom trophy for the champion.

The series has grown quickly. In 2025 THMC visited 14 stops in 10 countries across five continents. In September 2026 it reached a sixth continent when THMC made its debut in Sydney, Australia.

Why Do Players Choose THMC?

Accessible buy-ins. Most Main Events cost between €150 and €350, or the local equivalent.

A community feel. THMC is designed to appeal to recreational players and grassroots tournament regulars, with an atmosphere to match.

A trophy that lasts. Your title sits on your Hendon Mob profile, on the site everyone uses to check results.

Travel packages. Every 2026 THMC Main Event winner receives a package to the THMC SA Millions in Johannesburg, worth about €2,500. The Hendon Mob adds these packages on top of the prize pool instead of taking them out of players’ winnings.

Standalone THMC Festivals vs THMC Trophy Events

This is the most important thing to understand before you travel, because it decides what you’ll find when you arrive.

THMC Trophy Event

• One THMC tournament on another festival’s schedule
• The host festival runs the venue, structure and cashier
• Examples: The Festival in Bratislava, Rozvadov, Malta and Tallinn; the Irish Poker Open; the Malta Poker Festival; Irish Open International in Sydney and Marrakech; SiGMA Poker Tour Manila; the RunGood Poker Series in the US
• Best for: players who are already going to that festival and want a cheap shot at a trophy

Standalone THMC Festival

• A whole festival under the THMC name: Main Event, side events and satellites
• Every guaranteed event awards its own THMC trophy
• Examples in 2026: Nottingham (July), Liechtenstein (August) and London (December)
• Best for: players who want a full week of affordable THMC tournaments

A short history: The Hendon Mob held a standalone festival at King’s Resort in 2019, but the modern standalone format started at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham in March 2025. Since then it has become a regular part of the calendar.

THMC 2026 Calendar

Date	Event	Location	Format / Details	Status
23–26 Feb	The Festival	Bratislava, Slovakia	€250 Trophy Event, four Day 1 flights	Completed
31 Mar–1 Apr	Irish Poker Open	Dublin, Ireland	€350 Trophy Event	Completed
24–25 Apr	Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition	St. Julian’s, Malta	Trophy Event	Completed
3–4 Jun	SiGMA Poker Tour	Manila, Philippines	Trophy Event	Completed
June	The Festival	Rozvadov, Czech Republic	Trophy Event; Winner: Dmitri Dudakov	Completed
2026	RunGood Poker Series	Thunder Valley, USA	$600 Mid-Major; Winner: Henri Perez Lopez	Completed
7–12 Jul	THMC Nottingham	Dusk Till Dawn, UK	Standalone; £230 Main Event, £200,000 GTD	Completed
20–23 Aug	THMC Liechtenstein	Grand Casino Liechtenstein	Standalone Festival	Completed
8 Sep	Irish Open International	Sydney, Australia	Winner: Liam Jehu	Completed
13–16 Sep	The Festival	Malta, Portomaso Casino	Winner: Dmitri Dudakov	Completed
27–28 Oct	Malta Poker Festival	St. Julian’s, Malta	Trophy Event	Completed
28 Oct–3 Nov	THMC SA Millions	Montecasino, Johannesburg	THMC Festival	Completed
10 Nov	Irish Open International	Marrakech, Morocco	Winner: Kaapo Tapio	Completed
20–22 Nov	The Festival	Tallinn, Estonia	Trophy Event, three Day 1 flights	Upcoming
1–6 Dec	THMC London	Genting Casino Stratford, UK	Standalone; £280 Main Event, £150,000 GTD	Upcoming

Dates and results are taken from the official THMC 2026 circuit page. For stops where we haven’t listed a winner, the full results are on The Hendon Mob database. New 2027 stops will be added here once they’re announced.

THMC Prize Money and Buy-ins

These are verified figures for some of the biggest and most recent THMC Main Events. “*” means the final prize came from a deal.

Event	Buy-in	Entries	Prize Pool	Winner	Winner’s Prize
THMC Malta Poker Festival 2018 (first THMC)	€250	491	€100,000+	—	—
Mid-Major Championship, Thunder Valley 2023	$600	1,605	$834,600	Jagdeep Bal	$71,036*
THMC Winter Championship, Liechtenstein 2024	CHF 350	506	CHF 156,860	Hermann Schweiger	CHF 30,900
Mid-Major Championship, Thunder Valley 2024	$600	1,248	—	Elias Travis	$79,024*
THMC Nottingham 2025	£280	440	£105,600	Qing Zheng	£20,500
THMC Irish Poker Open 2025	—	888	—	Michal Havavka	€37,348*
THMC Rozvadov 2025 (record field)	€150	2,417	€304,542	Haik Tougu	€51,300
Mid-Major Championship, Thunder Valley 2025	$600	1,111	—	Sasha Sabbaghian	$95,295
THMC Rozvadov 2026	—	351	€51,597	Dmitri Dudakov	—
Mid-Major Championship, Thunder Valley 2026	$600	1,096	—	Henri Perez Lopez	$83,380
THMC Festival Malta 2026	—	456	€95,304	Dmitri Dudakov	€15,470
THMC Marrakech 2026	3,800 MAD (~€300)	193	—	Kaapo Tapio	116,000 MAD*

What the numbers tell you: a typical European THMC Main Event pays the winner somewhere between €15,000 and €50,000, depending on the field. The US Mid-Major is the richest regular stop, with first prizes between $70,000 and $95,000. Even the smallest events usually turn a €250–€350 buy-in into a five-figure top prize.

THMC Tournament Structure and Rules

There’s no single THMC rulebook. Each event follows the rules of its host venue, so always read the festival’s terms before you play. Here’s what we’ve seen across recent stops.

Starting Stack and Blind Levels

Feature	Details
Starting stack	Usually 30,000–50,000 chips. London 2026 uses 30,000 in the Main Event and 50,000 in the Deepstack Opener.
Standard flights	About 30-minute levels.
Turbo flights	10–15 minute levels, usually on the last morning.

Starting Flights and Day 2

• Between three and seven Day 1 flights, depending on the stop
• Survivors from all flights combine on Day 2, which usually plays to a winner
• Some stops have run online Day 1 flights. Nottingham 2026 had two on GGPoker.

Late Registration and Re-entry

Late registration usually runs for the first several levels of each flight. Some side events stay open until Day 2 starts, as the London 2026 Deepstack Opener does.

Re-entry is common, but the limit varies. London 2026 allows two re-entries per flight, so three bullets in total.

London 2026 also has a rake-free “Flip and Go” entry, where everyone is all-in on the first hand and the survivors go straight to Day 2.

Payouts, Deals and Prizes

Feature	Details
Places paid	About 10–15% of the field. For example, 65 of 440 players were paid at THMC Nottingham 2025.
Deals	Final-table deals are allowed at many stops, but not all. The 2023 and 2024 Mid-Majors ended in eight-way ICM chops, and Marrakech 2026 finished with a heads-up deal. Always check the venue’s rules.
Extras	The winner gets a custom THMC trophy. In 2026, Main Event winners also got the SA Millions package, which is added on top of the prize pool.

THMC Side Events

Standalone festivals build a full schedule around the Main Event:

Side Event	Description
NLH Deepstack Opener	A deeper-stacked warm-up, often over two days
Pot-Limit Omaha	Usually 4-card or mixed 4/5-card
High Roller	At bigger stops such as Nottingham
Bounty or Mystery Bounty events	At some festivals
THMC Closer	A cheap single-day event on the final evening
Satellites	Live satellites into the Main Event

Every guaranteed side event at a standalone festival awards its own THMC trophy.

Satellites and Qualification

Satellites are the cheapest way into a THMC Main Event. These are the routes that have actually been offered recently:

Qualification Route	Details
Live satellites at the venue	THMC London 2026 starts with a £30+£5 satellite on Tuesday 1 December, and more run during the week.
Online Day 1 flights	THMC Nottingham 2026 ran two online Day 1 flights on GGPoker, on 7 and 9 July. Dusk Till Dawn added a £1,500 WSOP Circuit seat for any online qualifier who made the live final table.
Online satellites	THMC London has run online qualifiers on Unibet. In 2024, a weekly €50 satellite guaranteed one London package.
Raffles	THMC London has run seat raffles through PokerRaffles. In 2025, numbers cost £1 each and the prize was a £280 Main Event seat.
The Festival stops	THMC events at The Festival in Bratislava, Rozvadov, Malta and Tallinn can be reached through The Festival’s own online qualifiers.

Satellite tip: when you’re close to winning a seat, you don’t need to win more chips. You just need to survive. Fold anything marginal near the bubble.

How to Register for THMC (2027 Season)

The 2027 THMC calendar hasn’t been announced yet. When it is, we’ll add official registration links for every stop here.

Until then, here’s what to expect:

• Watch for announcements. The Hendon Mob usually announces each stop a few weeks to a few months ahead, on its THMC news page and social media.
• Buy in through the host. For trophy events, you register with the host festival. For standalone festivals, you register at the venue, such as Dusk Till Dawn or Genting Casino Stratford.
• Look for satellites early. Online qualifiers often open several weeks before the event.
• Get your ID ready. You must be 18 or over (21 at some US venues), and most UK casinos need photo ID for membership.

THMC Venue and Travel Guide

Here’s what you need to know about the regular THMC venues. Always check travel times and hotel prices yourself before booking.

Venue	Location	Nearest Airport	Travel / Stay Details
Dusk Till Dawn	Nottingham, UK	East Midlands Airport	Tram to QMC, then about a 10-minute walk. Direct trains run to Nottingham from London, Manchester and Liverpool. MainEventTravel is DTD’s official hotel partner.
Genting Casino Stratford	London, UK	London City Airport	Inside Westfield Stratford City. Stratford station is a few minutes’ walk away. Hotels are available around Westfield and the Olympic Park.
Grand Casino Liechtenstein	Gamprin-Bendern, Liechtenstein	Zurich Airport	Road or rail transfer from Zurich into Liechtenstein.
King’s Resort	Rozvadov, Czech Republic	Prague or Nuremberg	On the Czech–German border, with hotel rooms on site.
Portomaso Casino	St. Julian’s, Malta	Malta International Airport	Located in Malta’s main nightlife and hotel area.
Thunder Valley Casino Resort	Lincoln, California, USA	Sacramento International Airport	Located near Sacramento.

Notable THMC Champions and Players

Dmitri Dudakov (Estonia)

The first player to win The Hendon Mob Championship twice. He won THMC Rozvadov in June 2026 (351 entries), then won THMC at The Festival in Malta in September, beating Germany’s Alkan Aydingoz heads-up for €15,470. His approach is worth copying: he skips turbos and treats 30-minute levels as his minimum.

Sasha Sabbaghian (USA)

The all-time THMC money leader. He won the 2025 Mid-Major Championship at Thunder Valley for $95,295 from 1,111 entries, after being down to three and a half big blinds twice on the final day. It was his second title at the venue, after the 2021 RGPS Main Event.

Haik Tougu (Estonia)

Winner of the biggest THMC ever: the €150 Rozvadov event in 2025, which drew 2,417 entries. He beat Philipp Klok heads-up in just 11 hands for €51,300, plus the trophy, a portrait and a Cape Town package.

Jagdeep Bal (USA)

Winner of the first US THMC, the 2023 Mid-Major Championship at Thunder Valley, from a field of 1,605. He took $71,036 after an eight-way deal and went back to the same event in 2025 as a Day 2 chip leader, finishing 11th.

Michal Havavka (Slovakia)

Won the THMC at the 2025 Irish Poker Open, which was then the largest European THMC, for €37,348 after an ICM deal.

Henri Perez Lopez (USA)

Won the 2026 Mid-Major Championship from 1,096 entries for $83,380. That one result more than doubled his career earnings.

Liam Jehu (Australia)

Made history in September 2026 by winning the first THMC in Australia, the series’ sixth continent.

THMC All-Time Records

Record	Player / Achievement
First THMC event	Malta Poker Festival, November 2018 – 491 players, €100,000+ prize pool
Most THMC titles	Dmitri Dudakov (Estonia) – 2 (Rozvadov and Malta, 2026)
First two-time champion	Dmitri Dudakov, 2026
All-time THMC money leader	Sasha Sabbaghian (USA) – about $97,900
Biggest single THMC prize	Sasha Sabbaghian – $95,295 (Mid-Major Championship 2025)
Most THMC cashes	Daniel Kuhlmann (Germany) and Marco Herman (Netherlands) – 7 each
Largest field	THMC Rozvadov 2025 – €150 buy-in, 2,417 entries, €304,542 prize pool
Largest North American field	Mid-Major Championship 2023 – 1,605 entries, $834,600 prize pool
Continents visited	Six, after Sydney in September 2026

Records are taken from The Hendon Mob’s THMC leaderboards and may change after each new event.

Recent THMC Main Event Champions

2026 Champions

Event	Champion	Country
THMC Rozvadov	Dmitri Dudakov	Estonia
RGPS Thunder Valley Mid-Major	Henri Perez Lopez	USA
Irish Open International Sydney	Liam Jehu	Australia
The Festival in Malta	Dmitri Dudakov	Estonia
Irish Open International Marrakech	Kaapo Tapio	Finland

2025 Champions

Event	Champion	Country
THMC Nottingham (March)	Qing Zheng	—
Irish Poker Open	Michal Havavka	Slovakia
The Festival in Rozvadov	Haik Tougu	Estonia
RGPS Thunder Valley Mid-Major	Sasha Sabbaghian	USA
The Festival in Malta	Egi Adriaans	—
THMC Cape Town Million	Sean Bloom	—
THMC London	Dimosthenis-Stefanos Ioannidis	Greece

2024 Champions

Event	Champion	Country
THMC Winter Championship, Liechtenstein	Hermann Schweiger	Germany
Irish Poker Open	Mario Niciforo	—
THMC Taipei	Zhang Guo	—
RGPS Thunder Valley Mid-Major	Elias Travis	USA
THMC Cape Town Million	Muaaz Gani	—

The complete winners list for every season is on the official THMC circuit page.

Where Are THMC Tournaments Held?

Continent	Countries / Venues
Europe	Dusk Till Dawn (Nottingham), Genting Casino Stratford (London), Grand Casino Liechtenstein, King’s Resort (Rozvadov), Banco Casino (Bratislava), Portomaso and the Malta Poker Festival (Malta), Irish Poker Open (Dublin), Tallinn
Africa	Montecasino (Johannesburg), GrandWest (Cape Town, until 2025), Casino de Marrakech
Asia	Manila (SiGMA Poker Tour), Taipei (GPI Asia)
North America	Thunder Valley, California (RunGood Poker Series)
South America	São Paulo (2025)
Oceania	Sydney (2026)

Latest THMC Coverage on PokerClubGames

• THMC London 2026: Full Schedule and £150K Main Event Guide
• WSOP Circuit UK 2026 at Dusk Till Dawn: Player Guide
• Live Poker Tournaments This Week (updated every week)

Official Sources

• The Hendon Mob Championship – official page: thehendonmob.com/championship
• THMC 2026 circuit calendar and leaderboards: pokerdb.thehendonmob.com (THMC, season 2026)
• The original 2018 THMC announcement on The Hendon Mob
• “Dmitri Dudakov Makes The Hendon Mob Championship History in Malta” – The Hendon Mob

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