There are shows that cover poker tournaments on television and then there are poker shows made for television. Usually the first group fall into two categories. The World Series of Poker has certain events pre-selected by ESPN and except for the Main Event and the $50,000 HORSE event, it is a complete gamble if the final table will be interesting. The World Poker Tour model is a bit different because they (The Travel Channel and now GSN) cover every final table but only the final table.
Then we have the "made for TV" events like High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. In these events the players are selected by the producers with an eye to a "good show". Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not; six tired, quiet poker pros sitting around a table makes for really boring television.
Somewhere in between is a better format and Party Poker seems to have hit on a near perfect format.
The Party Poker Premier League features 12 of the world’s best players playing in a unique league event for a $1 million prize pool. The event started at 3 Mills Studio, London on the 10th February and will be first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in late March. Each player took part in half a dozen six-seater games in the preliminary stages. The leading four players then progressed to the final table with the next four battling it out in heads-up matches for the final two seats.
Each player puts up $20,000 with PartyPoker.com adding $280,000 to make the pool $1 million. Nine of the twelve players from 2007’s successful event returned with the new faces added including: Marcel Luske, Annie Duke and Alexander Kravchenko. As before, Phil Hellmuth led a top field that also includes Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Ian Frazer, Roland De Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Juha Helppi and Eddy Scharf.
After the preliminary events the players ranked as follows:
Tony G (AUS) 38 pts
Andy Black (IRE) 33 pts
Alex Kravchenko (RUS) 26 pts
Marcel Luske (HOL) 21 pts
Roland De Wolfe (ENG) 20 pts*
Annie Duke (USA) 19 pts*
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott (ENG) 19 pts
Eddy Scharf (GER) 19 pts
Vicky Coren (ENG) 17 pts
Juha Helppi (FIN) 11 pts
Ian Frazer (ENG) 9 pts
Phil Hellmuth (USA) 8 pts
9 points were awarded for a 1st, 5 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th, 1 point for 5th and a bagel (zero) for 6th.
*Annie Duke and Roland De Wolfe won their heads up matches versus Davie Ulliott and Eddy Scharf to make the six player final table.
If you don't want to know the final table results, read no further.
