 The first ever World Series of Poker Europe played last fall comes to Sky Sports television this week. This was the event that forever changed the poker insult: "You play like an eighteen year old!"
Several opportunities will be available to view all of the action:
April 21st 9 PM Sky Sports 3
April 22nd 9 PM Sky Sports 3
April 23rd 9 PM Sky Sports 3
April 24th 9 PM Sky Sports 2
April 25th 9 PM Sky Sports 3
April 26th 11 PM Sky Sports 2
April 22nd 9 PM Sky Sports Xtra
April 22nd 9:30 PM Sky Sports 2
The 2nd edition of the World Series of Poker Europe will take place this year, again in London, on Sept.
 The second year of the World Series of Poker of Europe will not include an expansion beyond the size, scope or location of last year's inaugural tournament. London will again be the location for the WSOPE and the tournaments will again be shared between the same three casinos: St. James (Fifty), Leicester Square (The Casino at the Empire) and Marble Arch (Sportsman).
The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe will be held from September 19th to October 1st, 2008 in London, England. Last year the WSOPE consisted of three events in same number of days: a HORSE tournament, a Pot Limit Omaha event and the Championship No Limit Hold'em tournament. We should expect a similar schedule this year.
I wanna hang a map of the world in my house. Then I'm gonna put pins
into all the locations that I've traveled to. But first, I'm gonna have
to travel to the top two corners of the map so it won't fall down.
-- Mitch Hedberg
There is a new element to professional poker play that was never more evident than last week. We all know about table selection but now professional poker players have to consider "Continent Selection." Last week there were major tournaments in London (World Series of Poker Europe) another tournament in Turks and Caicos (World Poker Tour) and players at the WPT event hopped privated jets to Aruba for the Ultimate Bet tournament and then there was the most recent leg of the Asian Poker Tour in Seoul, Korea.
Players have lots of factors to weigh in making a tournament selection:
-travel arrangements and time consideration;
-overlap with next event;
-proximity to next event;
-television coverage and broadcast area;
-sponsors perks (did they comp the suite?);
-tour name recognition (WPT, WSOP, EPT...);
-sponsors required play (the PokerStars team showed in Seoul because it was a PokerStars sponsored event; the FullTilt team had a big presence in London because that is what the Professor wanted).
A lot of the players are also taking into account the competition, players can only make it to one event and if all of the European players are going to play in the WSOPE then the fields like Pot Limit Omaha will be tough.
Another factor to be considered is the increase in championships to be won. In years past there was one big event to win a week if that, now while you are hoisting the WSOPE trophy another player is having his picture taken with a WPT pile of money. More tournaments, more winners, more poker resumes being built.
Who says poker is not a business? Now let me see, the $110 at Binions at 7 PM or the 8 o'clock for $120 at the Venetian?
 Three coveted WSOP bracelets will be on offer in the inaugural events to be held in London from September 6th – 16th. The £10,000 buy-in and $3 million anticipated first prize for the Main Event is sure to attract all the World’s best players to the UK.
The inaugural WSOP Europe begins September 6 with a three-day, £2,500 HORSE event at The Casino at The Empire, LCI's newest casino in Leicester Square. The Empire will also be the host casino for a two-day, £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event starting September 8.
On September 10, the WSOP Europe Main Event - a six-day, £10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'Em Championship - will begin at three card rooms in The Empire, The Sportsman and Fifty. The playing field will be consolidated beginning September 13 at The Empire.
Pre-registration for the World Series of Poker Europe has been open for two weeks and already some of the biggest names in poker have paid the £10,000 entry fee to the Main Event.
Phil Hellmuth, Humberto Brenes, Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Roland de Wolfe, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, Jamie Gold, Todd Brunson, Eli Elezra, Howard Lederer and Jennifer Harman are just a few of the players already committed to playing the event.
These will be the first World Series event to be held outside of Las Vegas and despite some concerns about diluting the value of a WSOP bracelet, it would seem that the opportunity for a WSOP Championship is drawing a very strong field to London.
The inaugural WSOP Europe begins September 6 with a three-day, £2,500 HORSE event starting on September 6, at LCI’s newest casino in Leicester Square, opening end of May 2007.
The Leicester Square Casino will also be the host casino for a two-day, £5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament starting September 8.
On September 10, the WSOP Europe Main Event – a six-day, £10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold’Em Championship – will begin at LCI’s Leicester Square, The Sportsman and Fifty. The playing field will be consolidated beginning September 13 at Leicester Square.
Super satellites are already off and running at venues in England for the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE).
The Rendezvous at the Marina in Brighton kicked off the first of the satellites May 2 with a tournament to get into the main super satellite taking place May 30 where players will have a shot at WSOPE championship event.
Events have also begun at The Sportsman in London, Rendezvous at the Kursaal in Essex and Manchester 235 in Manchester. Fifty in London will also host a satellite, and the Casino at the Empire (preview) will begin hosting events after its opening May 30.
Currenly List of Satellites for the WSOPE follows the break.
 The PartyPoker World Open at the Three Mills Studios, London is underway, featuring the strongest field in the history of the tournament. The televised tournament is sold out and features 72 players with a $7,000 buy-in and a total prize pool in excess of $500,000. The event is produced by Matchroom Sport and will be broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and distributed worldwide.
The field is packed with highly respected names from the world of Poker. PartyPoker Premier League Poker stars Liz Lieu, Juha Helppi, Roland De Wolfe, Tony G, Vicky Coren, Dave "The Devilfish" Ulliott and Ian Frazer.
I spoke with Liz Lieu last week at the Bellagio in Las Vegas and asked about her impending jump over the pond the the UK:
"I'm so excited to be heading back to London for another Party Poker event. The World Open looks to be a great tournament, and I'm happy to be invited to play."
In addition, for the very first time in the tournament's history, all four members of the UK's most successful poker playing team the Hendon Mob take to the felt. Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers and brothers Barny and Ross Boatman will all be under the spotlight and fancied to do well on their debuts. They too will be fresh from the Bellagio tournament, where both Ross and Barny went deep. Others to look out for include John Magill (12th WSOP Main Event 2006), recent Irish Open winner Marty Smyth, 2006 PartyPoker European Open champion Liam Flood, Don Fagan, Thomas Wahlroos, Roy Brindley and Roberto Romanello.
Last year's winner was Pippa Flanders, a well respected pro from Preston, UK, but the rise in her fortunes in the last year and the $200,000 she scooped from the World Open in 2006 mean that she inadvertently booked an expensive cruise on the QE2 later this month so she is unable to defend her title. Pippa and her husband, fellow pro Tim Flanders, have a plan, however, and are entering their 23-year-old daughter Charlotte instead.
A PartyPoker spokesman said:
"The field is the strongest in the tournament's history and we're very pleased. It's a shame that Pippa Flanders isn't back to defend her crown but Charlotte will surely defend the title valiantly."
The preliminary tournaments began on the 27th April with a celebrity table. The semi-finals start on May 3rd with the final on the evening of May 4th.
 Great for poker! The final four players busted out relatively quickly and before we knew it we had the heads up match we were hoping for.
Emad vs Vicky.
But as quickly as they came back from break and we positioned ourselves to see through the crowded stands, Emad had given away half his chips as the two made it a big pot with a pair of 8s vs a pair of 10s. The local Vic regulars were cheering for their girl,
"Go on Vicky!"
"Vicky, bring home the bacon!"
By the third hand her friends were saying that she'd jump on him while he only had a million chips, and that she did.
The flop was 5c 3c 4d
Vicky bet, Emad re-raised, Vicky called
The turn was a 10d and Emad moved all in
Vicky called quickly
Emad showed 8 6=Vicky had the straight with 6 7
The river was a Jack giving Vicky the historical win.
More photos, more photos - keep reading!
We're down to six, and man is this going to be a great TV table. Vicky is beautiful, spunky and mixing it up. She and the grinning Emad seem to be having a tête-à-tête with every hand they're in together. They are fun to watch. Chad Brown has lots of experience and his calm coolness is a good balance to the crossfire spunkyness playing out in front of him. (BTW, did you know he was going out with Vanessa Rousso?) Michael Muldoon and Jan Sjavic are pretty quiet.
Emad Tahtouh 1,100,100
Chad Brown 929,000
Vicky Coren 662,000
Michael Muldoon 636,000
Jan Sjavic 435,000
Jules Kuusik 309,000
Read on for pictures.
 Mad Harper of Poker Stars has been busting her ass to get the media information about the players. She gave the A-OK for everyone to reprint the bios as is so we all can familiarize our audiences with the finalists.
It's almost as exciting as the media making their last longer bets (I have Michael Muldoon for a pound), and debating about whether or not Vicky Coren will take the whole thing and make EPT history as the first female champion. In the past two seasons, all winners have been male. This, of course got John of PokerNews.com and Stephen of Gutshot.com betting over whether or not the U.S. was going to have a female for our next president.
Read on for the bios.
Here's an overhead shot of the penultimate final table. They were playing here until they got down to eight. Emad Tahtouh called Oscar Schweinebarch's all in, and eventually busted his pocket fives with KQ when a Queen came on the river. Schweinebarch took home £10,000 for 9th place.
After a 45 min break, the following eight players will resume play at the TV table.
Seat 1 Chad Brown 759,000
Seat 2 Emad Tahtouh 480,000
Seat 3 Sid Harris 270,000
Seat 4 Michael Muldoon 380,000
Seat 5 Jan Sjavik 460,000
Seat 6 Peter Hedlund 380,000
Seat 7 Jules Kuusik 240,000
Seat 8 Vicky Coren 400,000
 They got it down to 13 last night by 4am when everyone was getting pushed out of the casino. (It's the law). Michael Muldoon, a 25-year old civil servant from Belfast, N. Ireland, will be the color for today's final table. He had quite the fan club yesterday. A few of his buddies were cheering him on from the rail and calling their other friends back home. Imagine a thick Irish accent saying, "He hit the nine, he HIT the NINE!"
Isabelle Mercier cashed in 16th place for 10,000. Shannon Shorr went home with 6,000 for 21st place, and Barny Boatman got the same cash for 22nd. Both Phil Ivey and the Blonde Ivey busted early on yesterday as they were trying to make their moves.
We're getting there. Last night some big named players got sent home including Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen, Vanessa Rousso, and Londoner Anthony Holden.
104 players begin Day 2 (or the third day of play). Here are the top fifty. The question is, who are these guys? There are so many names I don't recognize. Not that I would expect to know a mix of Euro/Intl online and tourney players. I looked up the top ten chip leaders to get a better idea of who was kicking butt.
1. Chad Brown 127,800
2. Johnny Lodden 126,700
3. Dean Sanders 117,600
4. Emad Tahtouh 110,300
5. Michael Abecassis 87,200
6. Barny Boatman 87,100
7. Arshad Hussain 86,600
8. Daniel Needleman 84,600
9. Torben Snejbjerg 83,100
10. R Pedersen 78,500
 LONDON--There's something about a Day 1B that is a bit less exciting than 1A. Maybe it's the sudden rash on the hands, the beckoning of other friends in town. The rain. I only stayed at the Vic for a short while today. Long enough to see that everyone was more interested in the Europe vs. USA Ryder Cup than they were the poker.
Sure there were names in play today. Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Gus Hansen, Andy Black, Mark Goodwin (who did remarkably well in the WSOP Roshambo event), Anthony Holden, Vanessa Russo, Mel Judah, and my fave up and comer, The Blonde Ivey.
But like I said, it was all about the golf. Look at the pics and we'll talk about who lasted in the next post.
LONDON--Here is a list of the top ten finishers from yesterday's EPT London event, Day1A. Of 198 starters, there are 54 remaining.
1.Johnny Lodden, 126,700
2.Barny B. Boatman, 87,100
3.Torben Sneibjerg, 83,100
4.Michael Muldoon, 73,900
5.Stuart Rutter, 61,500
6.Shannon Shorr, 60,200
7.Ivar Rivenaes, 60,000
8.Simon Zach, 58,900
9.Ross Boatman, 56,500
10.Tim Flanders, 55,500
Phil Ivey finished 19th with 42,200 chips. Isabelle Mercier made it through the day with 36,000 chips. Ram Vaswani kept 28,300 for 29th place.It's shocking to see Victor Ramdin's name absent from this list.
Apparently, Ramdin went out on the last hand. That was sometime around 3am in the morning and I was well on my way to the hotel. I've been searching the coverage, but I don't know if anyone got the details.
On to Day1B....
 LONDON - To answer Dan's question from yesterday's post "EPT London is Sold Out!" the European Poker Tour is definitely growing. Here's a quick comparison of the past three seasons of the London event.
Season 1(2004)
BUY IN: €4,000
FIELD SIZE: 175
1st PRIZE: €291,276
WINNER: John Shipley
Season 2(2005)
BUY IN: €4,000
FIELD SIZE: 236
1st PRIZE: €408,400
WINNER: Mark Teltscher
Season 3(2006)
BUY IN: €5,197* (£3,500)
FIELD SIZE: 400
1st PRIZE: €743,000 (£500,000/$950,000)
WINNER: ??????
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