By
Court |
Published
Sep 26 2008, 04:07 PM
In the poker world the World Series of Poker is the equivalent of the Super Bowl. Winning the WSOP Main Event is the elusive dream of all aspiring poker players. Last year a wrinkle was added to the history and traditions of the WSOP when a European annex was added.
The WSOP Europe in London had an amazing kickoff, with the events running smoothly and more importantly the first ever WSOPE Main Event champion being quite possibly the single best person that could have won the event from a marketing prospective. Most everyone involved in the poker community was familiar with Annette Annette_15 Obrestad before her victory in London last year. After the victory the legend of Annette_15 has continued to grow, and deservedly so.
As Annette worked her way through the field in the first ever WSOPE, her reputation helped drive interest in an event that had a lot of expectations and no history to fall back on. Without Obrestad the final table would have been somewhat similar to this year’s November nine – namely no big name players to draw the fans. While the WSOP Main Event can fall back on the prestige of the tournament the inaugural WSOPE was in the reverse situation of having to fight the uphill battle of simply not being the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.
The presence of Annette at the final table, and ultimately her victory, gave immediate credibility to the stature of the tournament, provided a European winner for the first ever WSOP Europe, and most importantly gave the fans a champion they could respect, revere and idolize.
For 2008, the pressure surrounding the WSOP Europe should not be as intense. Annette will be back to defend her title. Those that decided to pass (media, players, and fans) last year to see how things played out saw a successful series of tournaments and should be much more likely to show up this year. The organizers of the tournament have had a year to work out any kinks discovered last year and make adjustments and improvements. All these factors should combine to make the second WSOP Europe a top-notch series of tournaments with great turnout.
For the online world, the tournaments outside the United States are always exciting as the field is opened up to the players falling between the 18-21 year old age range. The WSOP Europe will almost surely be a coming out party for players ready to move into the live arena and make a name for themselves in the live poker realm.
In Event #1 of the World Series of Poker Europe, PocketFiver Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko took third place and cashed for £55,350. The £1,500 buy-in tournament attracted 410 entrants. Timoshenko is a Monthly PLB winner on PocketFives.com and defeated apestyles heads-up to take down $250,000 in the PokerStars Sunday Million. He also has wins of more than $20,000 across many of the major online poker sites.
Adam A_Junglen Junglen finished sixth in WSOPE Event #1, making the final table and taking home £28,598. Within one month’s time, he finished third in Full Tilt Poker’s $1K Monday tournament and won the Sunday Million. In 2007, he finished sixth in the European Poker Tour’s Barcelona event, pocketing €196,500. He was the chip leader entering the final table of Event 1, but was crippled when he called Neil Channing’s all in with A-Q and ran into A-K. He also dropped a big pot holding pocket fives against pocket aces.
Finally, Jason Gray finished 23rd in WSOPE Event 1, cashing for £4,305. He recorded four cashes during the 2008 WSOP, led by a $209,855 payday in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight or Better event. Within a four-week stretch during July and August, Gray won the PokerStars $100 rebuy and Full Tilt Poker $100 cubed events for a combined $36,000.
In Event #3 of the WSOPE, Sorel Imper1um Mizzi finished in second place, pocketing £132,000. That tournament was won by Theo Jorgensen. Mizzi also made a deep run in the 2007 WSOP Main Event, finishing 209th out of 6,358 entrants. Mizzi also chopped the Irish Poker Open for over €500,000.
Follow the action at PocketFivesLive.com as the storylines unfold at the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe, presented by Betfair.com.
For those playing in the WSOP Europe Main Event you can REGISTER HERE for coverage on PocketFivesLive.com.
Get live WSOP Europe coverage at PocketFivesLive.com
