Phil Laak confident of defending PartyPoker.com's World Open Title
The Matchroom Sport-organised 48-runner event will take place from Monday, September 6 to Friday, September 10 at the prestigious Palm Beach Casino in the heart of London’s Mayfair.
This time the tournament, which guarantees global televised coverage for its participants, takes place right off the back of the inaugural WPT London Poker Classic, which runs at the same casino from August 29 to September 5.
Following changes introduced last year the starting stacks remain tripled, with eight-seater heats and seven players in the final. The buy-in is $10,000, with a total prize pool of $480,000 – the winner scooping $200,000. Team PartyPoker.com will be out in force. Leading the field is Mike Sexton, who made the final table last year, as well as Tony G, Dragan Galic, Tyron Krost, Felipe Ramos, Ian Frazer and Giovanni Safina, who won a professional contract after finishing third in the last Premier League.
Among the early confirmations for the event include defending champion Phil Laak. Joining him are the likes of Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, JP Kelly, Annette Obrestad, Sorel Mizzi, Roland de Wolfe, James Akenhead, Neil Channing, Praz Bansi, Luke Schwartz, Jennifer Tilly and the ‘winner’ from the recent Big Game David ‘Viffer’ Peat. In 2009 Laak emerged triumphant from a final table that also featured Mike Sexton, Andy Black, Luke Schwartz, Bodo Sbrzesny, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and Jennifer Tilly.
Phil Laak said: “Last year was a wild roller coaster ride. This year I am looking forward to coming back to defend my title – it is ideal that it comes straight off the back off the WPT London Poker Classic – hopefully I can win both!”
Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport, added: “London is the place to be for poker in the next few months and the PartyPoker.com World Open will feature the strongest line-up the capital will see. Once again the tournament will boast its triple-stack format giving fans across the world the chance to see the world's leading players in full flow.”
Commentary will be provided by Jesse May and the action will be first broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and then distributed by Matchroom Sport internationally. The action will be presented by Team PartyPoker.com’s Kara Scott. Spectators are welcome to come down to the Palm Beach Casino and watch the action.
There is no online qualifier element to the PartyPoker.com World Open VI but qualifiers are still online at
Partypoker for the WPT London Poker Classic - the first EVER WPT event in London. Among the recent confirmations for the historic WPT event include Phil Ivey, Tony G and Alexander Kravchenko