Party Poker Sponsoring European Poker League

Matchroom Sport has announced the start of a new European televised poker league, called the PartyPoker.com Premier League. Filming will begin on February 26 and will run through March 4.

The initial rounds of the league play out similarly to Poker Superstars. Twelve pros will face-off in a series of tournaments, with each playing a total of six times. Once all of the preliminary games have been played, the top four (determined by an as yet unannounced scoring system) will advance to the final table. The next group of four will play heads-up matches to determine who the fifth and sixth players at the final table will be.

The buy-in for the league is $20,000, but Party Poker has added $260,000 to the prize pool to bring it to a half million dollars.

The competitors for the PartyPoker.com Premier League are Phil Hellmuth, Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Kiril Gerasimov, Liz Lieu, Ian Fraser, Roland De Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Juha Helppi, Kenna James, and Eddy Scharf.

The league will be broadcast in the UK on Channel 4.

Originally published 5:22 PM Friday, February 16, 2007