The live finale of the Full Tilt Poker Million is on the horizon, which means the last of its pre-taped episodes are airing on the Sky Sports channel in Europe. The most recent installments have focused on the last of the Turbo preliminary heats and the two semi-final heats of the prestigious invitational event. The live finale is set to air on Sky Sports on Friday.
The eighth installment of the event featured 72 different players, including Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Gus Hansen, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Nam Le, David Chiu, Allen Cunningham, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jennifer Tilly, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
The heats played out in London in recent months. In the first round, there were 12 six-handed preliminary heats. Each of the winners advanced to the semi-final round, while the runners-up were put into a consolation Turbo heat. The first of the two Turbo heats was taken down by online qualifier Peter Vasiliou, while Antonio Esfandiari took down the second Turbo, which aired on Tuesday on Sky Sports. Esfandiari defeated a lineup that included Hansen, Timoshenko, Christian “charder” Harder, Michael Tureniec, and Bradley “FatsoFat6969” Craig. Heads-up play got down to Craig and Esfandiari. On the final hand of play, Craig moved all-in with K-2, Esfandiari called with pocket sevens, and the wired pair held.
The first of two semi-final heats is set to air Wednesday night and will feature Le, Obrestad, Vasiliou, Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz, Juha Helppi, Tony Bloom, and Paul Zimbler. Bloom had experience on his side, as he made the final table of this event in 2000 and 2001, but would fall short of final table number three. The top three finishers in each of the semi-final heats advanced to the finale’ that honor went to Vasiliou, Schwartz, and Helppi.
The second semi-final heat airs on Thursday and will feature Esfandiari, Chiu, Dwan, CardRunners instructor Taylor “GreenPlastic” Caby, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, James Akenhead, and Daniel Bowden. The second semi-final saw Caby, Mikkelsen, and Akenhead advance to meet the other three qualifiers in the final round.
As Poker News Daily previously reported, Caby is offering members of Truly Free Poker Training a chance to win 1% of his earnings, which could range between $50,000 for seventh place and $500,000 for first. The contest is still open and people are automatically registered once they enroll with the free site, which offers users a chance to earn CardRunners and StoxPoker subscriptions based on the number of Full Tilt Points they earn in a given month.
Though the episodes are playing daily on Sky Sports, the various heats and semi-finals of the event took place over the course of a couple of months. Caby spoke to Poker News Daily about the long breaks in between action and acknowledged that it took a little time for him to adjust to the unusual format. “It’s the first time it ever happened to me. It’s kind of weird to fly back home and then fly back [to London] knowing I can bust on the first hand, but I am excited to go back,” he explained.
Players will begin the final table with the same amount of chips they ended with in the semi-final round. To add another twist to the event, there is also supposed to be a seventh online qualifier thrown into the mix at the outset of the final table.
In a press release revealing details of the semi-final and final rounds of the tournament, Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn commented on the excitement and prestige surrounding the event’s live finale: “The Poker Million final is always one of the most exciting dates for the poker diary. We staged poker’s first ever live televised final back in 2000 and since then it’s been an event that all the top players want to take down. With the likes of Tom Dwan, Nam Le, Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestad, Juha Helppi, and James Akenhead in the semi finals, Friday night is set to be an electric night of poker.”
The live final table is set to begin at 7:30pm GMT on Friday, December 4th.
Nice! I like FTP, especially High Stakes with Durrrr, Ivey, Gus….