Poker News

One of the most anticipated mini-events of the year, the PartyPoker Premiere League V, is upon us this week. There is still one more qualifier to determine, but the lineup of those buying in directly has been set and the cards are ready to fly in a couple days at the Montesino Casino in Vienna.

We say “mini” event only because there will be just 16 players competing. But with a $125,000 buy-in, it is anything but a small deal. The format will be slightly different from last year, when David Benyamine won the event and the $476,000 first prize.

This year, the field will be split into two groups of players, Group A and Group B. Each group of eight will play in a series of Sit-and-Go tournaments, earning points based on the order of finish. The top three points earners from each group will advance to the eight-handed final table, while the fourth and fifth place contestants from each group will play heads-up against each other for the final two seats.

Here is how the groups break down:

Group A
Tony G
Andy Frankenberger
Erik Seidel
Luke Schwartz
Phil Laak
Eugene Katchalov
Tom Dwan
Mathew Frankland (Qualifier)

Group B
Sam Trickett
Dan “Jungleman” Cates
Patrik Antonius
Vanessa Selbst
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Scott Seiver
Qualifier TBA

All of the participants except for the two qualifiers have ponied up the $125,000 buy-in for the PartyPoker Premiere League V. Mathew Frankland is one of those two qualifiers, winning his spot yesterday. Twelve more poker players will go at it today to try to capture the final chair at the Party.

Last year’s structure was similar, but as we already mentioned, things have been adjusted a bit. There were no groups in the PartyPoker Premiere League V. Instead, the 16 players will all in a single pool and played in a series of six round robin eight-handed Sit-and-Go’s. Each player competed in four of the single table tournaments. The players received points depending on their order of finish (16, 11, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, or 0 points). The top four total points earners after all six heats advanced to what was just a six-handed final table. The final two spots were determined by pitting the 5th place points earner against the 8th place player in a heads-up match, as well as the 6th place versus the 7th place player.

Prize money was distributed based on both order of finish at the final table as well as points earned in the preliminary heats. Thus, 12 of the 16 players won money, with Benyamine taking the lion’s share, followed by Luke “Full_Flush” Schwartz and qualifier Giovanni Safina.

In addition to the prize money, the winner of the PartyPoker Premiere League V will win a $25,000 seat in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship at the Bellagio in May.

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