Between now and September 12th, the USA-facing online poker site UB.com is offering World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe prize packages. The 2010 cycle marks the first that UB.com and its sister CEREUS Network site Absolute Poker will be sending players to the annual extravaganza, which gets underway on September 14th from London.
UB.com is qualifying its members for the £10,350 buy-in WSOP Europe Main Event. On September 12th at 14:30 ET, a $530 buy-in Super Satellite will be held featuring three $18,000 WSOP Europe prize packages. Each consists of the £10,350 buy-in, $2,000 to use towards travel expenses, VIP concierge services while you’re camped out in Jolly Old England, a UB swag bag, and a welcome dinner.
If a $530 buy-in satellite is grossly out of your budget, don’t fret. UB.com is also holding $10 Ultra Turbo Rebuys and $55 freezeouts for you to stamp your ticket to the high-stakes tournament that will play out at the Casino at the Empire beginning on September 23rd. Alternately, you can climb the ladder through UB.com’s STEP tournaments, which start at $0.10. Players that can trump each of the 10 steps involved will head to London to compete for what was a £3.3 million prize pool last year.
A press release distributed in recent days by UB adds that 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth will be in attendance in the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event. Last year, 334 players turned out and CardPlayer Magazine’s Barry Shulman walked away with the title and an £801,000 bankroll boost. Shulman edged out PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu heads-up. Negreanu, amazingly, final tabled the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2009 and 2008 for over £700,000 combined.
The top seven players in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event raked in six-figure paydays and, with a small field on hand, UB.com qualifiers have the opportunity to make quite a splash for a nominal investment. November Niners Antoine Saout and James Akenhead both reached last year’s final table on their home continent. Others who cashed in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event included DoylesRoom figurehead Doyle Brunson, 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and David “Devilfish” Ulliott.
The WSOP Europe Main Event is actually the fifth tournament on the docket for the series. The festivities kick off on September 14th with a £2,650 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em contest that will surely attract some of the top names in the poker world in search of a bracelet. Two days later, a £5,250 Pot Limit Omaha tournament begins, followed by a £1,075 No Limit Hold’em event on September 17th. Leading up to the Main Event is the first ever WSOP Europe No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up High Roller tournament that comes with a hefty £10,350 price tag.
UB.com and Absolute Poker are also shelling out seats to the WPT Festa al Lago at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Daily Qualifiers send players to Weekly Finals, where the top 100 will get seats in the Main Event. Whoever wins the Main Event will be jet-setting to the Nevada desert to play in the Festa al Lago, which begins on October 15th. The prize package includes the Festa al Lago’s $10,300 buy-in along with $1,700 to offset expenses and the promotion runs until October 10th.
Finally, one of UB.com’s newest tournaments is Take Down a H0, a $50,000 guaranteed bounty event featuring Mark “P0ker H0” Kroon. Whoever busts Kroon from his own tournament picks up 300 Tournament Dollars. The event takes place every Saturday at 3:05pm ET.
Visit UB.com or Absolute Poker for more details on how to qualify for the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event in London.
