The World Poker Tour will make its first ever stop in London, England later this month and PartyPoker is offering its players the last opportunities to win a seat to the inaugural event.
As the presenting sponsor of the first ever WPT stop in England, PartyPoker will be offering a “last chance” for players to qualify for the event. Satellites will be running over the coming weekend, ranging from freerolls to a $600 multi-table tournament that will take place on Sunday. These tournaments have a variety of ways to put players in the position to be in London for all of the action.
The daily freerolls put the top 50 players from the event into a special $1 “sub qualifier,” a speed tournament with rebuys that also plays daily. The next step, the speed “sub qualifier,” will award a seat into the London Satellite Qualifier for each $70 in the prize pool. This speed tournament will advance one of every 10 players into the final $600 +$40 London Satellite Event, which will play out on Sunday at 2:15pm ET and award a prize package for one player out of every 20.
For those who have a bit of a bankroll on PartyPoker, there is another route to making the field for the WPT London. An $8 speed tournament is held daily, with one of every 10 players moving on to the London Satellite Qualifier. The process for moving on to the $600 buy-in satellite is exactly like that provided through the freeroll process. On the line for those who qualify for WPT London will be a $12,000 prize package that includes the $8,000 buy-in, $2,000 in spending money, and seven nights’ accommodation.
The WPT London Poker Classic will take place from August 30th to September 5th at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair, with a buy in of £5,000 ($8,000 U. S.). A High Roller tournament is also a part of the festivities, with a £15,000 buy-in that should draw a powerful field. Players who have been confirmed for the WPT London Poker Classic include PartyPoker sponsored pro Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, Full Tilt Poker’s Phil Ivey and Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Alexander Kravchenko, defending WSOP Europe champion Barry Shulman, 2009 WSOP Main Event/WSOP Europe Main Event final table player James Akenhead, and Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi.
The broadcast team for the WPT London Poker Classic will have a slightly different look for those who have viewed WPT telecasts previously. While Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton and floor commentator/hostess Kara Scott will be on-hand for their respective duties, Vince Van Patten will not make the trip to London for the show. In his stead is the highly respected poker announcer Jesse May, who will team with Sexton for the first time. May has broadcast such made for television events as the seminal “Late Night Poker” in England and such tournaments as the Irish Poker Open and the Poker Nations Cup.
Commenting on his upcoming trip to England, Sexton sounded as if he were ready for the adventure: “I am looking forward to joining Jesse in the commentary box in London. We have never properly been in the box together before, which seems remarkable considering the amount of years both he and I have been calling the action at tournaments around the world!”
