Tran and Tony triumphant in Premier League

Tran and Tony triumphant in Premier League

Wednesday, 26 November 2008

PartyPoker’s Premier League tournament has been very successful, pitting some of the world’s best players against each other in a series of single-table tournaments held on a points scale until one winner is declared.

This line-up promised to be very exciting as the likes of online sensation Tom Dwan, WSOPE Main Event winner Annette Obrestad, WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate, loudmouth Tony G and poker brat Phil Hellmuth were to be matched against each other.

Lithuanian-born Tony G, oddly a former Rubik’s Cube champion in his home country, won the first heat after putting an end to Tom Dwan’s domination in the heads-up stage. The internet prodigy, better-known by his online handle of durrrr, had run over the six-handed table until the heads-up stage when Russian-abusing Tony G won it all.

The draw threw up a fantastic match-up as Hellmuth and Dwan were once again seated across the felt after their tiff at the NBC Heads-Up championship (a must-see for any fan of televised poker). An explosion was imminent when Dwan’s full house was up against Hellmuth’s flush, but the poker brat made a trademark huge laydown.

Peter Eastgate continued to run good on his first appearance since winning $9m in the 2008 WSOP Main Event; however he too lost out at the heads-up stage when JC Tran eliminated him. Eastgate started with a near 2-1 chip lead but couldn’t match his impressive heads-up performance (honestly, it was, even if ESPN only showed two hands of it) against Ivan Demidov in the Main Event. The final hand saw him push, frustrated, with Q3o only to be insta-called by Tran’s AK, which held up.

Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott was the first out in this heat, continuing his disastrous run in the Premier League over the past few seasons. The top three in the heat were all making their Premier League debuts, with Annette Obrestad finishing third for four points.

The total prize pool this season is a sweet $1.25m.



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