All In For The Premiership of Poker

Date: 2007.03.05 | Category: Hand Of The Week | By: Phil Hellmuth   

When I was invited to London to compete in the Premiership of Poker, what impressed me the most was that the TV coverage was going to be broadcast in dozens of countries. So it was going to be a great chance for me to get some more international exposure. Poker is exploding abroad, especially in the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe and China, where ESPN is carrying the no-limit Hold ‘Em torch.

The Premiership works like this: 12 invited world-class players would each play six separate six-player “heats.” Points are awarded based on performance: eight points for first place, six for second place, three for third place, two for fourth place and one for fifth place (sixth place gets nothing). Each heat would be a random drawing, so that you could face the same opponent several times. For example, I drew Tony G (Shall we say that he is a famously “theatrical” player?) in five matches, and I knew that that could make for a highly combustible show. The players with the top four point totals would advance to the six-player finale, with their chip stacks to be 10,000 times their point totals. The players who finished in fifth through eighth place would then play heads-up matches, with two of them advancing to the six-player finale (making it a 16-week TV series).