The PartyPoker.com European Open IV starts tomorrow, Friday Feb.1, in London with a host of big guns anteing up the $7,000 buy-in in the hope of taking the lion’s share of the $504,000 prize pool on offer.
The event, organised by Matchroom Sport and broadcast on Channel 5 in the UK later this year, sees the return of last
year’s champion Liam Flood, along with 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Roland De Wolfe, Marty Smyth, Andy Black, Roy Brindley, Surinder Sunar, and Neil Channing. Also competing are snooker legend Jimmy White and rugby star Austin Healy.
World Series of Poker Europe winner Annette Obrestad will face the man she beat for the title, John Tabatabai, and said of her draw, “I’m looking forward to this, for sure. It was great fun playing with John in London. He’s an amazing player and I have a lot of respect for him. I can’t wait to play against him again!”
The format of the European Open sees 12 heats, with the winner of each progressing to the semi-final, while the runners-up will play for the remaining two semi-final spots in “last chance” turbo heats.
PartyBets.com has priced up a market for the event with Phil Hellmuth the current favourite at 10/1, Roland de Wolfe 20/1, Annette Obrestad 20/1, Liam Flood 20/1, and Juha Helppi 20/1.
A spokesman for PartyBets.com said, “There is a lot of excitement about this year’s European Open, and Hellmuth is sure to add value in the commentary box. It will be interesting to see the rematch between Obrestad and Tabatabai, but there are so many players to look out for who have had success in this format. The money has been for Hellmuth, but the likes of Helppi, Frazer, and Flood have all been well-backed in recent hours.”
