Continued from Part One…

In the second part of our series on this year’s PartyPoker Premier League, we offer a run-down of precisely how the event will work, as well as hearing from Nik Persaud and Neil Channing about the behind-the-scenes selection process.

Party Politics

Today’s video sees Nik and Neil focus on the selection process involved in the Premier League: how they picked, why they picked who they did, who should have been picked, and much more. If you want to find out why Tom Dwan isn’t playing, then simply click play on the video below.

Participants:

David Benyamine
Roland De Wolfe
Ian Frazer
Tony Guoga
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Laak
Daniel Negreanu
Vanessa Rousso
Giovanni Safina
Luke Schwartz
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
JC Tran

Venue:

M Resort Spa Casino, Las Vegas

Schedule:

Heat 1 (Fri, Feb 12, 2010):

Negreanu, Schwartz, Tran, De Wolfe, Timoshenko, Frazer, Laak, Rousso

Heat 2 (Sat, Feb 13, 2010):

Hellmuth, Laak, Guoga, Tran, De Wolfe, Timoshenko, Benyamine, Safina

Heat 3 (Sun, Feb 14, 2010):

Hellmuth, De Wolfe, Timoshenko, Frazer, Negreanu, Benyamine, Rousso, Safina

Heat 4 (Mon, Feb 15, 2010):

Laak, Guoga, Schwartz, Tran, Frazer, Benyamine, Rousso, Safina

Heat 5 (Tue, Feb 16, 2010):

Hellmuth, Guoga, Schwartz, Tran, Timoshenko, Negreanu, Frazer, Safina

Heat 6 (Wed, Feb 17, 2010):

Hellmuth, Negreanu, Guoga, Schwartz, De Wolfe, Laak, Benyamine, Rousso

On Thursday, Feb 18, there will be a series of heads-up matches between players positioned fifth to eighth, with the winning two players joining the top four in the six-handed final later that day.

Structure:

Players will start with stacks of 300,000 each with blinds of 1,000/2,000. Blinds will increase every 21 hands at the following rate:

1,000/2,000
2,000/4,000
3,000/6,000
5,000/10,000
7,000/15,000
10,000/20,000
15,000/30,000
20,000/40,000
30,000/60,000

Prize/Points Structure:

The buy-in is $100,000 for each player, helping to create a $1,500,000 prize pool, $900,000 of which will be allocated to the final:

Champion -- $400,000
2nd -- $200,000
3rd -- $100,000
4th -- $80,000
5th -- $70,000
6th -- $50,000

For each heat, prizes and points are awarded as such:

1st -- $32,000 (16 points)
2nd -- $22,000 (11 points)
3rd -- $16,000 (8 points)
4th -- $12,000 (6 points)
5th -- $8,000 (4 points)
6h -- $6,000 (3 points)
7th -- $4,000 (2 points)
8th -- $0 (0 points)

Online Final:

Talal Shakerchi
Giovanni Safina
Giovanni Rizzo
Miguel Proulx
Paul Riggot
Scott Wellenbach

Giovanni Safina, a 44-year old Italian lawyer from Palermo beat the above players to take his seat in the elite event. Safina qualified online at PartyPoker.it for just €100. The final took place on Wednesday, Feb 10, as did the heads-up matches. The heats were the day prior.

image courtesy of Matchroom Poker

Party Pro Qualifiers:

Party Poker sponsored players battled it out from Monday, Feb 10 to Thursday, Feb 11 for the last remaining seat in the Premier League IV. There were four qualifiers overall, including three heats and one final. The positions and total points of each player were as follows:

Ian Frazer (2nd, 5th, 3rd = 30 points)
Mike Sexton (6th, 2nd, 5th = 25 points)
Felipe Ramos (1st, 3rd, 2nd = 44 points)
Dragan Galic (3rd, 6th, 6th = 20 points)
Bodo Sbrzesny (5th, 4th, 1st = 32 points)
Remy Biechel (4th, 1st, 4th = 33 points)

Although Brazil’s Felipe Ramos went into the final with the advantage, it was Londoner Ian Frazer who pulled out the victory. Kara Scott was not involved in the qualifiers as she will be hosting the event.

images courtesy of Matchroom Poker

Previous Champions:

March, 2007:

Champion  Juha Helppi -- $125,000
2nd  Eddy Scharf -- $60,000
3rd  Phil Hellmuth -- $30,000

February 2008:

Champion  Andy Black -- $250,000
2nd  Roland De Wolfe -- $120,000
3rd  Tony G -- $60,000

November, 2008:

Champion  JC Tran -- $300,000
2nd  Tony G -- $150,000
3rd  Juha Helppi -- $80,000

image courtesy of Matchroom Poker

Read Part Three...

Premier League Review – Part One: Breaking the Mold