PARTY POKER PREMIER CONTEST A BIG WIN FOR ANDY BLACK

22 February 2008

A major tournament win has been awhile in coming, but the rewards are sweet


Irish poker pro Andy Black is one of the top names in international poker tournament play, respected universally as a formidable opponent across any number of significant final tables, yet ironically this weekend was his first top finish in the many major international tournaments he has appeared in over the past two decades.

This time it was different, as he outplayed a daunting field of the best in the business over the past seven days to take home the kudos and the $250 000 main prize in the 2008 edition of the PartyPoker Premier league after a tense heads up against European champ Roland de Wolfe at 3 Mills Studio in London.

12 of the planet's best poker pros are invited to compete in the PartyPoker Premier League, battling through preliminary rounds of six-handed tournaments to win their way to the final table and a crack at the big money. The top four scorers from the preliminary rounds are assured seats, with the remaining players battling heads-up for the remaining two seats.

With a buy-in of $60 000 from each player this was not an undertaking for the faint-hearted, but PartyPoker.com sweetened the pot with an extra $280 000 to create a million dollar prize pool with $520 000 reserved for the final table.

This year's field included nine previous contestants from the 2007 version of the event, including its winner Juha Helppi, Dave 'The Devilfish' Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Phil Hellmuth, Ian Frazer, Vicky Coren, Roland de Wolfe and Eddy Scharf. Annie Duke, Marcel Luske and Alex Kravchenko freshened up the 2008 player list.

The final table over the weekend saw Annie Duke, Marcel Luske, Roland De Wolfe, Tony G and Alexander Kravchenko facing Black for the title, with the Irishman coming to the table with one of the biggest chip stacks at 330 000 - not an unusual occurrence for this talented player who has previously managed to burn through significant stacks to miss out on a top finish in several tournaments.

In the end it came down to a heads up finish between Black and de Wolfe, a fitting climax to an exciting clash of some of the world's best players.

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