FINNISH PLAYER TOPS IN PARTY'S FIRST PREMIER POKER LEAGUE

9 March 2007

A great birthday for Juha Helppi

Finnish poker ace Juha Helppi celebrated both his 30th birthday and a significant poker tournament win this week as he took the top spot in Party Poker's inaugural Premier League event filmed at Maidstone Studios in Kent, UK.

Facing 11 tough international opponents, Hellpi's experience proved invaluable. Entering the tournament, the young player already had an impressive track record, having grossed almost $1.5 million in tournament play that included a WPT victory and numerous WSOP final table appearances.

PartyPoker invited twelve top-of-the-game players for the inaugural event: ten time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Dave 'The Devilfish' Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Kiril Gerasimov, Liz Lieu, Ian Fraser, Roland De Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Kenna James, Eddy Scharf....and Helppi.

The players competed six times in preliminary events in an effort to secure four of the six final table spots. Phil Hellmuth, Eddy Scharf, Juha Helppi and Ian Fraser prevailed to lock up their final table appearances, leaving the next four players to compete heads-up to try and get the remaining two spots. In the heads-up battles, the women prevailed; EPT London champ Vicky Coren took down Andy Black while Liz Lieu bested Kenna James.

Hellmuth lost an earlier chip advantage and ultimately finished in 3rd place after a disappointing performance, leaving the final confrontation to Helppi and Eddy Scharf, with the former holding a 4-to-1 chip advantage that enabled him to put Scharf away within 10 minutes.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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