£612,000 up for grabs in 2008 online poker tournament

UK poker players should mark 1st February 2008 in their diaries with the announcement from www.celebpoker.com that it’s contributing €612,000 to an exciting new online poker league.

In the last 18 months poker in the UK has certainly moved beyond setting up a beat up old poker table in the front room and inviting the blokes around. It’s now big business, there’s serious money to be made – and access is no issue with the increased popularity of online poker.

www.celebpoker.com has secured itself as one of the premier online poker providers with market leading player support and they’ve certainly raised the table stakes for UK online poker players in 2008. With a total annual prize pool of €612,000, and €51,000 available each month www.celebpoker.com is bound to become the most popular online poker site in the UK in 2008.

From 1st February 2008 a new monthly poker league will give players the chance to participate and accrue points in 21 weekly tournaments. UK online poker players must join www.celebpoker.com to be eligible to join the league. To appeal to the largest cross section of UK online poker players, there is no entry fee and there is a choice of 3 tournaments a day running at different times throughout the day. Points are calculated based on three factors – ranking in the leader board, number of players in the tournament and the cost of the buy-in.

Whilst sounding complex the premise is simple – the more points an online poker player accumulates from the league in the month the higher on the leader board the player finishes and the greater the share of the prize.

Even better, there are weekly prizes up for grabs as well – ranging from €2000 bonuses to doubling your first prize should you be successful.

With prizes like these we can certainly echo the question put to the online poker community by www.celebpoker.com CEO Dave Donovan who asked “…why would you want to play your tournament poker anywhere else?”

Up and coming sites like www.celebpoker.com with upwards of 5000 players online at any given time are testament to the increasing popularity of online poker. UK online poker players are well poised to benefit from an increasingly competitive market amongst providers.

Of course, it’s well known that the secret of a great poker player is the poker face. For the online poker player – this secret need not be concealed and this advantage is a key driver in the increasing popularity of online poker.

For a game that is hundreds of years old – there has certainly been a major resurgence, with TV leading the way. From the ESPN broadcast tournaments to the Texas Hold’em tournaments at the local pub, poker and associated advertising is beginning to represent a serious place for players and providers to make money. However it’s in the online space that we’ll continue to see significant growth and it just gets better and better for the UK online poker player – today a prize pool of €612,000, tomorrow… perhaps a prize pool of ten times that much.