Black wins Premier League

Andy Black has finally gone and done it, and won one of the big ones.

Black is currently regarded as one of the top tournament players in world, but he has struggled in the past to turn his trademark rocket-powered starts and strong middle stage performances into tournament wins.

His victory in the 2008 PartyPoker.com Premier League will be welcomed around the world as the universally liked Belfast born, and Dublin residing, player scooped the first place prize of $250,000.

“It has taken 20 years to finally finish the job,” said Black, “it is a fantastic feeling. I’ve been in so many strong positions before and not ended up winning that sometimes I doubted whether I could actually get the first place. Everybody was waiting for me to blow up. I see this as a turning point – perhaps now I can convert my dominant positions in tournaments into victories.”

Black has earned millions of dollars over the years on the circuit but has a reputation as a choker bar none. His most notable cash was for $1.75 million for 5th place in the WSOP Main Event in 2005 after qualifying online at PartyPoker.com. There, Black went in as the favourite to win with the chip lead only to bust sooner than expected.

At the 2007 WSOP Main Event and 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event he was the chip leader after day one only to fall away. He had similar experiences at the EPT in Dublin last year, the 2006 Tournament of Champions at the WSOP, not to forget the 2007 Aussie Millions where he eventually finished third after dominating again.

Black quit poker between 1998-2003 and started practicing Buddhist techniques of meditation and working with the mind which he credits with improving his game. Until now, however, it hadn’t given him a first place!

“The black death is over, I killed them all,” joked Andy. “I tried to blow-up but it didn’t quite work! The victory is particularly sweet as it was over eleven of the world’s top players,” he said.

The groundbreaking format, developed by Matchroom Sport, featured 12 of the world’s best players playing in a unique league for a $1 million prize pool. The event will be first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in late March and then distributed internationally.

The field was formidable and included Phil Hellmuth, Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Ian Fraser, Roland De Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Juha Helppi, Eddy Scharf, Annie Duke, Marcel Luske and Alexander Kravchenko.

Each player played six heats in the preliminary stages. The leading four players then progressed to the final table with the next four battling it out in heads-up matches for the final two seats.

Each player stumped up a buy-in of $60,000, with PartyPoker.com adding $280,000 to make the pool $1 million, up from $500,000 last year, with Black taking away a cool $250,000 for his work.

Final table results:
1st: Andy Black, $250,000
2nd: Roland de Wolfe, $120,000
3rd: Tony G, $60,000
4th: Alex Kravchenko, $40,000
5th: Marcel Luske, $30,000
6th: Annie Duke, $20,000

Final money list:
Andy Black (IRE) $316,000
Roland De Wolfe (ENG) $160,000
Tony G (AUS) $136,000
Alexander Kravchenko (RUS) $92,000
Marcel Luske (HOL) $72,000
Annie Duke (USA) $58,000
Eddy Scharf (GER) $38,000
Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott (ENG) $38,000
Vicky Coren (ENG) $34,000
Juha Helppi (FIN) $22,000
Ian Frazer (ENG) $18,000
Phil Hellmuth (USA) $16,000