English Poker Open

RakeTheRake.com are proud sponsors of the inaugural English Poker Open with a huge million dollar guaranteed prize pool. The Open, new to the poker circuit, will take place just before the WSOPE on September 15th, 16th and 17th 2009 and will be held in the UK’s biggest and best card room, Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham.

As expected, the EPO is already attracting players from the echelons of the poker world. Eleven-times WSOP bracelet winner and UltimateBet ambassador Phil Hellmuth has already secured his seat in the Main Event, as has Absolute Poker’s pro Liv Boeree, with many Full Tilt pros also busy clearing their schedules to attend.

With only 165 of a possible 270 seats left, players can either buy their seats directly (buy-in $ 5300) or qualify via satellites at several different online poker rooms. In addition they can win full $ 7,000 packages in various freerolls on RakeTheRake. The first phase of these freerolls will be held on Sunday 14th, 21st and 28th June 2009 at Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, Cake Poker, Betfair, Ladbrokes, NoiQ Poker, PKR, Players Only, PokerStars and Unibet. The second phase of the freerolls are in being held in July.

Each package includes the $ 5,000 + $ 300 buy-in and $ 1,700 for travel and accommodation.

Day one of the Main Event will start at 2pm on September 15th and play will conclude at 1am. Starting stacks will be 10,000 with a 1 hour clock. Day two of the main event will play down to the final nine players. There will also be a £500 No Limit Freezeout starting on day two that will conclude on day three. The final of the main event will take place on day three. An extra £250 No Limit Freezeout will kick off on day three. All events at The English Poker Open have been awarded European Poker Rankings status. With the club closing at 6am every day there will be several cash games and Dusk Till Dawn regular tournaments available to all.

If you’re coming to the event, be sure not to miss the Welcome Party on the evening of September 14th at the Crowne Plaza Nottingham. For players wishing to either buy a seat please visit www.englishpokeropen.com where you can find more information on the event which is capped at 270 players. Or to participate in the qualifier freerolls please visit http://www.raketherake.com/english-poker-open.html