Laak back for WHGPII

2005 William Hill Grand Prix winner Phil Laak will be back to defend his Gods Of Poker crown on Friday 20th October in Heat E of the William Hill GP II. The tenacious American, who last year defeated 55 of the World’s best poker players to land the £150,000 ($285,000) first prize, heads a quality field of poker players the likes of which have rarely been televised in a European tournament.

Like last year Laak will have to defeat 55 other players, to retain his crown, but with sponsors William Hill upping their prize pool contribution to a whopping £164,000 ($320,000) there is the added incentive of a £25,000 ($47,500) increase in the winner’s prize to £175,000 ($332,500).

David Hood, Director of Public Relations for William Hill, added: "We could be looking at the finest line-up ever assembled for a televised tournament this side of the pond and are delighted to be contributing to the prize pool once again. The inaugural William Hill Grand Prix was a huge success but 2006 promises to be even more heavenly and we are confident that the GP II will take televised poker to new heights."

The Seven Heats of the £500,000 ($950,000) William Hill GP II will commence on Monday October 16th and run for seven days concurrently, with the winner of each table earning a seat on the final table on Tuesday October 24th. The seven runners up from each table have one last chance to qualify by playing each other on Monday October 23rd the winner of which will take the 8th and last seat on the final table. Due to popular demand, and TV ratings that eclipsed any previous UK Poker tournament, Sky Sports have again signed up to cover the tournament which is due to air in January 2007.

William Hill GPII Heat Draw:

HEAT A Mon 16th October
1 Andy Black IRE
2 Joe Beevers GB
3 Mickey Wernick GB
4 Tore Lagerborg NOR
5 Roy Brindley GB
6 Vicky Coren GB
7 Kevin Poast GB Qual
8 Wayne Hutchins GB Qual

HEAT B Tue 17th October
1 Barny Boatman GB
2 Surinder Sunar GB
3 Liam Flood IRE
4 Jeff Lisandro ITA
5 Julian Thew GB
6 Paul Jackson GB
7 Anthony McConnell IRE Qual
8 Brian Cassidy GB Qual

HEAT C Wed 18th October
1 Pascal Perrault FRA
2 Ross Boatman GB
3 Dave Colclough GB
4 Johnny Lodden NOR
5 Xuyen Pham GB
6 Willie Tann GB
7 Voitto Rintala FIN Qual
8 Marcus Bebb-Jones GB Qual

HEAT D Thur 19th October 1 Antonio Esfandiari USA
2 Ram Vaswani GB
3 Keith Hawkins GB
4 JP Kelly GB
5 Sean Murphy IRE
6 Ben Grundy GB
7 Shelley Mullett GB Qual
8 Sami Yusuf GB Qual

HEAT E Fri 20th October
1 Phil Laak USA
2 Ken Lennaard SWE
3 Marc Goodwin GB
4 Julian Gardiner GB
5 Harry Demetriou GB
6 John Kabbaj GB
7 Jeff Kimber GB Qual
8 Oliver Puhr AUT Qual

HEAT F Sat 21st October
1 Tony G AUS
2 Juha Helppi FIN
3 Devilfish GB
4 Peter Costa GB
5 John Shipley GB
6 Brian Wilson USA
7 Steve Vladar GB
8 Bo Sehlstedt SWE Qual

HEAT G Sun 22nd October
1 Tony Bloom GB
2 Ben Roberts GB
3 Robert Williamson III USA
4 Martin Wendt DEN
5 Christer Johansson SWE
6 Roland de Wolfe GB
7 Stuart Fox GB
8 Russ Taylor GB Qual