Late Night Poker

PartyPoker Late Night Poker is approaching the end of its run on screens on Channel 4 in the UK and Tuesday night/Wednesday morning at 12.10am sees the semi-final of the event followed by two episodes covering the final on 11 March and 18 March.

The semi-final features the runners-up from all seven heats vying for one place in the Grand Final. The line-up features top UK player Maria Demetriou, ‘Flying Dutchman’ Marcel Luske, WSOP bracelet holder Praz Bansi, Polish television presenter Agnieszka Rylik, Marc ‘Mr Cool’ Goodwin, France’s Pascal Perrault and former champion Simon Trumper.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: “The semi-final line-up is very strong. Every single player was desperate to gain the prestige of making the final of the event that started it all.”

The heat winners who have already secured their place in the final include serial televised tournament winner Ian Frazer, German bracelet holder and 2007 Premier League runner-up Eddy Scharf, Surinder ‘The Cobra’ Sunar, WPT and EPT champion Roland de Wolfe, Swedish online qualifier Andreas Jörbeck, 2008 Premier League winner Andy Black and 2007 Late Night Poker Masters champion David Tighe. Amongst those who failed to make the final or semi-final include Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott, man of the moment Julian Thew, WSOP Europe winner Annette Obrestad, Ram Vaswani, Padraig Parkinson, Barny Boatman, Joe Beevers, Donnacha O’Dea, Robert Williamson III, Jen Mason and Jon Kalmar.

Late Night Poker revolutionised people’s perception of poker when the tournament was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1999 and was the first to use under the table cameras. The total prize pool for 2008 is $335,000 ($90,000 added by PartyPoker) with $125,000 going to the eventual winner. There were 49 players paying a $5000 including ten online qualifiers who won their seats in exclusive online tournaments on PartyPoker.

Coverage of the event was filmed by Presentable and is presented by Vicky Coren, with Thomas Kremser the Tournament Director. Presentable also produced the coverage of the successful PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup event for Channel 4 which takes place again in April.