WH Grand Prix II

Arguably, the line-up of players confirmed for The William Hill Grand Prix II, worth £500,000 ($950,000) could provide the tournament with the greatest line up of players ever to assemble on this side of the Atlantic.

Heading the line-up is 2005 GP winner Phil Unabomber Laak and fellow Americans Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Wilson and Robert Williamson III. The Europeans are spearheaded by Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, the entire Hendon Mob, Marc Goodwin, Andy Black, Pascal Perrault, Juha Helppi, Tore Lagerborg and European Ranking Champion Mickey Wernick. Following the success of the inaugural Grand Prix in 2005, the sponsor’s are putting even more of their own money in to the pot with a contribution of £164,000 ($320,000) a fact not lost on the players themselves.

The William Hill Grand Prix II is filmed for Sky Sports, set in a luxury penthouse with a multi-level poker room that oozes style and wealth. And whilst the final list of forty-four poker professionals who start the tournament reads like a ‘who’s who’ from the Gods Of Poker, mere mortals have been winning the chance to sit down and play with the very best in a series of online and off-line qualifying line satellites. The final satellites as set to be run in the next week with on-line qualifiers now being played at williamhillpoker.com (entry from just £1.75 + £0.25) and the final land based qualifying tournament playing out at the Broadway Casino, Birmingham( http://www.broadwaycasino.co.uk) on Weds 27th September 2006 (start time 8pm)

Having shown the original Grand Prix in 2005 to what turned out to be the biggest TV audience for any UK tournament, Sky Sports has already snapped up the rights to GPII and will be airing the tournament early in 2007. Unlike any other televised tournament, the William Hill Grand Prix has a structure designed to bring out the true skill of poker instead of trying to fit with tight production schedules. But don’t take our word for it, this is what Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari had to say last year: “A top quality tournament – one of the best I’ve ever played in. This was simply magnificent.”

Confirmed Players to date:

Phil Laak USA
Antonio Esfandiari USA
Brian Wilson USA
Robert Williamson III USA
Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott GB
Ram Vaswani GB
Joe Beevers GB
Barny Boatman GB
Ross Boatman GB
Ben Roberts GB
Dave Colclough GB
Peter Costa GB
Marc Goodwin GB
Harry Demetriou GB
Keith Hawkins GB
Roy Brindley GB
Willie Tann GB
Mickey Wernick GB
JP Kelly GB
Roland de Wolfe GB
Julian Gardner GB
Surinder Sunar GB
Tony Bloom GB
Xuyen Pham GB
Julian Thew GB
Steve Vladar GB
Liam Flood IRE
Andy Black IRE
Sean Murphy IRE
Peter Roche IRE
Pascal Perrault FRA
Tony G AUS
Ken Lennaard SWE
Christer Johansson SWE
Juha Helppi FIN
Tore Lagerborg NOR
Jonny Lodden NOR