Women’s World Open

The inaugural PartyPoker Women’s World Open is underway in London, and runs until Friday 10th August. The 36 runner field features the strongest line-up ever assembled for a women’s poker tournament in Europe and bookmakers www.PartyBets.com make Liz Lieu the 6/1 favourite to win.

A PartyBets.com spokesman said: “Liz is one of the most fearsome players in the world and her performances at PartyPoker Premier League poker mean we had to make her favourite. The UK’s Katherine Hartree is not far behind. Over the last couple of years Katherine has been one of the most consistent female poker players in Europe and she has the knowledge and experience in this format.”

Others in the field include Jennifer Tilly (9/1) and Shannon Elizabeth (33/1). Academy Award nominated actress Tilly has won WPT and WSOP titles, while Elizabeth, best known for her role as a beauty in the film American Pie, recently made third in the NBC Heads-Up Championship in the US.

The tournament is PartyPoker’s first ever all-female event and will be produced by Matchroom Sport. A similar format to the annual PartyPoker World Open will be followed, as 36 players from across the globe battle it out for a share a $108,000 prize-fund.

The buy-in for the tournament is set at $3,000, with the eventual winner taking home a cool $50,000. Amongst the European challengers apart from Katherine Hartree will be Xuyen “Bad Girl” Pham, former PartyPoker World Open winner Pippa Flanders, European Ladies champion Jackie Meecham, Jackie Vaswani and Deborah Rogers. Others to recently confirm their participation include Lucy Rokach, Beverly Pace, Jen Mason, Maria Demetriou and Kara Scott.

The show will be televised in the UK later in the year on Five. Commentary will be provided by Jesse May and Shannon Elizabeth.