PartyPoker and Ace Magazine’s latest live poker event is taking the game to new heights—literally. In a move that will surely differentiate the upcoming Poker in the Sky event from others around Europe, the 22-person tournament will take place 150 feet in the air over Town Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The players are not just battling on the rooftop of a high rise, either. Instead, they will be seated at poker tables on a platform that will be hoisted 150 feet in the air by crane and stay for there for four hours until the event is complete. The tournament is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 11th.
PartyPoker customers who reside in Denmark were able to satellite their way into this unique event online and the winner of Poker in the Sky will receive a buy-in to October’s PartyPoker World Open V as well as hotel and airfare for the televised event. The World Open V is scheduled to take place at London’s Palm Beach Casino from October 11th to 15th. The Poker in the Sky qualifier will join a lineup of players that includes PartyPoker spokesperson Mike Sexton, Neil Channing, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz, and J.C. Tran.
In a statement released by PartyPoker, a spokesperson for the site explained the motivation behind creating such a unique venue for Poker in the Sky: “Poker is a high octane game and we want to give the Danish poker players a special experience that will really boost their adrenaline levels. We have an expectation that it will be the most spectacular poker event Copenhagen has ever seen.”
While the event will likely be both entertaining and exciting, it is not suited for everyone. A PartyPoker spokesperson told Poker News Daily that one qualifier already changed his mind about participating once he realized just how high up 150 feet really was. Despite the one player’s reservations, the tournament is scheduled to proceed as planned and PartyPoker has several surprises in the works, including two celebrity players participating in the event.
This is actually not the first time poker has taken to the skies. In July of 2006, the online poker site InterPoker hosted a poker tournament aboard a plane as part of its Extreme Poker Tour. Five players, including Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, participated in a sit and go tournament in which participants were forced to sky dive off once they were eliminated. The Extreme Poker events also included two tournaments that took place underwater and one that was held on an Arctic ice shelf in Finland.
Poker in the Sky may not require its players to bungee jump from the sky-high platform back to the ground, but there should still be plenty of excitement and nerve-wracking action. “We think it will be a great spectacle and it also offers our players a unique experience if they have a head for heights,” a PartyPoker representative told Poker News Daily. There is no word yet on whether the event will be televised and more details about Poker in the Sky will be revealed in the days leading up to it.
