Participants in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe will bear witness to the awarding of the first ever Caesars Cup. The tournament pits the United States against Europe in a battle for poker supremacy.
Team PokerStars Pro flagship member Daniel Negreanu will captain the squad from the United States. Negreanu owns not one, not two, not three, but four WSOP bracelets. His first piece of hardware came in his very first WSOP cash in 1998 in a $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event for $169,000. The final table saw Negreanu best Dominic Bourke heads-up. Others who finished in the top nine included Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson, Lee Markholt, and Dan Heimiller. It took Negreanu five years to make it back to the winner’s circle, as he took down a $2,000 buy-in Limit SHOE event for $100,000 in 2003. Other bracelet wins for “Kid Poker” came in $2,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em events in 2004 and 2008.
Captaining the European team is none other than Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad. A sponsored pro of the independent online poker room Betfair, Obrestad won the first ever WSOP Europe Main Event for £1 million. In the 2007 tournament, she defeated fellow Betfair pro John “kunku wap” Tabatabai heads-up and became the youngest WSOP bracelet winner ever. Obrestad’s legendary status online was cemented in mid-2007, when she allegedly took down a $4 buy-in 180 person sit and go on PokerStars while only looking at her cards once. The Norwegian is not yet of legal age to play live poker in the United States, but has multiple wins in the PokerStars $100 Rebuy and took down the Full Tilt Poker $500,000 Guaranteed for $117,000.
Each Caesars Cup team will consist of eight players, with Negreanu and Obrestad charged with filling out six of their roster spots. Betfair Director of Poker Bruce Stubbs commented in a press release, “What better way to showcase poker at the WSOP Europe than to pitch the elite poker players from both Europe and the Americas against each other. We all know that poker is a highly competitive game, but with pride, bragging rights, and the Cup at stake, this promises to be one of the highlights of this year’s poker calendar.” The event resembles the Professional Golf Association’s (PGA) Ryder Cup and the festivities will unfold on ESPN, which also carries the WSOP Europe Main Event.
The 2009 WSOP Europe tournament series will take place from September 17th until October 2nd, with the inaugural Caesars Cup event playing out on September 25th. The format will feature both heads-up and team contests, with events including “alternate betting and other non-traditional elements as players aim to win points for their respective teams.”
The final spot on the European team will be determined by a leader board competition on Betfair, with its winner heading to London to represent their continent in battle. Two leader boards exist and in order to ascend to the top of each, players should enter sit and gos and multi-table tournaments on Betfair. The contest, which started June 1st, features a Low-Stakes Leader Board for $22 buy-in tournaments and under. Similarly, a High-Stakes Leader Board exists for buy-ins surpassing that amount. Every month, the top 200 Low-Stakes and top 100 High-Stakes leader board members will play in a Low Heat or High Heat tournament, respectively, where the top 18 finishers in each qualify for the Monthly Final.
Betfair members’ finishes in the Monthly Finals net them Caesars Cup Points. At the end of August, the top nine in the Caesars Cup standings move onto the event’s finale, where the winner heads to London to play. The eight other combatants will split a $25,000 prize pool. No indication was given as to how the final spot on the American roster will be determined, as Betfair does not accept customers from the United States. The official sponsor of the Las Vegas WSOP, Everest Poker, also does not take U.S. action.