The lineup for Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game 2008 was announced on Thursday. It features some of the biggest names in the poker world. The field for the third installment of the Million Dollar Cash Game features a veritable “who’s who” of online poker players, including Full Tilt Poker pros Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch, John Juanda, Allen Cunningham, and Eli Elezra. Also scheduled to appear are Ultimate Bet personality Phil Hellmuth, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, and PokerNews owner Tony G.
Last year’s Million Dollar Cash Game featured Ivey winning a record-breaking $807,400 pot, at the time the largest sum of money ever won in one hand of televised poker. It aired in January on Sky Sports 2 Digital, beamed across Europe to thousands of hungry poker fans. The third Million Dollar Cash Game will be filmed in London, England on September 17th and 18th. Sky Sports will once again carry the program, which will air in January, 2009.
The Full Tilt Poker tournament is being filmed with the help of Emblaze Productions, whose works include over 300 hours of poker programming. Emblaze has been on-hand for some of the most memorable poker tournaments ever to hit the airwaves such as the Betfair.com Poker Masters of Europe, British Poker Open, European Poker Masters, World Cup of Poker, World Speed Poker Open European Championships, Grosvenor Grand Prix, SportingOdds.com Super Sunday, and the Poker Heaven Online Series of Poker. Its broadcast partners include Euro Sport, The Poker Channel, and Sky Sports. The company was launched in 2007 and is spearheaded by James Hopkins.
The game is similar to “High Stakes Poker,” which airs on GSN in the United States. In the Million Dollar Cash Game, each player must put up at least $100,000 of their own money. Last year’s edition included Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Roland de Wolfe, Patrik Antonius, Marc Goodwin, and Tony G.
Besides the Million Dollar Cash Game, on the horizon for Full Tilt Poker is its $25,000 Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha World Championship, which begins on Saturday, September 6th. The 64 player tournament will hold its final two rounds on Sunday, September 7th. The buy-in is $25,000 and once a player registers, he or she is unable to withdraw from the tournament in order to ensure a “perfect field.” Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Gus Hansen are already slated to participate.
The first of four satellites into the Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha Championship takes place tonight (Thursday, August 28th) at 9:00pm ET on Full Tilt Poker. The buy-in is $535. Here’s a look at the schedule for the next three qualifiers:
Saturday, August 30th at 3:30pm ET
Sunday, August 31st at 9:00pm ET
Tuesday, September 2nd at 9:00pm ET
Sweat tournaments with $5,000 added to the prize pool will occur concurrently with the championship rounds on Sunday. Just join the sweat tournament named for the player that you think will win the Heads-Up Championship. If they win and you make the final table, you’ll grab your share of $5,000. You can only play in one sweat tournament (no hedging your bets by playing in all of them). The prize money is distributed as follows: 1st – $1,500, 2nd – $1,000, 3rd – $800, 4th – $600, 5th – $400, 6th – $250, 7th – $200, 8th – $150, and 9th – $100. It’s a unique opportunity for players who can’t afford a $25,000 buy-in to be part of the Pot Limit Omaha Championship.