Euro Euphoria at the World Series of Poker

This year’s WSOP seemed to start with less media fanfare than previous years. With the departure of Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, Harrah’s legal wrangles with on-felt sponsor Everest Poker, Betfair bowing out of WSOP Europe sponsorship, and no European sponsor of final table online streaming, there was certainly less to trumpet ahead of the start of the world’s biggest poker festival in Las Vegas.

However, no one told the Brits this year would be a quiet one. Or perhaps they did and, like the Normandy landings, they just sneaked up and took advantage of the spring tide to sweep all before them.

With three victories, three second places, and a host of final table cashes already under their belts at the time of writing, it feels like the perennial underachievers are finally getting their dues.

Let’s not forget our French and Hungarian home-run hitters Vanessa Hellebuyck and Peter Gelencsher, plus Russian runner-up in the $50,000 Players Championship Vladimir Schmelev.

So congratulations to new British bracelet winners James Dempsey, Praz Bansi, and Richard Ashby, and also (with a touch of commiseration) to Neil Channing and Sam Trickett.

Before the dust settles I’d hazard a guess there will be more bracelets shipped across the Atlantic in what will be a year to be remembered for European, and particularly, British poker.

Card Player Europe Facebook Launched

Card Player Europe has launched its own dedicated Facebook page to bring our social media friends all the latest news, reviews, features, interviews, blogs, and exclusive giveaways.

Signing up to ‘like’ us means you’ll get our posts — no more than a couple a day at most — alerting you of our favourite content from the CardPlayer.com family of sites.

As well as this we’ll be organizing some special promotions and giveaways for our Facebook friends over the coming weeks and months so it’ll always be worth your while to look and see what’s going on in the world of poker.

Card Player Europe and Paddy Power Poker Irish Winter Festival

It does seem a little wrong to be discussing poker in winter as the sun shines and the World Series of Poker is just building up ahead of steam.

However Card Player and Paddy Power Poker have teamed up to bring you a series of $1 buy-in, $100 added tournaments over nine weeks from July to September, where the winners will face-off in a single table tournament to win a package to the Irish Winter Festival in Dublin in October.

Think of it a little like investing for the future — put a few hours playing in this summer and the payoff in winter will warm the cockles of your heart!

For more on Card Player Facebook and the Irish Winter Festival exclusive promotion see the Inside Straight news section in this issue.