There is a pretty good chance that one of the PokerStars Million Dollar Men will be a World Series Champion in just a few weeks. Only problem is, right now, we have no idea which one it will be.

But, here’s an interesting question (somewhere along the lines of whether Superman could beat up Spiderman): what would happen if you took every one of the PokerStars Million Dollar Men and put them up against four World Series Champions.

Well, as it happens, there are six Million Dollar Men at PokerStars and four former World Series Champions on Team PokerStars. It also appears PokerStars can squeeze ten people at its tables. Enter the PokerStars WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Tomorrow (Wednesday, October 1) at 13:00 ET, PokerStars’ Million Dollar Men Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate, Ylon Schwartz, Darus Suharto and David ‘Chino’ Rheem will face off against Tom McEvoy, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem to see which of the ten players can beat the elite field.

You can watch the tournament by clicking TOURNEY and SPECIAL in the PokerStars lobby and looking for “WSOP Tournament of Champions.”

Don’t miss all the other cool Million Dollar Men promotions, including freeroll tournaments and your chance to win a piece of the Million Dollar Men at the WSOP final table. For more information on all the new promotions, visit the the PokerStars Million Dollar Men page.

Of all the regular stopping points through five seasons of the European Poker Tour, only four have been visited during every renewal. There’s the sun-kissed Costa Brava coast of Barcelona, where season five got underway earlier this month, and early next year, we’ll be braving the Scandinavian madness and winter chills of Copenhagen. Then at season’s end, there’ll be the glitter of Monte Carlo for the typically shimmering Grand Final, the place where the curtain comes down on what is always another record-breaking tour.

This week, however, we’re in London, England, where things are slightly different. There’s no beach, for starters, and no roof-top swimming pool at the hotel. Just as well really, because there’s scant chance of blistering sunshine, or even beautiful snow-fall to line the streets in picture-book white. There are no lagoons and multi-million dollar yachts, few Ferraris sweeping through Casino Square.

Why, then, does London remain one of the most popular stopping points on the EPT? Simple answer: there’s no place like home.

For many of the PokerStars EPT family - the pioneer John Duthie included - London is where we belong. It’s where all our flights to the further flung districts of Europe originate, and it’s where we all return, sun-baked and frazzled when the tournaments are done. It’s grey, it rains frequently, and even the buses are red with embarrassment over how much a taxi ride costs. But it’s what we all know, it’s what we all grudging love, and it’s always a spectacular tournament, whatever else we can say.

This year, there’s also the not-inconsiderable carrot of a guaranteed £1m first prize. At least. It will probably be more.

As usual, we’ll be at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on London’s Edgware Road. Down one end of the street is Marble Arch, then Park Lane snaking down the side of Hyde Park.

We’re not too far from Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus and Covent Garden. Take an hour with any moderately equipped camera and you could put together a catalogue of postcards to send home. A typically huge number of PokerStars qualifiers from around the world will probably be doing just that as they acclimatise to Great Britain, in preparation for the first day one tomorrow.

As ever, the qualifiers are joined in the field by some of poker’s heaviest heavyweights, representing Team PokerStars Pro. Take a deep breath and run through the full list of those appearing here this week. There’s Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Humberto Brenes, ElkY, Isabelle Mercier, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri, Chad Brown, Noah Boeken, William Thorson, Vicky Coren, Hevad Khan, Vanessa Rousso, Alex Kravchenko, Victor Ramdin, Alexandre Gomes, Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Andre Akkari, Katja Thater and Marcin Horecki.

If I had the time and about 150 more fingers or toes, I’d count up how many World Series, WPT or EPT wins are contained among that lot. Just as a précis, there are three World Series main event champions in Moneymaker, Raymer and Hachem, a few more 2008 WSOP bracelets on the wrists of Minieri, Negreanu, Gomes and Greenstein. And in season three, Coren was EPT London champion - she’s another on home turf.

Then, as if that wasn’t enough, we’re joined also this week by all members of the PokerStars Six, that dominant sub-set of the November Nine who will contest the World Series main event final table next month. That means Ylon Schwartz, Darus Suharto, Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate, David “Chino” Rheem and Dennis Phillips all take their place. And that’s not even mentioning another clutch of PokerStars sponsored players: you can also add Boris Becker, Kathy Liebert, Gualter Salles, Anthony Holden and the most recent EPT champion Sebastian Ruthenberg to the list.

It’s going to be a busy one, which is why we’re all going to need to make the most of tonight’s party at Cafe de Paris on Coventry Street. There, we’ll be mingling among the honoured guests and enjoying the always fine food and wine. And the best thing is that you can join us too if you want. Click HERE and print out the invitation below and get yourself along. All are welcome.

So we’ll either see you tonight, or hope to know you’re there reading about all the action as the players chase the top prize over the coming days. Stay tuned.

You can follow the live action from the 36 hour marathon Party Poker Poker Den from the Matchroom site. The event is underway now in London, with a huge line up of professionals in town for the WSOPE. The format is a $10,000 buy-in with $50/$100 blinds and ten seats at the table. Players may come or go as they like with an interesting group ready to take any empty seats.

Currently playing (at hour 10 of 36):

Neil Channing*
Robert Williamson III*
Sammy “any two” George*
Ian Frazier
Bodo Sbrzesny
Andrew Feldman
Phil Laak
Barny Boatman
*Original participant in hour 1.

Also played:
Roland de Wolfe (moved to announcer’s booth)
Chris Parker (sitting out)
Ilios Kamatakis (busted)
David Williams (busted)
Jennifer Tilly (left game a winner!)

There is a $1,000 added “Party Pot” once an hour, which seems to stimulate a lot of action. The first Party Pot got up to $17,000.

The World Series of Poker Europe main event is down to 62 players from the starting field of 362. With so few starting runners compared to the thousands in the Las Vegas WSOP, it is not surprising that the leader board is still full of big name professionals. Here are the players at the top entering day three.

1 Bloch, Andy - Las Vegas 321,600
2 Townsend, Brian - Santa Barbara, CA 290,100
3 Seidel, Erik - Las Vegas 282,300
4 Juanda, John - Las Vegas 252,500
5 Rouas, Phillippe - San Francisco 233,300
6 Elliott, Christopher - Alloa UK 231,900
7 Moorman, Christopher - Brighton UK 219,500
8 Smith, Justin - Kissimmee, FL 217,700
9 Negreanu, Daniel - Las Vegas 203,700
10 Adams, Brandon - Miami, FL 190,000
11 Sointula, Jani - Helsinki Finland 184,800
12 Sonnert, Ben - Linkoping Sweden 184,600
13 Matusow, Mike - Las Vegas 180,300
14 Demidov, Ivan - Moscow Russia 176,200
15 Moreira, Tome - Porto Portugal 165,800
16 Alekhin, Stanislav - Moscow Russia 164,000
17 Williamsson, Christofer - Gothenberg Sweden 163,500
18 Fischman, Scott - Las Vegas 152,800

(MOHAWK TERRITORY OF KAHNAWAKE – September 29, 2008) Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission (”KGC”) Chairman Dean Montour today announced the initial findings of the audit conducted on licensee Ultimate Bet, as well as the sanctions to be imposed.

According to KGC Chairman Montour, the Commission has reviewed the information provided to it over the past months from Frank Catania of Catania Gaming Consultants of New Jersey; Gaming Associates, an Australian game testing company; and the permit holder. Chairman Montour said, “The Commissioners have made several findings of fact with regard to the cheating that occurred on the Ultimate Bet web site that included the identification of some of the individuals responsible for these incidents as well other significant violations of the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations.”

The Commission found clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Russell Hamilton, an individual associated with Ultimate Bet’s affiliate program, was the main person responsible for and benefiting from the multiple cheating incidents. Furthermore, the KGC is currently in contact with the appropriate law enforcement agencies and intends to fully cooperate in the prosecution of all individuals involved in the UB cheating incidents.

Mr. Catania states,

“My intention is to provide further information as it is uncovered, although the information already submitted to the KGC relating to Ultimate Bet warrants the KGC taking the actions it has today. Any further evidence uncovered with regard to cheating, withholding or destroying records in our continuing investigation will be reported to the KGC and the proper agency for appropriate action.”

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As a result of the KGC’s findings of fact, the Commission called a special meeting, at which time it was unanimously decided to impose the following sanctions against Ultimate Bet:

1. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3, 2008 it shall, under the close supervision of the KGC, its employees and agents, commence refunding all players accounts found to have been adversely affected by the cheating of individuals under the control and supervision of the licensee. It is estimated that Ultimate Bet has to date reimbursed $6.1 million USD to players’ accounts found to have been adversely impacted by the cheating activity

2. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3, 2008 it is to remove any and all persons deemed as “unsuitable” by the KGC from all involvement with the company, which shall include all levels of ownership, management and operation. Ultimate Bet during that time period until November 3, 2008 is required to continue to provide complete details of all day-to-day operations of the company. These shall include financial as well as daily gaming records to Frank Catania and or his assigns. It is anticipated that this action will provide full disclosure and prevent any further improprieties or wrongdoing from occurring while ensuring that the public is being offered fair and honest games and all player monies will be protected.

3. Ultimate Bet’s control system as defined in section 9 of the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations has been modified to prevent any further incidents of cheating or related improprieties.

4. Ultimate Bet will not delete or modify any logs including but not limited to web logs and game logs as required by the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations and will continue to have those logs immediately available for inspection by the KGC or its agents.

5. Ultimate Bet shall immediately pay a fine of $1.5 Million USD to the KGC for its failure to implement and enforce measures to prohibit and detect fraudulent activities.

6. Ultimate Bet’s failure to comply fully with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.

Murray Marshall
Senior Advisor
Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission