Bloggers / Matthew Pitt / 08 October 2009 / Leave a comment

Fresh from their World Series of Poker Europe and EPT London exploits, Betfair pros Annette Obrestad and John Tabatabai will tonight be sitting down and taking on some of the world's best No-limit Hold'em players in a Heads-up Grand Slam.

The event is to be held at the 3 Mills Casino from October 8-10 and will see 32 players fight it out for a piece of the $350,000 prizepool and in particular the $100,000 first prize.

Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport who are filming the event, is excited about the prospect of so many stars coming together under one roof for the tournament and says that the UK has been crying out for a heads-up tournament for a while. Asked if he thinks the format will be a hit, Hearn said, "Shows such as the NBC Heads-up Championship have attracted huge ratings and we expect this event to continue this trend."

The draw has already been made and it has thrown up some interesting clashes right from the off. The controversial Luke 'FullFlush' Schwartz is scheduled to play the on-form Yengeniy Timoshenko who has live tournament winnings in excess of $3,200,000 and recently won the $5,200 WCOOP Main Event for $1,715,200.

Annette Obrestad, who recently finished 17th in the EPT London Main Event, takes on Ian 'The Razor' Frazer in what could be a battle of age versus youth. Ian has a great record in televised poker tournaments, especially short-handed so will be a stern test for the 2007 WSOPE Champion. If, or should that be when, Annette beats Mr Frazer she will take on the winner of the Juha Helppi and Jonas Vesterback match, the latter qualifying for this tournament in an online satellite.

Other key matches see John Tabatabai take on Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot in what has been dubbed 'The Battle of Britain', cash specialist Tom 'durrrr' Dwan taking on John Duthie who finished as runner-up in the $10,000 World Series of Poker Heads-up Championship earlier this year.

All in all the tournament promises to be high octane and action packed and should make for great viewing when it is aired on television. Any updates will be added here as and when we hear about them.