WSOPE Preview - The Main Event.

Marcus Bateman / Marcus Bateman / 18 September 2008 / Leave a Comment

This is obviously the big one, and will be the tournament with the largest prize pool and the most prestige of the WSOPE. Last years winner was none other than Betfair's very own Annette Obrestad, who scooped the million pound first prize, a WSOP bracelet, the title of the worlds youngest ever WSOP winner and the instant respect of her peers.

Anyone who had been following the high stakes online tournament scene would have known what a dangerous and skilled player Annette is long before the WSOPE - she has occupied the prestigious number one spot on the PocketFives.com rankings system, as well as having made millions from online poker in an astonishing amount of time. All the players involved in this scene knew it was quite clearly a matter of if, not when, Annette would chalk up her first major live win - although I suspect most would not have predicted it would be in quite such stunning fashion.

The structure of this tournament really allows the skill of the players to show through. With two hour levels, 20,000 in starting chips, and blinds starting at just 50-100, there will be a lot of play available to all entrants - and this means that players will have to be competent in all areas of the game, with deep stacked, short stacked and mid stacked poker all probably having to be played at some point.

As is to be expected from a tournament with such a large buy in, the field in this tournament will include probably all the major known professionals, as well as a whole host of online pros and qualifiers, sprinkled with a few rich amateurs. As a result, opportunities to pick up chips may well be quite difficult at points, although the excellent structure should allow enough play to negate this slightly.

Whether or not the prize pool will exceed last years total of £3,620,000 will also be of interest - particularly in gauging if the poker boom is starting to burst or not. I would suspect that it would probably be higher, with more players being attracted by the introduction of a smaller hold'em event willing to try their luck, although it could go either way.

You too can qualify to play in one of the worlds most prestigious tournaments exclusively at Betfair. Who knows, it might just be you playing Annnette heads up for a million pounds....