Oct 07, 2013
Tony G & Esfandiari confirmed for Party Poker Premier League VII
By RTR Dennis
Party Poker have just announced that Premier League VII is set to run from November 20th-26th at Montreal's Playground Poker Club. And this will no doubt be a high-profile event because players must be invited to Premier League VII and pay a hefty $125,000 buy-in.
That said, it's no wonder why two of poker's biggest names in Tony 'G' Gouga and Antonio 'The Magician' Esfandiari have already confirmed their spots. The latter is the richest tournament player of all-time, having earned an unparalleled $25,578,279. A large chunk of Esfandiari's winnings come from his 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop victory, which netted him $18,346,673. More recently, The Magician grabbed a fourth place finish in the 2013 WSOP One Drop High Roller, earning him another $1,433,438.
As for Tony G, he's made a big mark on the poker world through his brash table talk and appearances on televised cash games. Some of the TV poker shows that Gouga has been on include Poker After Dark, The Big Game, and the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II. He's also racked up some very impressive tournament finishes, including second place in the 2004 WPT Grand Prix de Paris ($414,478), first in the 2005 European Poker Championships ($456,822), first at 2006 Betfair Asian Poker Tour Singapore ($451,700) and third in the 2009 European High Roller Championship ($552,239).
The other participants have yet to be announced. But if Premier League VI is any indication, we can once again expect to see poker's biggest names involved. Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Phil Hellmuth and Sam Trickett were just some of the well-known grinders who took part last time.
The format of Premier League VII will see 12 players compete in six different eight-round preliminary games. The top four players from these matches automatically move on to the final table, while the next highest four grinders face off to determine the last two final table seats. Whoever wins Premier League VII will be walking away with a massive $350,000 top prize.
Those who tune in to this event will see Kara Scott (pictured left) present the TV coverage and Jesse May providing commentary.