By Kevin Felix | June 18, 2008

Take 12 of the best poker players in the world, split them in small groups and make them battle each other until the best one remains. Sounds exciting? This is exactly what Party Poker’s Premier League is all about, and it has now reached the final table, which will be broadcast starting on June 24.

Party Poker’s Premier League dream team has these outstanding players fro 2008: Alex Kravchenko (RUS), Andy Black (IRE), Annie Duke (USA), Dave “the Devilfish” Ulliott (ENG), Eddy Scharf (GER), Ian Frazer (ENG), Juha Helppi (FIN), Marcel “the Flying Dutchman” Luske (HOL), Phil Hellmuth (USA), Roland De Wolfe (ENG), Tony G (AUS) and Vicky “Teacup” Coren (ENG). Each of them bought in for $60,000 and Party Poker added $280,000 to make the prize pool a square $1 million, up from $500K last year.

The Premier League consisted of six 6-seater games, with players scoring points according to their final standing in each heat according to traditional league fashion: 9 points were awarded for a 1st, 5 points for 2nd, 3 points for 3rd, 2 points for 4th, 1 point for 5th and a bagel (zero) for 6th. Four players earned their seats at the final table by dint of their league positions: Andy Black, Alexander Kravchenko, Marcel Luske and Tony G; while the last two seats had to be won through fierce heads-up matches: De Wolfe battled Scharf and Annie Duke faced the Devilfish.

The final table, in order of chips, stands like this:

Seat 5 Tony G (AUS) 380,000
Seat 2 Andy Black (IRE) 330,000
Seat 6 Alexander Kravchenko (RUS) 260,000
Seat 3 Marcel Luske (HOL) 210,000
Seat 4 Roland De Wolfe (ENG) 200,000
Seat 1 Annie Duke (USA) 190,000

A fun fact about the league is that the notoriously mouthy Phil Hellmuth had to eat humble pie: he finished two heats with a bagel (zero points) and ended at the bottom of the league table with a meager 8 points.

The final table will be broadcast over the next two weeks on Channel 4 in the UK, starting on June 24 at 00.05 GMT and finishing on July 1st.

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