It’s back! PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker returns in February. The groundbreaking format, developed by Matchroom Sport, features 12 of the world’s best players playing in a unique league for a tasty $1 million prize pool.

The event takes place from February 10th to 16th and will be first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in late March.

With a system developed especially to showcase the legendary poker prowess of each player, they will play six times in the preliminary stages. The leading four players will then progress to the final table with the next four battling it out in heads-up matches for the final two seats.

Each player will buy-in for $60,000, with PartyPoker.com adding $280,000 to make the pool $1 million, up from $500,000 last year. Nine of the twelve players from 2007’s successful event return with the new faces being “Flying Dutchman” Marcel Luske, Annie Duke and Alexander Kravchenko.

As before, 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth will lead a top field that also includes Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, Tony G, Andy Black, Ian Fraser, Roland De Wolfe, Vicky Coren, Juha Helppi and Eddy Scharf.

Bookmakers www.partybets.com has opened a market on the tournament and make Devilfish the 5-1 favourite. Last year, Finland’s Juha Helppi won the title on his birthday, with Scharf finishing second and Hellmuth third. The pros cannot wait to lock horns again:

“After winning four out of six matches in the Premier League last year, I was in massive pain when Juha Helppi beat my K-K with his 8-7 off suit and made me finish third in the finale. I told Helppi, ‘I’ll be back!’ Now it’s 2008, and here I come!” said Phil Hellmuth.

Helppi said: “It will be very hard to take this title from me. I will do anything it takes to defend it!”

Tony G added: “Premier League is something I look forward to for months. It’s the best event in poker in my book. Last year was a disaster for me and I want to prove it was a freaky event. Only winning this year will make things right for me and I want to bust Hellmuth so… so… hard to get him on a boat back to the US.”

Vicky Coren is also looking forward to the event: “I love this event – the league format irons out the injustices of the one-table heat because you get six chances, and that means there is plenty of time for needle and history to build up between the players. And I enjoy the fact that these particular players are all such performers: fearsome sportsmen, with a lot of money in play, but they all seem to have a lot of fun in this event, lots of rabble-rousing speeches and messing about on the side.”

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: “Premier League Poker was an outstanding success last year with both players and viewers. Devilfish’s recent form makes him the favourite to win, a status that he is bound to embrace much to the annoyance of Hellmuth and Tony G.”

Eddie Hearn, Poker Director of Matchroom Sport said: “We are delighted to announce the line up for Premier League Poker II. It’s great to welcome back the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Devilfish, Tony G and last year’s champion Juha Helppi and we are also thrilled that Annie Duke, Marcel Luske and Alex Kravchenko will be joining the field. This is one of the strongest line up’s assembled in poker and with the buy in increased to $60,000, coupled with the vast international tv distribution, Premier League Poker is now established as the world’s leading televised poker event.”

Just because the World Series of Poker is in July that hasn’t stopped PartyPoker.com getting excited about it right now.

We’ve already set up qualifiers for poker’s blue ribbon event meaning you can start your quest to secure your seat in Las Vegas today. Just think, in a matter of days you could be relaxing with a big grin on your face, knowing you’ll be experiencing the WSOP as part of $12,000 luxury package.

Five-star hotel, spending money, access to PartyPoker.com’s exclusive VIP hospitality suite and, most importantly, your $10,000 buy-in to the main event all taken care of. Now that’s a sweet deal.

And if you need another reason why you should be a part of the poker tourney of the year, how about a big, fat one worth more than $8 million? That’s how much last year’s winner Jerry Yang took home after beating 6,358 other players and being crowned champ.

PartyPoker.com qualifiers for WSOP have already started, far earlier than most other sites. And, incredible as it sounds, entry starts from as little as $1. You can see more about our WSOP qualifiers right here.

So why are you still reading this? Get over to PartyPoker.com now and win your seat at what promises to be the greatest poker event on earth.

Coverage of PartyPoker.com Scandinavian Poker Masters – The Game, Scandinavia’s first televised high stakes cash game, airs for the first time in Sweden this weekend. The show can be seen at 12.35am on Sunday night/Monday morning on Kanal 5 and runs for nine weeks at the same time.

Patrik Antonius, Martin De Knijff, Jan Sørensen, Per Hildebrand, Rene Mouritsen, Ilari Sahamies, Fredrik Halling, Tobias Persson, Tony G, and PartyPoker.com Premier League champion Juha Helppi are amongst those who take part in The Game, where the initial buy-in is a minimum of $50,000.

Patrik Antonius prepares to make a move

Entering this shark pool are two online qualifiers who came through a televised semi-final to both sit down with $50,000 each. The two qualifiers are Johan Ocklind from Uppsala, Sweden and Jan ‘Chili’ Nilsson from Stockholm. Ocklind qualified for just $1 and has since been building a reputation on the professional circuit.

The Game took place in a very stylish setting in London, and clips of the monster pots have already been circulating on the internet HERE.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: “The language at the table is predominantly English. Look out for the six-figure pots and the tension between Ilari Sahamies and Patrik Antonius which makes great television for any poker fan.”

The first show starts with Hildebrand, Sørensen, Sahamies, Tony G, De Knijff and Jan “Chili” Nilsson at the table. Commentary is provided by Peter Backe and Peter “Nalle” Hedlund.

If you can get Kanal 5, enjoy the show!

Timing’s everything. Just ask happynoel, the winner of our latest $300K Guaranteed Sunday tournament.

Before Sunday’s showdown happynoel, also known as Noel Hodges from london, was staring unemployment in the face. He’d quit his job three months previously and hadn’t found a new position by the time his leave date came around.

But instead of a depressing Monday morning trip to join the queue at the job centre, Noel was able to wake up ecstatic knowing he’d scooped $68,455 just a few hours before.

Oh, and had we forgotten to mention this was the first time Noel had ever entered the $300K Guaranteed Sunday tournament? Now how’s that for a fairytale ending?

Noel explained: “Before this tourney my best win was $150 on a one table Sit & Go. I normally play $3 to $22 tournaments and actually won my seat to the $300K Guaranteed Sunday via a $3 rebuy tourney.”

Noel was just one of 1,755 players taking part in the latest $300K Guaranteed Sunday, which had a stunning $351,000 prize pool up for grabs on this occasion. As mentioned, Noel’s reward for coming out on top was almost $70,000. Replaying the final hand our champ said: “I had about 80 per cent of the chips and my opponent went all in. I had an ace and it was an instant call.”

And now that he’s a bit more flush for cash, Noel’s already planning for the future, which involves a lot more poker. He revealed: “I will invest a large sum of my winnings but as I’m unemployed I have the perfect opportunity to go pro. I’m certainly going to be a regular in the $300K.”

As for his top tips for those players wanting to emulate his brilliant win, Noel said: “Play the players. Always raise tight and call loose.”

You can get involved in the $300K Guaranteed Sunday on PartyPoker.com right now. Qualifiers run every day - click here to find out how you can take part.