After almost eight hours of play ZiZaZeppo had the last laugh in our most recent $300K Guaranteed Sunday.

As the top player out of a field of 1,581, our winner emerged from the big money tournament with $43,531.59 from a seriously impressive $316,200 prize pool.

Here’s how the final table finished:
1 ZiZaZeppo, $43,531.59
2 GOLEAFSGOEH, $40,584.01
3 Rodflag, $35,724.21
4 Black_Balzam, $17,232.90
5 KILLAHKENNY, $14,545.20
6 TeamTaby, $10,908.90
7 Starderi, $8,379.30
8 smiley4u, $5,533.50
9 I_Asimov, $4,268.70
10 grandgrig, $3,003.90

If you fancy ending your weekend with a big grin on your face, take your seat at the next $300K Guaranteed Sunday. You can get involved now by joining the qualifiers for as little as $3 or with a direct $215 buy-in.

Go to our $300K Guaranteed Sunday page  for more information.

Good luck at the tables.

PartyPoker is proud to announce that the third annual PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup takes place in Cardiff, Wales, from 7th – 10th April. The team event features line-ups from Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Holland and the United States. The winning team will scoop $100,000 in this unique tournament that sees players pursuing personal and team glory, along with the honour of representing their home nation.

The tournament sees one PartyPoker.com VIP qualifier on each team playing alongside five world class poker professionals from the same participating nations.

Each player pays a buy-in of $5,000 making a total prize pool of $280,000 ($100,000 added by PartyPoker). Over six heats, each player will compete once to score points for their team, and individual match winners scoop $20,000 for themselves for their efforts.

All six teams will then compete in a “tag” final where each team captain’s judgement is vital, as it is up to them to make tactical substitutions and strategic “time outs”. The size of the team chip stacks for the tag final depend on the points gained by the players in the six heats. The triumphant nation will be the last with a player standing.

Defending champions Sweden will be again captained by Bo Sehlstedt and feature William Thorsson, Johan Storakers, Mats Rahm and last year’s hero Anders Henriksson. Joining them is an online qualifier with serious form in Johan Ocklind, who locked horns with the likes of Patrik Antonius, Tony G and Ilari Sahamies at the Scandinavian Poker Masters cash game last year. He got to sit down with $50,000 in the shark pool and handled himself admirably after qualifying online at PartyPoker.com.

The British team is captained by Roland de Wolfe and features reigning Poker Million champion Joe Beevers, 2008 Irish Open champion Neil Channing, format specialist Ian Frazer and the inimitable Surinder Sunar. Joining them is qualifier Francis Durbin. Captain for the past two years, Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott is unavailable as he is in the United States.

Ireland make a welcome return to the competition and are captained by legend Padraig Parkinson, joined by fellow Irish poker giant Donnacha O’Dea, 2007 Irish Open winner Marty Smith, WSOP bracelet holder Ciaran O’Leary and 2007 PartyPoker European Open champion Liam Flood. Darren O’Brien joins the team as the qualifier.

Team USA is captained by Robert Williamson III and will feature $12 million 2006 WSOP Main Event winner Jamie Gold, the one and only Freddy Deeb, the iconic Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and Chad Brown. With there being no qualifier from the USA, captain Robert Williamson III has drafted in television host Montel Williams to make his European poker debut. Williams may be better known as a chat show host but he was the leading the WSOP Main Event for a period in 2007.

“I am thrilled and honoured that I have been invited to be a part of Team USA for the Poker Nations Cup. My teammates are extraordinary as I have played against many of them in the past year and now look forward to teaming up with them in our quest to defeat poker pros from around the globe,” said Williams.

The German team is captained by Michael Keiner and the former plastic surgeon has moulded together a very strong team. Andreas Krause, one of the top European players last year is a key figure in the line-up as is Benjamin Kang, inaugural PartyPoker German Open winner Sebastian Ruthenberg and WSOP Europe bracelet winner Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl. Thomas Potzal is the qualifier joining this glittering role call of top pros.

The Dutch team is captained by Marcel Luske and features Thierry Van der Berg, Eric Van der Berg and Daan Ruiter with Quirijn Van Der Peet the qualifier. Marcel still has one selection to make.

Last year Sweden triumphed over the USA in a rollercoaster tag-final, while the year before there was glory for Great Britain. PartyBets.com makes Sweden 3/1 favourites to win again with the USA second favourites at 7/2, Great Britain at 9/2, Ireland at 5/1, Germany at 6/1 and Holland the outsiders at 13/2.

A PartyPoker spokesman said: “The array of talent on display for the 2008 PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup is brilliant. Sweden have to be favourites to retain their title as their line-up of pros is unchanged and are used to the format and they are arguably strengthened by their online qualifier representative.

“That said, the USA will take some stopping with the likes of Gold, Ferguson Deeb and Brown on board while Great Britain boasts so many form players in their team. Ireland is a bit of a wildcard but there is little doubt that they have strength in depth in their side while Germany appear much stronger than previous years. The Dutch side led by Marcel have to be seen as the underdogs – the names don’t jump out as much at you as they do with the other line-ups.

“Montel Williams is a wonderful addition to the event and we’re delighted that he’ll be making his first appearance on the European poker circuit in Cardiff. At least we know that if there are any internal disputes amongst the team we have a man well capable of stepping in to arbitrate! Team USA wasn’t the happiest family last year so maybe he’s the right man for the job!”

GREAT BRITAIN
Roland de Wolfe    Capt.
Joe Beevers
Ian Frazer
Surinder Sunar
Neil Channing
Francis Durbin - qualifier

GERMANY
Michael Keiner    Capt.
Andreas Krause
Benjamin Kang
Sebastian Ruthenberg
Thomas Bihl
Thomas Potzel - qualifier

HOLLAND
Marcel Luske    Capt.
Thierry Van den Berg
TBC
Eric Van der Berg
Daan Ruiter
Quirijn Van der Peet - qualifier

IRELAND
Padraig Parkinson   Capt.
Donnacha O’Dea
Ciaran O’Leary
Liam Flood
Marty Smith
Darren O’Brien - qualifier

SWEDEN
Bo Sehlstedt    Capt.
Anders Henriksson
Mats Rahmn
Johan Storakers
William Thorsson
Johan Ocklind - qualifier

USA
Robert Williamson III    Capt.
Jamie Gold
Chris Ferguson
Freddy Deeb
Chad Brown
Montel Williams – Celebrity Player

There’s always excitement in our $300K Guaranteed Sunday, and the drama in this week’s epic came right at the death when player allanforsyth claimed victory. allanforsyth took top spot after striking a deal with runner up schmik87, which saw them both walk away with $48,918.

Our winner was just one of the 1,578 players who sat down to compete for the impressive $315,600 prize pool that was up for grabs in last weekend’s tournament.

Here are the payouts earned by the top 10 players:
1 allanforsyth, $48,918
2 schmik87, $48,918
3 breeth, $21,776.40
4 Deckzor, $17,200.20
5 marciuccio, $14,517.60
6 lfh05, $10,888.20
7 dfuthk21, $8,363.40
8 soes1216, $5,523
9 jorre777, $4,260.60
10 gaffel, $2,998.20

With every $300K Guaranteed Sunday winner we always like to find out a little more about them, this week we chatted with player cruiser2002, who took down the March 16 tournament.

cruiser2002 is actually Zelman Roman, a Russian native who now lives in Israel. He told us that despite taking part regularly in the $300K Guaranteed Sunday this was his first-ever online poker title.

As for tips on how to win, Zelman, who scooped $62,290.50 in winnings after choosing to avoid the qualifiers and buy-in direct to the tournament, suggests reading the books of expert poker player Dan Harrington.

Zeman also - ominously - said: ”If you want to win, you must be ready to die.”

Hopefully, all this has convinced you why you should be taking part in the next $300K Guaranteed Sunday. You can secure your place with a direct $215 buy-in or through the qualifiers for as little as $3.

Get involved today. See our $300K Guaranteed Sunday page  for more information.

Good luck at the tables.

Andreas Jörbeck is the winner of PartyPoker Late Night Poker 2008. The online qualifier, 36, from Stockholm overcome an otherwise all-pro final table that featured serial televised tournament winner Ian Frazer, German bracelet holder and 2007 Premier League runner-up Eddy Scharf, Surinder ‘The Cobra’ Sunar, WPT and EPT champion Roland de Wolfe, 2008 Premier League winner Andy Black, Maria Demetriou and 2007 Late Night Poker Masters champion David Tighe in the grand final broadcast last night in the UK.

“To win an event as prestigious as Late Night Poker against Europe’s top professionals in my first live event is quite something,” said Jörbeck. “I’ve been playing online poker for around four years with relatively small stakes and never thought something like this would happen to me.”

Jörbeck beat Roland de Wolfe heads-up and was always the underdog throughout the final. De Wolfe looked the likely winner throughout only to run out of steam and go card dead towards the end. “Roland played really well throughout but I started to relax and adopt a more aggressive approach when we were three-handed,” said Jörbeck.

Roland de Wolfe, Thomas Kremser, and Andreas Jörbeck

Heads-up the balance of power swung a number of times before Jörbeck landed the killer blow on the top pro. Jörbeck had A-10 and de Wolfe K-3. The flop came down A-A-K and the Swede’s set gave him victory. Roland was gracious in defeat: “I really, really fancied this but in the end it just wasn’t my day.”

First out in the final was respected British pro Maria Demetriou when her pocket queens ran into Andy Black’s pocket kings. Next to go was Ian Frazer, who found that holding A-10 wasn’t enough to overcome Black’s A-K after the K came on the flop. Black had created a table image where players were not sure if he was on a complete bluff and after calling the clock on himself Frazer went all-in, was called and then eliminated.

Next to go was Eddy Scharf whose Q-J looked good against Jörbeck’s 10-9 only for a 9 to come on the river. It was at this point that de Wolfe started to become dominant and he took out David Tighe’s A-10 with his pocket queens. Surinder Sunar went out fourth but was ahead with his A-Q against Roland’s A-9 only to see the 9 come on the river. This left Jörbeck, de Wolfe and Black, with everybody expecting the two pros to prevail.

Next out, however, was Andy Black. Jörbeck’s set of jacks crippled the Mad Monk’s A-2. The 2008 Premier League champion was all-in next hand with his big blind and was sent to the rail leaving de Wolfe and Jörbeck to battle it out.

Jörbeck, a business development manager in telecoms who has been married to wife Victoria for two years, is realistic about his ambitions going forward and doesn’t see himself as Sweden’s next poker superstar, despite winning such a prestigious tournament. “I am not a big player so have no huge plans on the horizon. Poker is just a hobby.

“I will use some of my prize money on a bankroll but will invest the majority in stocks and shares. My strategy throughout the tournament was to sit back, keep out of trouble and loosen up and try and relax when we were short-handed. If possible, I would get others to do the dirty work for me and get involved in lots of hands. I was so surprised to even get through my heat considering I was up against the likes of the Devilfish and Joe Beevers,” he said. Next up for Andreas is a trip on the PartyPoker Million VI cruise in Europe in May, which he has qualified for online.

De Wolfe and Jörbeck play heads up

A PartyPoker spokesman said: “Andreas’ achievement is huge when you consider that every other player at that final table was an aggressive pro and that he was the only online qualifier who made the final. Credit must also go to Roland de Wolfe – finishing runner-up in Late Night Poker and the Premier League is very impressive.”

Prior to the final there was a semi-final that featured the runners-up from all seven heats vying for one place in the showpiece. The line-up featured the eventual winner of the heat Maria Demetriou, ‘Flying Dutchman’ Marcel Luske, WSOP bracelet holder Praz Bansi, Polish television presenter Agnieszka Rylik, Marc ‘Mr Cool’ Goodwin, France’s Pascal Perrault and former champion Simon Trumper.

Amongst those who failed to make the final or semi-final included Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliott, Julian Thew, WSOP Europe winner Annette Obrestad, Ram Vaswani, Padraig Parkinson, Barny Boatman, Joe Beevers, Donnacha O’Dea, Robert Williamson III, Jen Mason and Jon Kalmar.

Late Night Poker revolutionised people’s perception of poker when the tournament was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 1999 and was the first to use under-the-table cameras. The total prize pool for 2008 was $335,000 ($90,000 added by PartyPoker) with $125,000 going to the eventual winner. There were 49 players paying a $5,000 buy-in including ten online qualifiers who won their seats in exclusive online tournaments on PartyPoker.

PARTYPOKER LATE NIGHT POKER (Played October, results released to coincide with television airing)

Andreas Jörbeck (SWE) $125,000
Roland de Wolfe (ENG) $75,000
Andy Black (IRE) $50,000
Surinder Sunar (ENG) $30,000
David Tighe (ENG) $20,000
Eddy Scharf (GER) $12,500
Ian Frazer (ENG) $10,000
Maria Demetriou (ENG) $7,500
Simon Trumper (ENG) $5,000

Simon Trumper won $5,000 for finishing runner-up in the semi-final.