Last week, the PartyPoker blog was lucky enough to visit the brand-new Playboy Club London.

It’s a casino, bar, restaurant, nightclub, and hangout all rolled into one Playboy branded experience. Walk through the front door off a quiet Mayfair street, and you ride a glowing red elevator up to the club.

The first thing to say is that Playboy Club London is not a lapdancing club. The bunnies serve drinks and deal games, but they don’t strip. (Also, rumour has it the bunnies are banned from having relationships with members, so guys leave your ‘Game’ routines at home.)

Up in the bar you can drink beer and eat Playmate themed sandwiches. (“The Bunny Monique – smoked salmon, wasabi cream cheese on rye bead – £8”.) In the casino you can play the usual table games, with games dealt by friendly bunny dealers.

The downstairs bar – Salvatore’s – is run by mixology maestro Salvatore Calabrese. Drinks range from £16 cocktails to a £2,000 cognac. (Don’t ask for it with Coke!)

The décor is upscale and understated. Raffles (that’s the name of Playboy’s rabbit mascot) is everywhere, but the joint is subtly and luxuriously branded – it’s not like a garish schoolgirl’s pencil case. Lenticular photographs of the iconic Sixties club appear to move as you pass them.

Playboy Club London’s strict members-only policy makes it unique in the UK. Most casinos claim to be ‘members only’, when in reality anyone can join for free. Not at Playboy Club though.

A private oak-panelled poker room

Here, management maintain that when they say ‘members only’, they mean it. During the day when it’s quiet, they’ll sometimes show you around and let you stay for a while. But if you want to make the place your base, you’ll need to spring for membership.

The fees: £1,200 a year (plus £1,000 joining fee) or £15,000 for life.

When you’re a member (sorry, ‘keyholder’) you get access to the club 24 hours a day. You can bring friends too, which is probably one of the key attractions because Playboy club is a killer place to bring people to. (Who’d turn down an invitation to meet at the Playboy Club?)

The management are still debating whether to offer poker. The Playboy Club London has a single poker table in a private oak-panelled poker room, hidden away from the casino. Running regular games is out of the question, but bosses will consider spreading private games on request. But if you can put together enough players at stakes high enough to make it worth their while.

Playboy London is marketing itself as a sort of home-from-home for upscale men. Smokers can kick-back on a covered roof garden, with confortable loungers and flat-panel TVs. With exotic cigars on hand, you’ll be tempted to get into bad habits.

Playboy Club London is an anomaly – a casino that erects a paywall to keep customers out. But it’s banking on the fact that the exclusivity will be more than enough to guarantee high rollers.

This Wednesday July 28th at 19.00 Sydney time (05:00 ET / 11:00 CET) is your chance to play against Tony G and Tyron Krost in the APT Manila Bounty tournament.

Bounty tournaments are a different dynamic to regular tournaments: you might decide to play a pot with one our Team PartyPoker pros just to take a shot at collecting their bounty. Tony G’s nickname on PartyPoker tables is TonyG while Tyron Krost’s nickname is Ty_Krost.

The winner of this $6 buy-in will get entry to the exclusive one off APT Manila Satellite on August 1st that will have a guaranteed 3 packages to APT Manila up for grabs. Players that knock out Team PartyPoker pros Tony G and Tyron Krost will also get the entry to the APT Manila Satellite. Each entry is worth $320.

APT Manila satellite gives players the chance to win $6000 package to play in the Asian Poker tour event in Manila. Each Manila package will include the $2700 main event buy-in, 7 nights hotel accommodation in Manila and $2300 spending money which is enough to get you there and ensure you have a great time.

Play the Tony G and Tyron Krost APT Manila bounty on Wednesday July 28th at 19.00 Sydney time (05:00 ET / 11:00 CET).

PartyPoker and Ace Magazine have teamed up to create Poker in the Sky, which will take place tonight in Copenhagen.

Poker in the Sky literally rises above everything that you’ve seen before on the Danish poker scene! Floating high above the Town Hall, surrounded by Copenhagen and the spires of the city, 22 poker players and two celebrities will take part with town hall doves as the nearest spectators.

The latest news sees the unfortunate withdrawal of 2008 WSOP Europe bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen. Top professional Theo doesn’t mind fights in the ring with Gus Hansen but is scared of heights.

A spokesman for PartyPoker.com said: “Theo is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet on the poker circuit but we are disappointed that he has decided he is up for fights and not heights. Theo famously beat Gus Hansen in the much hyped boxing match and got a reputation as a hardman. Maybe Gus should challenge him to a boxing match 50 metres up next time around? Gus would win that as he would have a no show on his hands! In Italy they call a poker ‘fish’ a chicken but we’d never dare call Theo one of those!”

The poker players, sadly without Mr Theo Jorgensen, will be hoisted 50 metres in the air by a crane at City Hall Square in Copenhagen. Hovering over the capital the poker players will compete against each other in a four hour long poker tournament. See http://da.partypoker.com/news/items/poker_in_the_sky.html for more information.

The players will not only have a great view of Copenhagen, the winner of the game will scoop a package for the PartyPoker.com World Open V in London in October. The line-up at this prestigious event includes ‘Ambassador of Poker’ Mike Sexton and Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan. The Danish winner of the PartyPoker.com Poker in the Sky wins flights, hotel and a $10,000 buy-in for the tournament in London, which will be broadcast on television worldwide.

By a strange twist of fate, the winner of Sunday’s PartyPoker.com Monthly Million was also from Denmark. Whether Fedling6 likes heights as much as BA Barcaus from ‘The A Team’ likes flying is unclear.

PartyPoker.com Monthly Million – Sunday 6 September 2009 – 1,687 runners, 200 places paid – total prize pool $1,000,000

1^st            Fedling6 (DEN) $147,000

2^nd           Nice_Steady (NETH) $119,000

3^rd           thesheik2222 (GER) $113,000

4^th           xprimex (UK) $54,500

5^th           pintarnih (AUSTRALIA) $46,500

6^th           Pokercinni (GER) $34,500

7^th           g_laden (GER) $26,500

8^th           sexyprez (CAN) $17,500

9^th           Uppstyrd (SWE) $13,500

10^th         homerus45 (NETH) $9,500

World Series of Poker”® and “WSOP”®, WSOPE”® are registered trade marks of Harrah’s License Company LLC. No license, affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is claimed, or should be inferred from the use of these trademarks here. PartyGaming is not licensed by or otherwise affiliated with Harrah’s License Company LLC or the World Series of Poker®, in any way.

Leading the way is defending champion and World No.1 Ronnie O’Sullivan who will be attempting to lift this title for an astonishing sixth consecutive season and ninth time overall.

The Essex-based ‘Rocket’ has made this Sky Sports-televised event his own in recent times, beating Mark Selby 7-2 in last year’s final, John Higgins 7-4 in 2007 and Jimmy White 7-0 in ’06.

World Champion Higgins will be returning to Premier League action in an attempt to halt O’Sullivan’s dominance and he will be joined by UK Champion and World Championship runner-up Shaun Murphy.

35 year-old Higgins was a winner of the Premier League ten years ago when he beat Jimmy White in Maidenhead and will be looking to have a good run after failing to qualify for the play-offs last year.

Murphy makes his second appearance in the event, having played in 2005, following a massive return to form over the past 12 months.

World No.8 Marco Fu is also a previous Premier League Champion when in a memorable weekend in May 2003, he toppled O’Sullivan 6-4 in the semi-finals before beating then World Champion Mark Williams 9-5 to land his first professional title.

The second overseas player in the line-up is Australia’s improving Neil Robertson, who bagged his third career ranking title last year when he won the inaugural Bahrain Snooker Championship.

Robertson had a torrid time of it on his only other Premier League outing in 2007 and will be looking to improve on that year’s showing.

While ‘legend’ is a term freely used in sport, it is hard to think of any other word when describing seven-time World Champion Stephen Hendry.

The 40 year-old Scot has achieved everything there is to achieve in the game, several times over, and is still a very dangerous competitor. Hendry last won the League in 2004 but that will mean nothing when the action  gets underway.

Finally, the joker in the pack is Bristol teenager Judd Trump. The up-and-coming World No.30 qualified for the Premier League by winning the ultra-competitive Championship League Snooker. Hailed as one of snooker’s greatest ever prospects, Trump now gets his chance to see what he can do among the game’s elite.

Commented Matchroom Sport Chairman Barry Hearn, “I think this is very exciting line-up with a  diverse selection of top players competing.

“Of course, Ronnie will always be the man to beat in this event, but I feel anyone of the others has a chance of winning this title come the end of November.

“Some of the players have struggled with the 25 second shot clock but coping with that has always been one of O’Sullivan’s many strengths.

“The standard is high and I am looking forward to 12 nights of top class snooker in September, October and November this year.”

Now entering its 24th season, the PartyPoker.com Premier League Snooker is the world’s only major snooker tournament played to a league format. The field consists of seven of the very best players in the world and each player plays the others once over the best of six frames, making a total of 21 matches.

There are two points available for a win and a point for a 3 – 3 draw and following the round robin section of play, the top four players moved forward to the big money play-offs in December.

The total prize fund is in excess of £200,000, and the money for the round-robin section will be dished out on a ‘frames won’ basis with £1,000 awarded for each frame. In addition, there is a ‘Double Your Money’ bonus for a break of 100 or over of another £1,000.

Successful players carry forward their bonuses to the play-offs where the serious money is up for grabs. The £1,000 for a century bonus stays and the champion receives £30,000, the runner-up takes home an additional £15,000 and the beaten semi-finalists make an extra £5,000 each.

The semi-finals are the best of 11 frames and the final is over 13 frames.

The event will be broadcast for over 48 hours LIVE coverage on Sky Sports in the UK and Matchroom Sport Television will produce 24 x 2 hour highlight programmes syndicated globally.

The Full Line-Up

Ronnie O’Sullivan – No.1

Shaun Murphy – No.3

John Higgins – No.4

Marco Fu – No.8

Neil Robertson – No.9

Stephen Hendry – No.10

Judd Trump – No.30

PartyPoker.com’s Sports Stars Challenge has rounded up some of the biggest sporting icons from across the globe and given them their biggest challenge yet; to prove they’ve got what it takes to compete in a televised poker tournament.

And you could be joining them to play for a share of the huge $84,000 prize pool.

For the first time ever we’re giving you the chance to be a part of Sports Stars Challenge and win a place on one of the seven teams containing legends from football, rugby, boxing, motor sport, darts and golf.

Here are some of the big sporting names confirmed to take part in our high-octane live event

• Frank Lebœuf
• Giancarlo Fisichella
• Phil Taylor
• Ronald de Boer
• Sven Ottke
• Graeme McDowell
• Andy Goode
• Jan Mølby
• Agnieszka Rylik
• Thomas Helmer

Plus more to follow every week!

Two places per team will be up for grabs over the next seven weeks via our online freeroll qualifiers. Every day during weeks one to six (30th March to 10th May) we will have two freeroll qualifiers for a particular team – for example, Monday is football, Tuesday is rugby. The top 10 finishers in each freeroll will win their way to that sport’s final in week seven (11th to 17th May).

In each final the two top players will win a Sports Stars Challenge package, attend the event and join their sporting heroes to soak up the tournament atmosphere.

This is not only your chance to mix with some huge sporting celebrities but also an opportunity to showcase your own poker skills in a major TV show that will be aired all over the world.

Show these celebs you’re a winner too: qualify for the Sports Stars Challenge today.

Filming will take place in the UK from 29th May to 1st June. Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash and are not refundable.

Promotional terms and conditions

* Filming will take place in the UK from 29th May to 1st June.
* Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash and are not refundable so please ensure that you are able to attend the filming prior to taking part in this promotion

The PartyPoker.com European Open V gets underway in London on Friday, 6th February with a total prize pool of a not too shabby at all $504,000 up for grabs.

Among the players to look out for in the famous 72-runner $7,000 buy-in event include PartyPoker.com Premier League III stars Annette Obrestad, Roland de Wolfe, Vicky Coren and Juha Helppi, plus Poker Million finalists Ciaran O’Leary, Eoghan O’Dea and Liam Flood.

Others names signed up to play include Austin Healey, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar, Barny Boatman, James Akenhead, Padraig Parkinson, Julian Thew, Donnacha O’Dea, May Maceiras, Marc Goodwin, Thomas Bihl, Robin Keston, Neil Channing, Roberto Romanello and UK Open champion Michael Keiner.

The tournament features 12 six-seat heats and two six-seat turbo runner-up heats. There will be two seven-seat semi finals and one six-seat final. The top three players in each semi take their chip stacks through to the final.

‘This is just great,’ said Arce, who is a well known figure on the Filipino poker circuit through running the Metro Card Club in Manila. ‘I always felt it would come down to me and Steve. For me, the key to winning the tournament was position. I was so lucky that Steve was sat on my right – if he was on my left it would have been a completely different final table. I played with Steve all day yesterday when he was on a charge and kept out of his way. I knew that to get anywhere at the final table I had to keep applying pressure and my game plan worked perfectly.’

Arce had been chip leader after Day 1A and had even guaranteed Asian Poker Tour CEO Chris Parker before the event got underway that he would emerge victorious in the tournament. He was third in chips at the final table and faced some formidable opponents including the impressive Yea and internationally respected professionals Liz Lieu and Asian Poker Tour Macau 2008 finalist Kasey Castle.

The key hand came just after the talkative Arce had taken the chip lead from Yea. He showed willingness over a series of hands to up the pre-flop aggression. On the final hand, he made what had become a standard open for him of 100,000. Steve Yea re-raised to 300,000. Arce moved all in and Yea called in a shot. Arce held Ks-Qs with Yea Ad-Kh, leaving Arce as 3-1 underdog. The flop came 4s-6c-7h and Yea was two cards away from a massive double up. When Qh came on the turn the partisan crowd exploded. The river came 6h which was of no use to Yea and the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Philippines had itself a very popular champion.

After two consecutive Asian Poker Tour runner-up spots and a dominating performance over the last few days Yea could only say, ‘Next time I will do it.’

First out on the nine seat final table was Kim Tae Hyung from South Korea, followed by Finland’s Vesa Leikos. Glamorous US pro Lieu went seventh, followed by fellow American Ron Kluber and Japan’s Susumu Toge. Cicurel Didiwe from the Seychelles finished fourth and US pro Castle in third. When it got heads-up Yea held the chip lead with 1,572,000 to Arce’s 1,048,000. Notable cashes in the event include 12th place for Nam Le and 13th place for fellow member of The Poker Pack Steve Sung.

Parker said, ‘There were some tired eyes after the FHM party the night before but the atmosphere around the final table was buzzing. Neil’s win is fantastic for poker in the Philippines – we hope that it strengthens the appeal of the game even further.’

Party time

Back at the PartyPoker Sit and go we reached our final three players. Jason from England, Julian from Argentina and I were in the money. However, we all had one eye on the clock as the FHM Asia party would be starting soon and no one wanted to miss that. Once Jason hit the rail Julian and I played heads up for a while with the chip lead changing almost every hand. Eventually, we split the cash. In the interest of pride and bragging rights though we had a look at our final hands, Julian flipped over Q-2 while I had Q-9. With a nine and a queen coming on the board my two pair won and we all rushed off to the party.
 
I stopped by Erik’s table to see him leave in 25th place and collect $6,000 for his tournament. Erik’s A-Q was up against the K-J of Vicente Pena but a jack and a king on the flop sent Erik to rail and he rushed straight upstairs to join us at the FHM extravaganza. Daniel Haglund also had a smile on his face, having cashed for 30,600 pesos in the Pot Limit Omaha side event.
 
The FHM party by the pool was very exotic. With beautiful models everywhere and free food and drink, it was a great way for the players to unwind after a week of intensive poker action.

Eddie was still in the main event but came and had a drink with us during the dinner break. I promised to come and watch him shortly but was slightly distracted for a while due to the fun going on around me. As I entered the tournament room an hour later I saw Eddie walking towards me. ‘Sixteenth,’ he said. I think he was a little relived as he wanted to get back to the party, plus he had an early flight in the morning.
 
A short while later we had our final table:
 
Seat 1: Ron Kluber (USA) 310,000
Seat 2: Cicurel Didiwe (Switzerland) 182,000
Seat 3: Steven Yea (Korea) 754,000
Seat 4: Vesa Leikos (Finland) 94,000
Seat 5: Neil Arce (Philippines) 377,000
Seat 6: Kim Tae Hyung (Korea) 168,000
Seat 7: Susumu Toge (Japan) 102,000
Seat 8: Liz Lieu (USA) 144,000
Seat 9: Casey Kastle (Slovenia) 503,000

Alas, no PartyPoker.com players but a final table that promises plenty of excitement in revealing the new champ.

PartyPoker.com’s remaining 14 players were in the spotlight on Day 1B, aiming to join Swedes Daniel Haglund and Erik Backlund who had made it through from the opening day’s play.

Our 14 were part of 182 players who sat down on Day 1B, making a total of 262 competitors for the event and generating a prize pool of $635,000 – less than expected but still a significant amount. More importantly, the players knew they had to place in the top 27 to get paid, with first prize earning an impressive $185,000.

The day did not start smoothly. Last-minute arrival Michael Kwiatkowski from Germany only arrived in Manila at 10am and with play starting at midday he was a little shell shocked after such a long flight and no time to relax. Unfortunately, he only lasted about two hours before busting out. However, he was still smiling and was last seen heading to the cash tables.

Looking around the tournament room there were some interesting tables. Arnold Meirik was sat next to David ‘Chino’ Reem, obviously delighted to be sat next to one of his poker heroes. Irishman John O’Shea was on the same table as last year’s winner David Saab, vocal as ever. John is not shy to speak out at the table either and was certainly giving as good as he got. One female player told me she felt like she was in the middle of a war zone.

The pace was frenetic with players hitting the rail with alarming speed. Alberto Kanaan, our local qualifier from the Philippines, had his tournament cut short after about three hours while Bjoern Weisler from Germany and Mikka Puumalanen from Finland did not last much longer. Such was the excellent team spirit among Team PartyPoker.com that when the guys were busting out they immediately became supporters and watched their colleagues who were still in.

With so many players, it was hard to keep up with some of the big hands. Tim Kaufman from Germany was a player who was not afraid to get involved in big pots, and was winning more than he was losing: at one point his stack was down to only 6,000 chips but he soon got that back up to more than 40,000 with some clever and aggressive play.

Quiet and brooding Peter Sevastopoulos from Australia went out when on the small blind he looked down at pocket queens. A player in early position made a small raise to 1,200 chips and the action folded to Peter who re-raised to 4,700. The original raiser pushed all in and Peter quickly called and showed his queens. The raiser flipped over A-10 off suit and we had a race. The flop came down A-A-9 and Peter was suddenly in a lot of trouble as his opponent flopped a set of aces. The turn brought a 9 and full house leaving Peter drawing dead. As a big tennis fan I think he went straight back to his room to catch with the Australian Open.

Russian Fedor Matviv and his friend were determined to make the most of their time in the Philippines, arriving at the tournament room this morning with major sunburn after having spent the past two days on a beach on Cebu island. I felt sore just looking at Fedor and he did not look comfortable in his chair. Credit to him, though, as he managed to spend the entire day hovering around the average chip amount.

Recent Irish Poker Championship winner Rory Rees Brennan may have been a little late getting to the tournament this morning but he soon got into the swing of things. Rory, who plays mostly hi stakes Pot Limit Omaha online, is in good tournament form but got tangled up in a nasty hand that wiped him out. Still, he had the Pot Limit Omaha side event to look forward to and I reckon he should do well in that.

Eva Lang, our only female player this week, always seemed to be shaking her head whenever I walked past her table. Spying her lack of chips I could see the reason; Eva never had a playable hand for almost two hours and found herself struggling for survival all afternoon. She may not have lasted very long in this main event but Eva has been a great character and had a lot of fun this week.

Two players who managed to build up impressive looking chip stacks were Andrew Teng from England and Dominik Renner from Germany. With only 45 minutes to go until play stopped for the day, I was praying both would survive but sadly both will not need an alarm call for Day 2, both of them hitting the rail trying to build their stacks.

Throughout the day there was a buzz going around the room as talk spread of a $100,000 tournament challenge. Team Korea would be taking on Team Japan; five players on each side with the winning team splitting the cash. The action was scheduled to start at midnight and should be a loud affair as these guys love to play loose aggressive poker and take plenty of risks.

With Day 1B at close, we now know 69 players will contest Day 2. PartyPoker.com has five players who will be involved with John O’Shea the highest placed of our group with 70,800 chips.

Before Day 2 starts, here are some of the highlights of the chip count:
1st Steve Yea (Korea) 122,700
4th David Saab (Australia) 84,800
8th Nam Le (USA) 75,800
9th John O’Shea (Ireland) 70,800*
15th David “Chino” Reem (USA) 55,400
23rd Liz Lieu (USA) 44,300
27th Tim Kaufman (Germany) 40,200*
50th Erik Backlund (Sweden) 21,200*
60th Daniel Haglund (Sweden)  13,300*
64th Fedor Matviv (Russia) 11,300*

* Indicates PartyPoker.com player

Catch you for more updates soon.

Once the remaining 35 players were rested, fed and watered, it was back to business. Our guys needed to up their game in order to see out the final four levels of the day to make it into Day 2 on Saturday.

Jason Gibson had to make a move having such a short stack and was happy to look down and see A-K in his first hand after the dinner break. He pushed all in a found a caller looking to pick him off. Luckily, the flop was no good to either player and Jason’s ace high was good enough for an early double up.

Daniel Haglund was very quiet at the table, only getting involved in a few hands. More often than not, though, he managed to pick up the few pots he contested.

Fellow Swede Erik Backlund is another quiet yet determined player who also knows when to pick his moments. His luck went up and down, just like his chip stack

Back on the other table Jason was still short stacked and needing to double up again to give him enough chips to play with. After an hour of being card dead he had A-Q and decided it was time to make a move. Jason was hoping someone with half a hand would call his all in raise and one duly came along for the ride. Sadly, the caller had a pair of 10s and made a set on the river, sending Jason to the rail.

At half past midnight the 10 levels were over and all the chips were counted, named and bagged. There were only 19 players from the 80 who started and Daniel and Erik were among those in the hat for Day 2. Time for a well deserved beer for our two stars from Sweden. Here are the full details of the chip counts at the end Day 1A:

DAY 1A RESULTS

1 Neil Arce (Philippines) $85,800
2 Norihito Suzuki (Japan) $76,600
3 Anders Anderson (Denmark) $69,400
4 Frederick Hernandez (Philippines) $52,500
5 Robert Carlsson (USA) $52,500
6 Casey Kastle (USA) $51,500
7 Cicurel (Switzerland) $50,100
8 Eddie Hearn (UK) $45,400
9 Triccia David (Philippines) $41,700
10 David Wells (UK) $36,800
11 Cristophe Petitclerc (France) $34,700
12 Adalberto Orrigo (Italy) $33,800
13 Yoshie Watanabe (Japan) $32,700
14 Wally Sombero (Philippines) $22,300
15 Erik Backlund (Sweden) $21,200*
16 Daniel Haglund (Sweden) $13,300*
17 Vesa Leikos (Finland) $13,100
18 Vicente Pena (Philippines) $11,500
19 Krjae Park (Korea) $6,100

* Denotes PartyPoker.com player

Undoing the Chino

There’s was still plenty of poker being played, with the railbirds filling up the cash game tables and the latter stages of a big satellite for tomorrow’s Day 1B.

Over on the high stakes cash game table there was plenty of interest in David ‘Chino’ Reem who is on one of the hottest streaks in poker at the moment, having reached the final table of the WSOP and picking up a WPT title at the Bellagio recently.

On one hand Chino moved all in on a king high flop. The action folded round to Chris Roh of Korea who was last year’s runner up in the APT Manila Main Event. Chris thought for a long time before making the call. With approximately the equivalent of $6,000 in the pot there was plenty at stake. Chino turned over K-6 for top pair.

‘What do have?’ asked Chino. ‘Do you have a king? Do you have queens?’ Chino implored of his stony faced opponent. Chris took an age to turn over a pair of nines and Chino was certainly surprised at the call.

‘Nines? You called me with nines?’ asked Chino as he looked forward to a big pay day. The crowd was gathering as the excitement level grew and everyone was stunned as the turn brought the 9 of hearts to give Roh a set and leaving Chino in big trouble.

The river bricked and everyone was a bit shell shocked for a moment, including Chino who must have been surprised to lose that hand. Not that it mattered too much; this is a guy who has won about $3 million in the last few months alone. He simply bought another load of chips and then doubled up a few hands later.

Tomorrow sees PartyPoker.com’s 14 remaining qualifiers begin their quest. I’ll let you know how they get on.