William Hill have announced plans to unite with ICU Events where they will be the official sponsor of the forthcoming Caribbean Poker Tour (CPT) due to be held on the islands of Dominican Republic and St Maartens this November.
In May 2011, renowned tournament director, Thomas Kremser, parted ways with the European Poker Tour (EPT) to ‘explore new adventures’ and ICU Events is one of them. Kremser runs the company along with Leon Groenewoud and Alexander Teufel, and the affiliation with William Hill will give them the opportunity to bolster their numbers through the online satellite qualification.
In addition to William Hill, players on the iPoker network can also qualify for the tour by playing on Betfair, Winner, Titan, Gala and Win2day. Amongst the poker festivities there will be a €1,290 St Maarten CPT Open and a €1,170 William Hill Poker Open due to be played in Punta Cana.
Deepstacks Poker Tour Hits Panama
William Hill have also tied up a deal with the Deepstacks Poker Tour that will see them try to provide online qualifiers for the inaugural Deepstacks Poker Tour Veneto Poker Carnivale series in Panama.
Satellites will begin on Sep 1st and you can qualify for as low as $2.40+. 20 in a steps style program. The Panama stop will showcase eight tournaments, including a $1,250 main event and $5,000 high roller: Nov 6-11.
Let’s hope the tournaments are not re-entry after the Deepstack Ambassador, Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow recently recorded an interview with Bluff, at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, poo-pooing the concept.
“With a re-entry event you may have to knock Phil Ivey out of a tournament seven times! I think it’s really bad. You give the tournament more rake, but I think it’s bad for poker.” Said The Mouth.
Hosting an event in Panama – Deepstacks and William Hill are going to need all the help they can get in order to drum up interest, and so it’s anticipated that Deepstack ambassadors Tristan Wade, Mike Matusow and everyone’s favorite sponsored player Michael Mizrachi will be making an appearance.
William Hill to Release Anniversary Book
William Hill will be celebrating their 80th anniversary next year, and according to the word on Ralph Topping’s latest blog, they will be doing so by releasing a book on the founder and corporate history of the British bookmaker.
The book has a tentative release date of July, and Topping recorded some of his favorites quotes about the great man himself. This is my personal favorite.
“He was the monarch of the ring, a leviathan – volatile one minute, charming the next. He was stubborn – could never admit to being wrong. I admired him, but you couldn’t love him – he was as hard as nails. An enigma – a wealthy socialist, but the greatest bookmaker who ever lived.’ – Geoffrey Hamlyn.
