The 2005 World Series of Poker

It's not everyday that you find "Mr Miyagi", "Tiger Woods" and "Jesus" all in the same room...but hey, welcome to Vegas!

The aforementioned are the nicknames of three of the contenders playing from July 7th for the biggest prize pool in any competition worldwide. The game is poker and the event is the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

For those of you that have yet to be absorbed by the poker revolution, the mind-boggling $60million expected prize pool for the event starting next week may seem a little surprising to say the least. And with an expected first prize of $10,000,000, Roger Federer's "meagre" £525,000 winnings from his recent Wimbledon success pale into insignificance.

In the midst of the online poker explosion gripping the world, not to mention the Betfair office, a staggering 6,000 poker players will this week descend on the bright lights of Vegas with the sole intention of laying hands on this life-changing amount of money and the accompanying fame and acclaim. To any discerning poker enthusiast, netting the "Holy Grail" of poker is the equivalent of scoring the winning goal in the World Cup Final. Victory will assure poker legend status wherever you go and, perhaps more importantly, you'll be able to bluff a few more pots than you used to against your mates in your £10 home game.

You may be thinking that this is some distant murky world of redneck saloon bars, whiskey and bullets in the back. Not any more, it's not. The combination of televised poker and the accessibility of online poker can be credited with dispersing this seedy image. Poker for the people is the new tune and the world is singing, (well, at least 2 million or so anyway!)

The competitors stepping up for the event vary from hardened poker pros, some with over 40 years' experience such as Betfair Poker's sponsored professional Willie Tann and two-time WSOP Champion Doyle Brunson to online qualifiers such as the 50-strong Betfair Poker team, of whom about 40% have only taken up the game in the last year! Whatever their experience, background or skill level is, or however much guts or plain luck they have, the neon-tinted dollar signs in their eyes unify them all!

The World Series of Poker being played next week in Las Vegas has made no less than 17 millionaires in the last 10 years. This year’s Main event is set to put a further 8 in to the millionaire bracket!!

In fact, if you cast your eye over some of the online qualifiers that have just headed off to Las Vegas courtesy of Betfair Poker, you'll soon see that the image of the poker player is hardly the gun-slinging, sheriff-shooting cowboy it once was.

A diverse mix of poker players from the UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Ireland, South Africa and Vietnam make up the Betfair contingent who will take on the previously dominant Americans on their home soil. But the real eye opener is when you delve a little further. These guys have jobs as varied as you could possibly imagine: from carpenters to company directors, and accountants to chemical engineers, it seems that anyone from any background can succeed in the highest echelons of poker. There is no doubt that poker requires highly developed lateral thinking and statistical insight but a natural aptitude for the game is by no means limited to those in professions.

Take for example David "Popeye" Chipperfield, a factory operative from Lowestoft, UK who qualified through one of the satellite qualifiers, or Adam "Jowster" Jowett, an estate agent from Leicester, hoping to beat the professionals to the title despite playing for less than a year in total. This is the real beauty of this year's WSOP. There are so many players from all walks of life competing for the ultimate prize. In how many other sports can someone who only picked up the game 6 months ago take on the best in the world and emerge triumphant? And they really can win as well: the last two WSOP winners have been online qualifiers. Greg Raymer, the 2004 WSOP Champion, was previously a patent lawyer from Connecticut, USA before securing his biggest pay day ever.

The combination of staggering financial rewards and the fact that there is a real chance of achieving a level of success that, in other sports, is reserved for an elite has catapulted the WSOP to legendary status. The Betfair Poker team are all extremely excited to be involved for the first time and although the chance to qualify for this year's event has now expired, you can still get behind our players. Voice your support on the poker forums or even have a flutter on them on the poker markets on the betting exchange. Let's hope that one of Team Betfair can bring the ultimate prize back to Europe and out of the clutches of those darned Americans!

Stuart Banks
www.betfairpoker.com