Create Your Own Tournaments at MANSION.com

Poker players who have ever wanted to be their own Tournament Director will find the innovative ‘Create Your Own Tournaments’ option at MANSION.com (www.mansion.com) absolutely irresistible.
Mansion Poker Members can now invite their friends, family and colleagues to play in their own customised tournaments, making key decisions about tournament buy-ins, game types, blinds structures and payout schedules.
At MANSION.com (www.mansion.com) select a start time to suit, choose your Game and Limit type, nominate your buy-in amount from as little as $5+0.50 up to $500+ 25 and you’re half way to structuring your very own made-to-order online Poker event.
“What’s better than a good game of cards amongst your mates to settle a score? This is a great addition to the MANSION Poker site, so get some friends together and give it a go,“ says Marc Goodwin, MANSION Poker Ambassador and well-known UK Poker professional.
“If you have between two and fifty players who are keen to play it YOUR way, then Create Your Own Tournaments at MANSION.com is for you,” adds Goodwin.
Find out who is the King of the Cards with MANSION Poker’s Create Your Own Tournaments or teach novice players first hand why millions of players worldwide have switched on to the online game. Simply set up a low-limit buy-in tournament that allows ‘newbies’ the chance to test their skills and learn in a less intimidating environment.
With the unique Create Your Own Tournaments feature, players can set their own Blind structure, from Turbo to Normal or Slow, plus allocate the payouts any which way they wish, awarding the prize pool, be it ‘winner takes all’ or otherwise.
Don’t forget – It’s YOUR tournament, so you can please yourself. It takes only minutes to create YOUR perfect Poker tournament at MANSION.com. It couldn’t be easier.
*Choose the ‘Private’ Tab in the MANSION Poker tournament lobby and Click on the Create Tournament button to discover just how easy it is to tailor your personalised Poker event.
Visit MANSION.com (www.mansion.com) for full tournament details.

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Poker Performance of the Year for Annette Obrestad

Betfair Poker sponsored player Annette Obrestad has become the youngest player ever to win the "Tournament Performance of the Year" award at the prestigious European Poker Awards in Paris.
Her achievement at the World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair.com was recognised as "phenomenal" by Poker Europa Chief Nic Szeremeta who presented the award. She defeated a field comprising of "one of the toughest fields in poker" to win more than $2m.
Annette beat fellow nominees and potential favourites for the award Carlos Mortensen and Bruno Fitoussi. Mortensen won $3.97m at the WPT in Las Vegas while Fitoussi took $1.2m in 2nd place in one of the most prestigious tournaments in the poker calendar, the WSOP HORSE event, also in Las Vegas.
Annette was nominated in two other categories including "Leading Lady" and "Rookie of the Year". She narrowly missed out to Katja Thater, who also won a WSOP bracelet this year, in the "Leading Lady" category.
Aged only 19, Annette Obrestad is a poker prodigy. Having made a name for herself playing online poker she shot to fame after winning the Main Event at the World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair.com in London's Leicester Square. As well as the coveted WSOP bracelet and the $2m prize Annette scooped up a five year sponsorship deal with Betfair.
Less than two months later Annette narrowly missed out on her first European Poker Tour win - having to settle for second place and a $429,181 payday in Dublin.
Annette's comments suggest there is more to come from the wonderkid: "I am so happy to win this award. I prefer this one than rookie of the year because I was up against such great players."
"I am still learning so much. There are still a lot of areas of my live game that can improve. My instincts, my ability to know what certain tells mean. But I am getting better all the time."
Betfair's Director of Poker Bruce Stubbs said: "Congratulations to Annette. She is a pleasure to work with and a special player. She is also possibly one of the most competitive people I have met. In fact I suspect she wanted to win all the awards."
Her experiences at the awards ceremony have been filmed for her blog and will soon be available on her Betfair Poker blog
Annette has her own special $212 freezeout tournaments on Betfair Poker at 19:30 UK time on Tuesdays and Fridays. Check out Betfair Poker for more information.

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European Poker Tour arrives in Prague

Christmas in Prague is a magical time. The city's famous Christmas markets are a key ingredient of the Czech festive magic and run daily throughout December. Prague's stunning architecture and great night life also help make it a one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.
The EPT Prague runs from the December 10 to 14th at the Golden Prague Poker in the Hilton Prague Hotel.
The field looks pretty strong, including Katka Thater who picked up a World Series of Poker bracelet this year
The poker isn't limited to the 5000 euro Championship Event, there is a 500 euro (with one re-buy) two day tournament,a 2000 euro event on December 13th and a 1000 euro freezeout on December 14th.
If you didn't qualify for this event don't worry you can qualify for the Next great EPT event online now at PokerStars

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Tournaments to exceed $10,000,000 at RedKings in December

RedKings winter schedule of tournaments kicks off this week with big money buy-ins and weekly freerolls that cater for poker players of all levels. The plans announced include the ever popular $500,000 Grand Tournament on the holiday weekend plus added money buy-ins and Freeroll satellites on both Christmas and New Years Day.
Two of the big new additions to the tournament schedule are the $110, 000 Guaranteed Winter Special Freezeout on 18th December followed by the $150,000 Guaranteed Freezeout on 23th but there are also smaller buy-ins and freerolls running every day to make the total guaranteed prize pool for the month over $10 million for the first time.
A special Freeroll on New Year’s Day will introduce an exciting new 2008 campaign called the “Play Big” designed to give all RedKings players the opportunity of going for big tournaments wins without having to pay to get in, starting with a 10 ticket giveaway to the $150,000 Freezeout on the 6th January 2008.
A spokesperson for the fast growing poker room said "It’s every poker players dream to do well in a big money tournament. Most of us watch these games and think we could easily finish in the money. Well we are going to give RedKings players the opportunity to find out if they can really go the distance. Our “Play Big” campaign will hopefully lead to discovering some hot new big tournament talent in 2008”.
The winter tournament campaign coincides with the launch of a brand new bonus code PLAYBIG which is a massive 500% up to $1000 at the redemption rate of 8jmx bonus in RedKings player points. In addition all using the code will get 20 entries into 20 Shuffle –Up freerolls over a 20 week period.

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