• September 09, 2019 Matthew Pitt. Table Of Contents. A brand new promotion has been created combining poker with the English Premier League that bet365 is calling the Premium League.
• This Premier League season has been like no other. Lasting nearly a full calendar year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic which caused all sport to go on a three-month hiatus in the Spring, we saw the first ever Premier League games in June and July over the last six weeks along with another unprecedented event – Liverpool winning the Premier League for the very first time.
• On the whole, VAR overturned a total of 109 decisions in Premier League games this past season, and we at Grosvenor Sport have taken a look at some of the most controversial decisions – and non-decisions – made by VAR in its first season. Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace On-field Decision: Goal by Sokratis VAR Decision: Foul by Calum Chambers Arsenal took an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from.

In his 79 appearances for Liverpool since arriving at the club from Roma a couple of years ago, Alisson has asserted himself as the Premier League’s best goalkeeper, keeping 33 clean sheets in 58 league appearances, shipping just 33 goals in total. At 27, his best years are almost certainly in front of him, which is a scary thought.

Table Of Contents

bet365 is one of the biggest sports betting companies in the world, one with a busy online poker site on the iPoker Network. A brand new promotion has been created combining poker with the English Premier League that bet365 is calling the Premium League.

Premium League runs until Dec. 22 and gives you the chance to win prizes worth up to €1,000 cash every week (fortnightly during the international breaks). There are also prizes awarded for the top players each month and for the Mid-Season.

How Premium League Works

You need to opt-in during each weekly qualifying period by clicking the start button located in the missions section of the bet365 poker software. Here, you will find a list of the next available Premier League fixtures. Make your predictions for those fixtures, then complete that poker-related mission shown on your screen to make those predictions count.

Completing the mission rewards you with a spin on the Premium League Prize Wheel, with an additional spin earned if you predict at least 50 percent of the Premier League results correctly.

The €500 Premium League freeroll awards the top 100 finishers a €5 Twister ticket. It shuffles up and deals at 8:00 p.m. UK time every Tuesday until Dec. 31. Tickets to the freeroll expire at 7:59 p.m. UK time on Dec. 31 with all Twister tickets awarded by the freeroll expiring 60 days from the date of issue.

Monthly and Mid-Season Leaderboards

Once you have completed your mission, you receive one leaderboard point for each prediction you have made plus an additional three points for each one you predicted correctly. The more points you earn, the higher up the leaderboard you will climb.

The Monthly Leaderboard pays out the top 10 players. The winner walks away with €500 cash, with a spin on the Silver Prize Wheel awarded for the next nine players.

Silver Prize Wheel Prizes

Premier League Poker Wiki

The Mid-Season Leaderboard runs up to Dec. 22 and sees the top 50 players receive a prize. €1,000 is given to the top placed player, the next nine players each bank a Premium Gold Prize Wheel spin, and the next 40 players getting a spin on the Playoff Prize Wheel.

Premium Gold Prize Wheel Prizes

Playoff Prize Wheel Prizes

Significant Premium League Terms and Conditions

• Premium League runs from 10:00 GMT on 2nd August until 16:29 GMT on 22nd December 2019. [*]Qualifying periods run weekly (unless there is an international break when they will run fortnightly). In total, there are 18 rounds of fixtures. More details on qualifying periods can be found in the Missions section of the poker software.
• You must opt in at the start of each qualifying period, by pressing the ‘Start’ button located in the Missions section of the poker software. You must also complete your mission in order to receive a spin on the Premium League Prize Wheel and for your predictions to count towards the leaderboards. All information regarding mission requirements, completion and fixtures can be found in the Missions section of the poker software.
• All available prize wheel spins can be viewed by clicking on the prize wheel icon at the top of the poker software.
• One leaderboard point will be awarded for each game you make a prediction on if the mission has been completed. Three leaderboard points will be awarded for each correct prediction if the mission has been completed. Both the Monthly and Mid-Season leaderboards are updated weekly, before 23:59 GMT every Tuesday and points are awarded after fixtures have been completed for that qualifying period. Leaderboard information can be found in the Premium League section of the poker software.
• Prize wheel spins for correctly predicting 50% or more results in the qualifying period are credited to your account within 48 hours of the final game of that qualifying period finishing. If unused, all prize wheel spins expire seven days after being credited.
• All prizes awarded from prize wheels are credited automatically. All prizes from leaderboards are issued within 48 hours of the leaderboard being updated.

bet365 Bonuses and VIP Scheme

All new bet365 players that download the software via PokerNews receive a fantastic welcome package that includes a €365 redeemable bonus.

This bonus is released into your bet365 account in €2.50 increments when you have earned the required Status Points. The first two €2.50 are released when 25 and then 50 Status Points have been earned. The following 24 installments are paid for each 100 Status Points accumulated. The remaining installments are redeemed for every 250 Status Points earned.

Status Points are earned at a rate of 10 for every €1 or £1 of attributed rake or tournament fees. Any unredeemed bonus expires after 60 days.

New players also receive a €1 Twister ticket, a spin on the Welcome Prize Wheel, five entries to the €100 Bronze Loyalty tournaments and a week of daily renewable missions.

_{New Poker customers only. Bonus Euros are redeemed in installments. Time limits and T&Cs apply. For more information about this offer please visit the website.}

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The birth of deep game theory in a league format poker tournament, fancy dress headwear and a confrontation that still gets talked about today — the partypoker Premier League Poker opened up all sorts of avenues in the game when Season Four was unleashed to the public back in 2010.

In Part One of our look back at the iconic series, the series' main commentator, Jesse May, talked about what made Season IV unique and exciting, including the drama that built up throughout the preliminary heats. As play moved towards the final, it got even juicier. A clash had been brewing between loud-mouthed British player Luke Schwartz and the more reserved French poker pro David Benyamine, and it eventually came to a head.

Schwartz and Benyamine Clash

“When I first met Benyamine, he had come to Las Vegas from France as a guy with a great sense of humor,' May recalled. 'He was good for the game. By the time that Season Four took place, he was on a bit of a bad run, and he was a total Vegas denizen.”

Benyamine was a cold member of the group, 'showing up and then going home almost like he wasn’t part of the whole thing,' according to May. By comparison, Schwartz was much-loved by players and crew.

Benyamine was rumored to be a last-minute replacement and it proved to be an addition that would lead to some sparks at the table. During that season, the two had this famous confrontation that showed Schwartz' characteristic way of making things personal at the table.

“Schwartz was probably our best winner. Negreanu, and Laak, who was the chip leader going into the final table, were both awesome. But it was probably the last Premier League Hellmuth ever played.”

The Poker Brat would not come close to winning and continued his terrible run in the show. By 2010, Hellmuth had found four seasons of the format tough to beat, due at least in part to some rivalries on the felt that didn't help his cause.

“Between Tony G, Negreanu, Luke Schwartz, and Roland De Wolfe, they did not let him have a second. They were relentless.”

Season Four Changes, Putting the Party in partypoker

The way the points worked was unique. With a league format having failed years before in Vegas with a tournament that contained luminaries like Gus Hansen and Chip Reese, Premier League Poker needed to get it right. They’d tried three years of leaving all the payouts to the final, but in Season Four they awarded prize money during the heats. Filming took a fortnight, end to end.

“We were all locked up in the M Hotel. It’s not really on the Strip, it was a mile south from Mandalay Bay. It’s a nice place, total luxury, but everyone - apart from Benyamine - was holed up in the same place, people like Mad Marty Wilson and Eddie Hearn for a fortnight straight. It was a total scene.”

Filming was only the half of it. The event was sponsored by partypoker, and they lived up to their name, bringing all of the party.

“The games would go for two a day. I’d start at 11 a.m. and finish at midnight. Everybody would be at the bar, in the restaurant or at the craps tables. It was absolute mayhem.”

When they weren’t raising hell at the craps table, they were raising each other at the felt. Outside of that time, everyone wanted to be in the commentary truck, which for May was a new phenomenon.

“Players who normally you couldn’t have got them to do commentary if you’d put a gun to the heads, they knew that they could get in there and see how everyone was playing because you could see all the cards. Nobody turned it down.”

A packed house in the casino, it would be just the same in the truck.

“It would be me, Roland and Luke, with Phil hanging his head through the door. It was the greatest ever having all those guys in there doing commentary.”

Of all the characters May shared live air with, de Wolfe was the most unique. The British player has disappeared from the world of tournament poker these days, but back then, he was an enigma off the table - and in the broadcast truck.

“One time, we were in the box and he came in with a bowl of cashew nuts. These production trucks look like spaceships, there are levers and buttons and monitors and plugs all over the place. Without realising it, Roland had taken these cashew nuts and plugged up every single input hole in the truck. He’d ruined a million-dollar truck, not intentionally, just because he needed something to do with his hands while watching poker.”

Evolving Game

The series came on the back of a WSOP Main Event final table which featured Joseph Cheong raising all-in with ace-high, a move which wasn’t as readily made as it is today. Schwartz did even more of that in Season Four of Premier League Poker.

'For whatever reason, Schwartz never really won the big tournaments that everyone had predicted him for, but he was such a natural at no limit hold’em. Vanessa Rousso had opened under the gun and it was clear to everyone at the table that she wasn’t that strong. Schwartz raised and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who was a really sharp player, re-raised Luke with king-jack off-suit or something.”

Back to Schwartz, typical options would be fold or fold quicker, but Schwartz went in a different direction. The man was made for TV poker.

“Schwartz just shoved all-in with 6-4 off-suit. Now that sort of thing seems more standard, but in terms of TV poker, it was quite a unique move to four-bet shove with nothing. That was how the game was changing. The old school certainly didn’t play like that.”

The uniquely complex format was paying off, with audience numbers up and players loving the action in each heat. When it came to the final, Phil Laak had the lead, while Schwartz had stacks of chips too. But it was Benyamine who had the last laugh, beating Schwartz heads-up. You can watch that match in the clip below:

Televised Poker Leaves Premier League Format Behind

The strategic element to the season had made waves in poker, and as May says, 'It would change every hand and that’s what made it really exciting.' May can definitely see the format being popular if it came back today.

“They had the Poker Masters the last couple of years in Vegas which has a point element to it, but it wasn’t integral to it. I’d love to see Dominik Nitsche, Fedor Holz and those guys get involved in this kind of league format.”

The league format is something May believes is needed in no limit hold’em, not least because 'the best heads-up player in the world can’t beat the best computer right now.' But May himself, once heralded as ‘The Voice of Poker,’ won’t be expecting to return to the commentary booth.

“You’ve got guys like Nick Schulman and Ali Najed, who are a great team; they’re so clever and great personalities. The whole thing about televised poker is that it needs to evolve to keep people interested.”

Maybe TV poker has evolved in the last nine years, and commentary with it. May feels like he was always watching - and commentating - as a fan.

“My style of commentary would be more what you’d call railing - sitting there and appreciating it. That was what I liked best about the Premier League - it felt like it was an evolving part of the game.”

Premier League Winners 2019

There can be no doubt that Premier League Poker pushed the format into prominence in a way that league format poker hadn’t achieved before. It would continue in that direction for its remaining seasons.

“Every Premier League after that, we started getting the game theory onto the screen in a deeper way. In the later years, we really started to get the cream of the crop, with Dwan, Selbst and Seiver - real top of the tree players. But I’ll always love the line up in Season Four.”

Whether league format poker will return is a tough question to answer. But Premier League Poker Season Four, for many participants and viewers, will go down as one of the most epic forays into the televised league poker format.

Premier League Poker 2019 Online

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