Million-pound poker prize up for grabs

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Hundreds of amateur poker players were sitting down among the world's best on Monday to play for the biggest prize in history, a cool million pounds ($1.4 million).

But with just a handful of prizes on offer to the 250 players who qualified for the week-long tournament, the money is more likely to go to the pros.

The competition is taking place on the Isle of Man, off the west coast of England.

"The poker world has been waiting for some time for an event of this scale," veteran U.S. champion "Amarillo Slim" Preston, one of the entrants, said before the tournament opened.

"Poker is becoming one of the world's most popular pastimes and this event will revolutionise what people think of the game."

Amarillo will join the likes of fellow poker greats Johnny Chan and Phil Helmuth around the tables at the Ladbroke Casino in the Hilton Hotel in the town of Douglas.

The jackpot on offer in Sunday's final beats the million-dollar prizes paid out at the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas -- and tournament organisers hope to draw in millions of television viewers with live broadcasts.

They also hope the jackpot will propel poker, which has a strong following in the United States, the Far East and Australia, onto the world stage as a spectator sport.

"With a guaranteed million pounds -- the biggest pot ever in poker -- we are looking for the game to become the next snooker," said Leslie McGibbon, spokesman for the tournament organisers.

"The qualifiers were very high-octane. A lot of people were very keen to play and very disappointed to lose their qualifier."

But some said the game was little more than a public relations stunt.

"Every man in the street is after a million pounds," said Michael Singer, former chairman of the now defunct National Association for the Protection of Punters.

"Contestants would have very little chance of progressing very far...It may be billed as the holy grail of poker, but it will go to one of the top professional players in the game and will be little more than a stunt."

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Winning hand
August 16, 2000

Isle of Man

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