Sunday, March 9, 2008

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East vs. West: Round two in Vienna

David "Devilfish" Ulliott

By Sean Lind

On March 10 David "Devilfish" Ulliott leads the West against rival Tony G's East-side ensemble in the PartyPoker East vs. West Team Cup II, which is set to kick off the European Challenge II.

The East vs. West Team Cup II is a €60,000 freeroll "bonus" for the 60 players who qualified for the PartyPoker European Challenge main event online.

Each team of online qualifiers will get help from a handful of well-known professionals. Among the professional players set to take part in the brawl are Ciaran O'Leary, Roland de Wolfe, Kirill Gerasimov and Alexander Kravchenko.

David Ulliott's lifetime tournament winnings have almost reached $4 million. His reputation and feared table image are not only a result of his lengthy list of tournament cashes, but also of his having spent over two years in prison for safecracking, armed robbery and public fighting convictions.

Having won seven major tournaments, and finished on the final table of countless others, Team West will be a fearful opponent for Tony G's team of East Siders.

Antanas "Tony G" Guoga.

Tony G has one major tournament win. With multiple cashes and final-table appearances, his current winnings are just under $1.5 million. Team East being the underdog of this title fight, they will benefit from the hyper-aggressive style of Tony G, which perfectly suits him to go toe-to-toe with the Devilfish.

The format for the Team Cup II is unlike standard tournaments, in that the final table of 10 will share €37,500, while the winning team will get €22,500 split among themselves. With Bookmaker PartyBets.com rating Team West favorites to retain the Cup at 4-5, it proves to be a tight match.

The main event of the Party Poker European Challenge starts March 11 with a €3,000+€150 buy-in. Europe's top professionals will try to take back the title after an online qualifier named Branimir Brunovic took home a first prize of €190,160 in 2007.

With the number of high-quality players to be present at the event, there should be no shortage of side action to be found, making Vienna's Concord Casino the place to be playing cards in March.

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