Roy “the boy” Brindley wins star-studded Betfair.com Poker Masters of Europe

Roy Brindley’s 6-month-old son Sebastian joined him to lift the winner’s trophy for the Betfair.com Poker Masters of Europe after an epic heads-up battle with top Swedish pro William Thorson.

Brindley was chip leader for the majority of the final table, making few mistakes in the company of some of biggest names in European poker.

Internet qualifiers Steve Cordy and Richard Collier were knocked out early along with in-form Hendon Mobster Ram Vaswani.

“Bad boy” of poker Tony G continued to dispel the myths by stating before the event that anything he won would go to charity. He was knocked out in 3rd place by William Thorson. The $36,000 he won will be split between The Prince’s Trust and Lithuanian charity Bedu Turgus, which looks after people in extreme poverty.

Heads-up Brindley had to contend with his pocket aces being beaten on the river but after almost two hours Thorson went all in with King Jack. Brindley called and his Ace-7 gave him a winning hand of 2-pair (Aces and 9s) before the river card was needed.

Brindley said, “I got to the stage where I was really enjoying playing winning or losing. This is the first televised tournament I’ve won in 5 years … it means a great deal … more so financially now we have the baby.”


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Notes to editors:

1. The Betfair.com Poker Masters of Europe will be broadcast on SKY Sports from the 29th May.
2. The event consisted of a series of 6 heats (6 handed). The winner of each heat made the final table.
3. Brindley was backed at an average price of 19-1 on the Betfair exchange before the event.
4. Payout structure:
$120,000 - Roy Brindley (IRE)
$70,000 - William Thorson (SWE)
$36,000 - Tony Guoga (LIT)
$30,000 - Richard Collier (ENG)
$25,000 - Ram Vaswani (ENG)
$19,000 - Steve Cordy (WAL)

For further information, please contact:
Oliver Bowen
oliver.bowen@betfair.com

Betfair Poker makes major software update

Betfair Poker has completed the latest in a series of upgrades to its software.

Renamed “Betfair Poker Plus”, the software gives customers the most significant increase in capability since Betfair Poker re-launched on its own poker platform in October 2006.

Among the 25 individual enhancements is the option to choose from a selection of different views for multi-tabling. The “old” view will remain an option but customers can now spawn connecting tables, detach and re-attach tables, and re-size windows.

Improved multi-tabling functionality allows for up to 15 tables to be played at the same time and graphics and resolution are vastly improved. The default view has also been enlarged to improve visibility.

“The latest upgrade offers some major customer facing improvements and we have had very positive feedback. But we won’t be resting on our laurels, we’ll continue to look to the future,” said Betfair’s Head of Poker Ben Fried.

Betfair Poker’s software development team receives input from real players and continues to work closely with customers aiming to create an approachable, intuitive and forward-thinking poker platform.

Since launching on its own poker platform, Betfair Poker has made 12 software updates.

(See Milkybarkid Ben Grundy's comments on the new software here)

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Notes to editors:

1. In celebration of the launch of Betfair Poker Plus, Betfair Poker are holding an online Poker Game Show with over $50,000 in added prizes. . See www.betfairpoker.com for more information.
2. Play Your Cards Right - $2,000 to be added to three tournaments to be played at the same time. The top ten average finishers across the three tournaments will share a further $1,000. Takes place on Friday 4th May, and then on Tuesdays 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th May.
3. Beat the Buzzer – Betfair Poker Pro Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl will be multi-tabling between 7pm and 9pm from Wednesday 16th May to Sunday 20th May with bounties on his head ranging from $10 to $100.
4. It’s a Knockout – A series of three bounty tournaments take place on Thursday 3rd May at 7pm, 7:15pm and 7:30pm. Nine bounties will be available including the three Betfair pros, Bengt Sonnert, Ben Grundy and Thomas Bihl. Bounty prizes will be either entry into the $50,000 GTD, $16,000 GTD or $11,000 GTD tournaments.