Joe Hachem, the Australian who won the World Series of Poker earlier this year, will make his first major public appearance at the Ladbrokes' Superstar Showdown tournament, scheduled for August 17th at 14:00 BST. Joe Hachem will donate any winnings to the Australian Salvation Army.
Ladbrokes expressed their gratitude to Joe Hachem for accepting their invitation to play in the tournament. Hachem will be joined by four online qualifiers, as well as the following poker celebrities:
- Andrew Black, who finished 5th in the 2005 World Series of Poker;
- Eric ‘The Salmon’ Sagstrom, an online player who won over $1 million at Ladbrokes' last year;
- and Helen Chamberlain, a Sky TV presentator and Ladbrokes' Poker Million finalist.
The Superstar Showdown, which Ladbrokes' claims to be the "greatest single table tournament in online poker history", has a first prize of $80,000 and an $11,000 Cruise Package to second place.
The showdown is scheduled in the same week as the Ladbrokes Poker Million 2005 final, arguably the richest televised poker tournament in Europe, with a $1,935,000 total prize pool. $855,000 has been added by the sponsors, Ladbrokes Poker; the most money added by a sponsor in the history of poker.