Mansion Poker will be using hi-tech poker playing facilities to the
max next month in a new competition, the World Pro-Am Challenge, that
will see poker players qualified through the Internet pitching their
skills against poker pros.
The action will be captured on Fox television and takes place on Wednesday,
July 12, when Mansion Poker.net will introduce its four-hour World
Pro-Am Challenge, which pits three amateur online qualifiers against
three of the best pros on the tournament circuit: Todd Brunson, winner
of 12 career tournaments and WSOP bracelet winner; WPT champion John
Gale and WPT player of the year Gavin Smith.
To give the Internet players a head start, Mansion has decided to
give each online qualifier an advantage in chips of 70 000 to the
pros' 50 000. And as a further boost, each Internet player will receive
a poker coach to provide help before and during the tournament. The
coaches include Kenna James, currently third in the player of the
year race and sporting lifetime tournament winnings exceeding $3 million,
Michael Gracz, a WSOP bracelet winner with over $2.6 million in tournament
winnings at the young age of 25, and Tony Guoga, better known as Tony
G, who is the current European Poker Champion, and a WPT winner.
In addition to competitive analyses of the playing styles of Brunson,
Gale, and Smith as homework for the tournament, there will be a single
one-minute coach timeout between hands during the actual tournament
to consult with their players. This could provide the Internet players
with a significant advantage, since the coaches will be seeing hole
cards throughout the tournament and will be able to observe the strategy
that each player is employing during play. The potential for passing
on useful advice picked up by observing the action is clearly considerable.
The three Internet players will be Joseph Jackson, Scott Gardener
and Andrew Stoll.
Isaacson will be coached by Kenna James and is a warehouse deliveryman
from Eau Claire, Wisconsin who has been playing poker for 20 years.
He has never won more than $2 000 at a table, but is hoping this tournament
will propel him into becoming a professional poker player.
Scott David Gardener will be coached by Michael Gracz, who could provide
some excellent preparation on the specifics of the tournament since
he doubles as the tv analyst for Poker Dome. Gardener, a soccer fanatic
from Spalding, Lincolnshire, England works full time as a sales consultant
and has only been playing poker for six months. This will be his first
time at a live table. Gardner is hoping this tournament gives him
enough exposure that Mansionpoker.net sponsors him and he can become
a pro player.
Andrew Stoll will be coached by Tony
Guoga. The Cincinnati native works as a Project Management Specialist
for Toyota. Stoll and has been playing poker for seven years, but
only recently started playing Texas Hold 'Em. This is Stoll's first
time playing at a Las Vegas poker table.
If a pro finishes in the top-three the rewards are good - $500 000
for first, $300 000 for second and $200 000 for third. If an Internet
player should finish first, he'd win $450 000 and his coach would
get $50 000; second-place would collect a $270 000 prize, with his
coach getting $30 000 and finishing third gives the amateur $180 000
and his coach wins a $20 000 prize.
The four-hour match takes place from the Tropicana Hotel and Casino
on the famous Las Vegas strip.