The 2011 World Series of Poker officially kicks off today at 12pm (PDT) with Event #1, the annual nod to the excellent work of the Casino Employees. This event will kick-start what will be another two months of hard-fought poker, culminating in the $10,000 Main Event on Jul 7.
This year, Black Belt Poker offered our sponsored pros a place on the team by simply maintaining their Belt throughout April and May. In doing so, they'd earn an additional 20% of free sponsorship as well as a spot in the Black Belt Poker luxury mansion.
Two months on and Black Belt Poker are braced to take a team of 11 sponsored pros to Vegas, including GUKPT winners, UKIPT winners, Aussie Millions finalists, a bracelet winner and even CEO Warren Wooldridge who ambushed the Omaha tables to secure his place.
The Vegas 11 is made up of three Black Belts, one Brown Belt and seven Blue Belts:
Neil Channing
Richard Ashby
Sam Razavi
Jerome Bradpiece
Adam Latimer
Andy Miles
Ben Meredith
David Docherty
Jamie Burland
Kevin Williams
Warren Wooldridge
They say that the crowd are the 12th man, but in this case it's 48-year old part-time nurse Philip Mildon, who earned his spot courtesy of the London Live Vegas Freeroll. He then supplemented his trip with buy-ins to a $1,500 and $5,000 WSOP event after defeating Neil Channing and Richard Ashby heads-up.
Also joining the team in the hunt for bracelet gold are WSOP Warriors Hasmukh Kohidyara and Andrew Lidgey. Andrew finished fourth for a Side Events Package, while Hasmukh - who had earlier in the month attended our How to Win Your WSOP Main Event Seat Academy - won a $20,000 Main Event Package as the Ultimate Warrior and will be staying in the lavish Wynn Casino.
"I have really high hopes for the team this year," beamed Neil Channing. "With Kevin winning the $200K GTD on iPoker, and Sam taking down UKIPT Cork, team morale is good and if I were a betting man, I'd gamble on Black Belt Poker bringing home a bracelet this year."
Although players will arrive at different times, Sam Razavi is already dipping his toes in Vegas' sinful waters and is currently 'slumming it' in the mansion with brother Eb. Sam even had time to play a Ventian deepstack event, but was sadly unable to secure BBP's first win.
In a few days time, Sam will be joined by his fellow Black Belts - both of whom boast a hectic, if very different WSOP schedule - and fellow Black Belt Poker pro Ben Meredith. At the tail end of the week, Adam Latimer and Jerome Bradpiece will also land at McCarran Airport.
Over the course of the World Series, we'll be keeping you up to date with all the progress from the Black Belt Poker team, including the five tournaments going towards our Vegas Prize Fund promotion, as well as news, blogs, articles and much more.
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