PKR Live Main Event, Loose Cannon Club, London, $500 No-limit Hold'em, 15-16th November 2008

Entrants: 150
Buyin: $500
Prizepool: $75,000

1. Philip ‘escalope’ Conneller, London, $20,000
2. Henrik ‘Pokey85’ Eklund, Sweden, $12,000
3. Daniel ‘Dappadan777’ Moosah, London, $8,500
4. Raymond ‘callmebabe’ O’Mahoney, Ireland, $6,500
5. Thomas ‘OleEinar’ Gunia, Germany, $5,250
6. Pieter ‘EurootJE’ Salet, Netherlands, $4,250
7. Andrew ‘Alfiemyster’ Miles, Southampton, $3,250
8. Barry ‘Bazultra’ Cole, Southampton, $2,500
9. Kent-Ivan ‘GreenFaith’ Danielsen, Norway, $1,850
10. Michael ‘TheSqueeze’ Panayiotou, London, $1,400

Poker magazine editor Philip Conneller (PKR username: escalope) bested a field of 150 players to take down the first ever PKR Live main event and the $20,000 first prize this weekend.

After twenty hours of play over two days, Conneller’s 7-2os hit runner-runner to make an unlikely straight and take down the title. As he made the call, the monster chip leader said “I’ve always wanted to win a tournament with seven-deuce”. It appears the poker gods were listening.

The first event of its kind, PKR Live saw players make their way from all over the world to London’s Loose Cannon Club to play for a share in over $90,000 in prizes while soaking up the uniquely friendly atmosphere. The event was a phenomenal success, with player comments including “Better than sex”, “a success of mammoth proportions” and “an awesome weekend” (full player comments can be viewed online at http://snipurl.com/5qx5l).

PKR Live kicked off with a friendly $60 welcome tournament. With 138 runners, the prize pool grew to over $8,000 with the top prize being scooped by popular forum poster Gareth ‘ChivalrousGent’ Rees.

The $500 Main Event started on day two, and with every seat filled it meant a juicy prize pool of $75,000.

The third day provided the conclusion of the main event plus another shot at glory in a special $10,000 bounty freeroll that offered extra prizes for players eliminating one of the twelve PKR staff enrolled in the tournament. After a fun filled eight hours, Demetris ‘magicmoves’ Theophanous prevailed to take the final title of the weekend.

The first foray into the live realm saw members from all tiers of PKR.com staffing including Malcolm Graham, CEO and PKR creator, Jez San, mixing it up with the players. The three-day festival was captured by a professional TV crew and highlights will be available to watch exclusively on PKR.tv.