$1,100 PokerNetwork Live vs Online Challenge Day 1 | 2009 PokerNews Cup Australia

09-29-2009 12:50 UTC+10

Cards Are In The Air

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The PokerNetwork Live vs Online Challenge

Players have finished last minute photos, and we're underway in the first ever PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge.

All matches are best of three, and both teams are keen to draw first blood.

09-29-2009 12:48 UTC+10

Steve "The Big Show" Topakas got the nod for the opening challenge from Live Team captain Stewart Scott. Topakas picked online captain Steve "StevoL" Leonard as a favourable match-up, and the first round draw then proceeded as follows:

Steve Topakas vs Steve Leonard
Chris Evans vs Stewart Scott
Bruno Portaro vs Tony Dunst
Joel Dodds vs Clonie Gowen
Jai Kemp vs Ben Delaney
Jonathan Karamalikis vs Tony Hachem
Dave Lee vs Trung Tran
Aleks Brkovic vs Lisa Walsh
Bill Jordanou vs Jarred Graham
Dean Nyberg vs Ben Savage
Peter Aristidou vs Damien Elsing
Andrew Jeffreys vs Billy Argyros
Van Marcus vs Michael Guzzardi
Mathew Pearson vs Kerry Stead
Sam Youssef vs Rayan Nathan
Mat Hawker vs Sean Keeton

09-29-2009 12:44 UTC+10

The Draw

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Another unique facet of this event will be the eagerly anticipated draw for the heads-up phase of this event. With many feuds looking to be settled on the felt today, the players were strong advocates of a system to allow the "dream" matchups to occur.

One captain will nominate a player from his own team, and that player will then select an opponent from the other team. The captains will alternate this selection process until all first round match-ups have been chosen.

From there the tournament will progress like a standard heads-up event, with the only condition that players from the same team will avoid playing against each other where possible.

The draw is currently underway over at the Las Vegas bar, where the drinks are already flowing! We'll have the lineup for you shortly.

09-29-2009 10:48 UTC+10

The Teams

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The teams were selected based on rankings of tournament performances over the past twelve months. The online team features sixteen players all ranked in the top 40 online players in Australia according to PocketFives, while the live team was primarily based on the 2009 PokerNetwork.com Australasian Rankings, with a few wildcards thrown in to complete the team.

Online Team:
Steve 'stevoL' Leonard (captain)
Damien zedveron' Elsing
Jarred 'FlopNutsOnYou' Graham
Ben 'CNT_CRUSHER' Delaney
Jonathan 'xMONSTERxDONGx' Karamalikis
Chris 'Minesony' Evans
Tony 'Bond18' Dunst
Aleks 'Banana Thief' Brkovic
Joel 'Strong Play' Dodds
Michael 'TheBigSiCkO' Guzzardi
Matthew 'onmyVplates' Pearson
Andrew 'Adgee' Jeffreys
Mat 'mathawker' Hawker
Trung 'dynastyzz' Tran
Rayan 'rkruok' Nathan
Dean 'Dinhjo' Nyberg

Live Team:
Stewart Scott (captain)
Steve Topakas
Jai Kemp
Billy 'The Croc' Argyros
Van Marcus
Bruno Portaro
Tony Hachem
Peter Aristidou
Kerry Stead
Sam Youssef
Dave Lee
Bill Jordanou
Ben Savage
Lisa Walsh
Clonie Gowen
Sean Keeton

09-29-2009 10:46 UTC+10

$1,100 PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge

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Welcome to the luxurious Crown Casino on a beautiful Spring day in Melbourne, for our live coverage of the 2009 PokerNews Cup series. The early preliminary events have attracted very impressive fields, and as you'll see from the lineup today, the best players around Australia, and even a few International visitors, have found their way to the Crown Poker Room for their shot at glory.

We pick up our live coverage with one of the most highly anticipated and hyped events seen on the local calendar in quite some time. The $1,100 PokerNetwork.com Live vs Online Challenge will pit 32 of the best online and live players up against each other in a series of heads-up and single table shootouts, to finally put an end to the debate once and for all as to who are the superior players.

The online team, led by Australian #4 ranked online player Steve Leonard, are full of the confidence of youth, while the live team, captained by 2009 Aussie Millions champ Stewart Scott, will bring years of experience and live tournament success to the table, to provide a thoroughly intriguing and unique concept.

All the action kicks off at 12:10pm (GMT+10) which is a little over an hour from now, so stay locked into PokerNews for every flop, turn and river, live as it happens from the tournament floor!