WSOP Europe main event excitement builds

More than 350 of the world's best poker players anted up GBP 10 000 apiece for the Main Event of the first annual World Series of Poker Europe presented by Betfair.com.

The names of the entrants for the two starting days in the WSOP Europe No-Limit Hold'Em Championship - spread out over three London Clubs International casinos in the heart of London - reads like a "Who's Who" of poker aristocracy:

Brunson (three of them), Chan, Cunningham, Ferguson, Forrest, Greenstein, Gordon, Harman, Hellmuth, Lederer, Lindgren, Lisandro, Negreanu, Raymer, Nguyen - first names all known to avid poker fans around the globe.

They were joined by scores of lesser-known but accomplished players, all eager to outlast one of the strongest fields in European poker history.

The WSOP Europe Main Event is currently being played at three casinos operated by London Clubs International - Fifty on St. James Street, The Casino at the Empire on Leicester Square and The Sportsman at Marble Arch.