The Prima Poker Tour Hits Scandinavian Soil

The Prima Poker Tour brings The Hendon Mob to Finland at this year's Helsinki Freezeout Poker Tournament - the most northerly poker festival in the world. With last years Poker Oscar" winner Barny Boatman and the rest of the Mob, pokers premier sportspeople are out to win.

Curacao, November 10, 2003 - The next stop on the Prima Poker Tour is the Helsinki Freezeout, where the Hendon Mob will be competing together for the first time on Finnish soil under the Prima Poker online poker networks colors.

The international festival will take place between November 11th and November 16th. The Poker Oscars", one of the sports biggest events, will be held towards the end of the tournament, presenting the five new winners of the European Poker Awards with their Awards. Mob member Barny Boatman, the runner-up in last year's main Helsinki event and recipient of the prestigious Poker Oscars in 2002 for Most Notable Tournament Performance of the Year", has been invited to judge this year's nominees.

"The Poker Oscars are a great thing for the game," said Barny. Along with televised poker and Prima's sponsorship of The Mob, the Oscars have helped put the game on the map as a major sport." Barny refers to the huge boost that the sport of poker has received since The Hendon Mob signed a major sponsorship with the Prima Poker Network, taking them to tournaments around the globe on the Prima Poker Tour.

Tamar Yaniv, spokeswoman for Prima Poker said, "The Prima Poker Network is committed to combining the world of online poker with the real world tournaments. And with Barny coming back as one of last years big Oscar winners, we expect the Finland festival to be a terrific one."

The Freezeout is the most northerly poker tournament in the world with an estimated prize pool of € 320,000. Top players from Europe and America will compete in a series of poker events including Omaha, Stud and Hold 'em tournament rounds. So far, The Mob has won five trophies on the Prima Poker Tour and plan to add to that number in Helsinki.

For More information:
Madelaine Bennett
Lyceum Media
+44 207 828 6988
madelaine@lyceummedia.com

About Prima Poker:
The Prima Poker Tour is taking The Hendon Mob on an unprecedented global tour to play in over 60 events, in eight venues, in three continents in an effort to demonstrate that online and terrestrial poker go hand-in-hand. The Tour represents the first major sponsorship in online poker and has elevated its status by introducing it to the media as a mainstream sport.
Prima Poker is the premiere poker network on the Internet and believes that online and offline poker complement each other. Prima Poker sends the best players from their network of online card rooms to compete in tournaments all around the globe qualifying them through a series of satellite tournaments held online through the family of card rooms found at www.primapoker.com.