Dream Team Poker Coming To Caesars

Joining Phil Hellmuth (pictured right) in ‘Team Favourites’ will be crowd favourite ‘Mad’ Mike Matusow and the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, Jerry Buss. It is well documented that until Peter Eastgate took his crown last year, Hellmuth was the youngest ever winner of the main event and holds 11 WSOP bracelets. Fellow team mate Mike Matusow is a fixture of the poker world and Jerry Buss is no newbie having final tabled WSOP events. They are the headlining team but will face stiff competition.

An all ladies team consisting of Tiffany Michelle (pictured left) and Maria Ho, the last two women finishers from the 2007/8 WSOP main events will feature. Joining them will be Lacy Jones and together they are known as team ‘Yo Moma’. PICClub.com Team 1 will be looking to take down Yo Moma, and with T.J Cloutier, Tom McEvoy and runner up of the WPT Shooting Star tournament, Kathy Liebert, they should fancy their chances.

The 2007 and 2006 WSOP Main Event winners will also be in attendance, as Jerry Yang and Jamie Gold will be forming their very own Dream Team Poker teams. Last years winners Team Bluff will feature again this year with Pro Justin Bonomo being joined by Jean-Robert Bellande of Survivor:China fame. And the fun won’t stop there as a plethora of names come to try the team format.

Notable participants will include, Dennis Phillips (pictured right), 2006 WSOP Main Event runner up Paul Wasicka, 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event final table member Scott Fischman, Mark Seif, Joe Sebok, Jeff Madsen, Kristy Gazes, Liz Liu, Quinn Do, Erica Schoenberg, Amir Vahedi, Young Phan, David Levy, J.J. Liu, David Daneshgar, Mark Gregorich, Kenna James, Marsha Waggoner, Kenny Tran, and Shawn Sheikhan.

Jim Pedulla, Director of the poker room at Caesars Palace, commented in a press release: "Dream Team Poker offers a creative structure to team poker and we are proud to host this event in the World Series of Poker tournament room, which is also the site of NBC Heads-Up Poker and daily tournaments.”

With an estimated total prize pool of $150,000, the first place team will pocket $45,000. The second place team will pocket $22,500, third place will receive $10,800, fourth place will bank $7,200, and fifth place will earn $4,500. The tournament's individual winner will take home $20,400 and the top 18 players will finish in the money. Not a big money event by any means but a welcomed addition to the busy calendar.