Hi there,

Sky Poker is launching Total Player, a major new TV contest to find undiscovered poker talent. Total Player will see three mentors select the most promising players from the Sky Poker community and help them become expert players. The winning player will be decided by public vote and will be bought into a ?00 buy-in Sky Poker Tour event, a professional tournament with a ?,000 buy-in and, ultimately, the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas. The mentor whose player wins entry into these tournaments will receive 10% of their player’s winnings.

The judges for Total Player are Matt Broughton, Ed Giddens and David Tuckman. Matt Broughton is an analyst for Sky Poker as well as a former poker magazine editor and author of the book How to Play and Win at Poker. Ed Giddens is a former professional cricketer who now plays poker full time. He is also an analyst for Sky Poker. David Tuckman is the latest addition to the Sky Poker team. He’ll be no stranger to Sky Sports fans as a professional commentator on all American sports: What they might be surprised to learn is that he is a poker pro turned commentator with over 2000 hours of poker commentary to his name.

“Total Player will contain everything that has made Sky Poker so popular: it will deliver a great deal of excitement and opportunity to our playing community; an educational element; and, of course, the chance to win big,?said Des Duffy, Head of Poker at Sky Betting & Gaming. “I’m particularly excited that Total Player will offer Sky Poker players at all levels, an opportunity to showcase their potential and realise a dream of sitting with some of the biggest names in world poker.?

Total Player is a 13-week series that debuts on Sky digital channel 865 tomorrow night (Saturday 12 December) at 10.00pm. The first show will introduce the player mentors and the structure of the competition. The following seven weeks will see the mentors select eighteen players in total. Then the mentors will advise and challenge their players, develop their playing ability to increase their chances of staying in the competition and winning the top prize.

The players selected will be those who demonstrate outstanding play in multi-table tournaments, sit & go and cash games, where the top 50 performing players every week will be shortlisted for consideration by the Total Player mentors.

The mentors want to find a player who can sit down at the felt in Las Vegas and not feel intimidated by some of the game’s biggest characters. The mentors will look for creative players who like to play on the flop, understand position, bet and stack sizing, as well as players who are not afraid to re-raise, and who have the ability to get away from a big hand or win consistently without showing down their cards.

To qualify for Total Player, players just need to put in some of their best play on the tables at Sky Poker - Play Online Poker & Free Poker - Up to ?00 FREE!.

If you would like to promote any of the Sky Betting & Gaming brands please click here.

Many Thanks,

Jo