Weekly Tourneys For Backgammon Players
Published: Thursday, February 08, 2007 Online-Casinos.com
WEEKLY TOURNEYS FOR BACKGAMMON PLAYERS
PartyGammon.com launches another marketing initiative
Hard on the heels of its recent international Million Dollar Backgammon Championship in the Bahamas, PartyGammon.com has launched what it claims is the richest weekly tournament in online backgammon.
The US$10 000 guaranteed tournament every Sunday is already proving popular, says a PartyGammon.com spokesman: "Last Sunday's online tournament exceeded the guarantee by over US$2 500 and was won by a German who scooped over US$5 000 after investing just US$27 in a satellite.
"It appears that as a nation Germany is making the running in creating the backgammon stars of the future as the winner of the PartyGammon.com Million was an online qualifier from Bielefeld."
The Bielefeld star referred to (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports) is 33-year-old Andreas Maertens, who won the inaugural PartyGammon.com Million at the Atlantis Resort late January, scooping a world record US$600 400 payout for a backgammon tournament after finishing in 1st place. The total prize pool was over US$1.2 million for a tournament that sold out and exceeded all expectations.
Maertens beat 36 year-old Danish backgammon ace Lasse Hjorth Madsen 23-22 in a thrilling final in front of Matchroom Sport's television cameras. Both players were online qualifiers in a field that featured 10 former World Champions and 25 of the top 32 'Giants of Backgammon.'
Maertens qualified online for US$440, while Madsen reached the tournament from a US$35 online satellite. Madsen, a Research Executive from Copenhagen, scooped US$144 096 for finishing runner-up.
The weekly US$10 000 guaranteed tournament gets underway at 14.00 ET every Sunday and qualifiers start from as little as US$7.50.
