(Press Release) Over the course of six hours and forty minutes, ten poker players battled for an endorsement deal worth $250,000 in the inaugural PokerRoom.com Become a Poker Pro tournament on March 5, 2006, which ended in a showdown at sea between Jim Davenport (JDtrojan3) and Billy Pero (BillyBluff13), two of the best up and coming poker players in the game. Ultimately, Davenport prevailed in the final hand of the tournament aboard the Majesty of the Seas cruise ship.

Davenport, a 25 year-old University of Southern California graduate from Newport Beach, CA, works as an investment banking analyst and now adds poker pro to his resume. He will receive an endorsement package valued at $250,000 including a $60,000 cash prize that is the greatest free-roll prize in the history of online poker. The PokerRoom.com 2006 endorsement deal also includes travel expenses and buy-ins for at least 12 major poker tournaments including the World Series of Poker Main Event, the World Poker Tour Bellagio 5 Diamond Classic and the World Poker Tour Final.

The second prize, a $13,500 buy-in plus expenses to the WSOP Main Event, was awarded to Billy Pero, a thirty-one year old electrician and father of newborn twins, who resides outside of Boston.

"The Become a Poker Pro tournament is one of the most memorable events I've played," said Davenport. "It's not just about the competition and winning the endorsement deal, but also the friendships formed with the guys on Team PokerRoom.com. We all love the game and sharpen our skills by learning from each other."

Nine U.S. players and one from Helsinki, Finland, began playing the No-Limit Texas Hold'em tournament at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 5, 2006. It ended at approximately 9:20 p.m. when Davenport and Pero were the two final players going head-to-head. The final hand Ace/Queen versus Queen/Seven can be viewed at http://www.pokerroom.com/pokerpro along with exclusive pictures from the tournament.

"The tournament was a huge success and we were very impressed with the caliber of play among all the participants," said Glenn Cademartori, spokesperson for PokerRoom.com. "Team PokerRoom.com continues to grow in popularity and is a great example of our commitment to developing individual player skills needed to enjoy, compete and succeed in the game of poker."

The ten players that competed in the PokerRoom.com Become a Poker Pro tournament qualified through a series of online tournaments that included an online final played in September 2005 by 84 Team PokerRoom.com members.

PokerRoom.com will show the entire Become a Poker Pro tournament online this month complete with player interviews and an interactive viewer experience leveraging the latest Flash technology.

Source:  PR Newswire

Friday, 10 March 2006