GIBRALTAR, December 17 /PRNewswire/ --     There is only one week left to qualify online for the PartyPoker.com 
Irish Poker Championship, Europe's first major tournament of 2008. The main 
US$240 weekly satellite on PartyPoker.com has been moved from Tuesday to 
Sunday as the festive season approaches and Sunday 23rd December is the last 
opportunity to secure a place via this route. Lower buy-in tournaments where 
entry into the main satellite can be won are available every day of the week. 
For every 25 players in the main satellite, PartyPoker.com will provide one 
seat. Qualification for the US$5,000 package starts at US$3.

The tournament will be held at the fabulous Radisson Hotel & Spa, Galway,
Ireland, from Jan 4 to Jan 6, 2008. The PokerEvents.ie organized event is the
first major sponsorship in Ireland by PartyPoker.com.

A spokesman for event sponsor PartyPoker.com said: "There is a definite
pattern emerging to the tournament. It looks like the competitors will be
split into three distinct camps. There will be a big group of local Irish
players, the international online qualifiers and a good group of overseas
pros."

"Marcel Luske, Jon Kalmar and Robert Williamson III have recently booked
their tickets for Galway and are expected to be amongst the favourites for
the title. One PartyPoker.com qualifier to watch out for is 22-year-old James
McManus from Dublin. In a period of two months earlier this year he went on a
great run online winning a Mini Cooper S, a Nintendo Wii and US$52,000 on the
bad beat jackpot."

The EUR2,000 (9 percent withheld) buy-in is expected to produce a prize
pool between EUR500,000 and EUR1,000,000 and coverage will be recorded for
six hour-long broadcasts on RTÉ, Ireland's national broadcaster and
distributed internationally. Amongst the pros who have indicated they will
attend are 'Ambassador of Poker' Mike Sexton, 1999 WSOP Main Event Winner
Noel Furlong, 'Flying Dutchman' Marcel Luske, WSOP bracelet winners Ciaran
O'Leary and Michael Keiner, Padraig Parkinson, Robert Williamson III, Jon
Kalmar, Scott Gray, Bruno Fitoussi, Jan SÞrensen, Roy Brindley, Mad Marty
Wilson, Katharine Hartree, Jeff Duvall, Alan Vinson, Steve Wong, Rory Liffey
and Ben Vinson.

Over 500 qualifying satellites are also being held in pubs and clubs
across Ireland.

The schedule for the event is:

Thursday 3rd January 2008

- Super Satellite - EUR200 + EUR20

Friday 4th January 2008

- Main Event Day 1 - EUR2,000 (9 percent withheld) No Limit Hold'em
Freezeout

Saturday 5th January 2008

- Main Event Day 2 - EUR2,000

- Supporting Event - EUR800 + EUR80 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout

Sunday 6th January 2008

- Main Event Day 3 - EUR2,000

- Supporting Event - EUR400 + EUR40 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout

For more details on qualifiers see:

http://www.partypoker.com/news/items/irish_poker.html and the event website
http://www.partypokeripc.com