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About the Party Poker Million Tournament: We describe the Party Poker Million tournament which was the first tournament organized by an online poker site with over 1 million prize pool. The week of March 10-17, 2002 the history of poker was made as the first tournament organized by an online poker room with a guaranteed first prize of 1 million dollar was held. Party Poker Million Limit Holdem tournament took place aboard ship on Carnival Cruise Line Elation and awarded 1 million dollar prize to Kathy Liebert.
Who is Kathy? Kathy Liebert is a professional poker player who has participated in a number of major tournaments and is known and respected by other poker pros. Her favorite game is No Limit Holdem, but she also demonstrated very high skills in the limit version of the game. After the first two days of the tournament Kathy was a leader by chips and entered the final table with the third largest amount of chips, playing spectacularly during the whole event and really deserving to win it. What Happened? The event itself beat all the records of its time. PartyPoker guaranteed 1 million dollar first prize and than added 200,000 dollars more for other prizes. The PartyPoker website announced a super satellite where players challenged for their seats at Party Poker Million tournament along with a free one week cruise on a luxury cruise boat for two persons and 500 dollars in cash. The entrance to the online super satellite cost as low as 22 dollars Who Qualified Online? One hundred participants of Party Poker Million qualified through the online super satellite paying only 22 dollars. Other 39 players, including 8 former World Poker Champions and other poker starts, bought in for 8,000 dollars. Apart from the exciting of the tournament itself, all participants enjoyed really great time, relaxing and partying all week long. Did Former World Champions Participate? Two former World Champions, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth reached the final table and challenged four other poker professionals and three online players who qualified through the PartyPoker online satellite. The spectators of the final event supported online qualifiers more than the professionals. People probably like to root for the underdog. Was it Televised? The event was filmed and then broadcasted on the Travel Channel, and the public and TV producers got what they expected, a great poker drama. The last three players left at the final table were a former world champion Phil Hellmuth, Kathie Liebert and Berj Kacherian, a database administrator from LA, who qualified for 22 dollars online.
The favorite, Hellmuth was kicked out quite soon, occupying the third position, and leaving the whole crowd in shock. The final battle between Kathy and Berj lasted over three hours. The lead was going from player to player nine times before Liebert finally left Brerj Kacherian without chips and got into the history book of poker.
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