PartyPoker Premier League IV is well on its' way at the M Resort in Las Vegas, with the first 3 heats already played. Since this tournament will be on the telly soon, we won't give any spoilers in the headings and inserts of the news. If you don't want to spoil the suspense before the episodes are out, don't read any further!


With 3 heats gone, Phil "Unabomber" Laak holds the lead after winning both of the heats he's played so far. Ironically Laak was a last minute invitee to the tournament, replacing Doyle Brunson who had to pull out because of dental surgery. In his second win Laak got quite lucky, winning three crucial all-ins with worse hands. In the last one, heads up against Roland De Wolfe, Laak flopped a set of deuces vs De Wolfe's 88 and commented, "Someone needs to have security check these decks. I may have a friend back there I don't know about."

Laak sat out Heat 3 so it was someone else's turn to get lucky and take the 16 points and $32,000 prize money. It turned out to be David Benyamine who defeated the online qualifier Giovanni Safina when the chips went in on a flop of K72, Benyamine trailing with KT vs Safina's KJ. To the Italian's dismay a ten fell on the turn to give the pot and match to Benyamine.

Despite going out first in Heat 2, the Ukrainian born pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko made a series of pretty impressive laydowns before finally losing his chips. He got away from two pair against Tony G's set, pocket queens on a 6-high board when Phil Laak was waiting for him with aces, and AJ on an A-high board when Giovanni Safina held a set of threes.

The trash talk is already on despite the much anticipated meeting between Tony G and Luke Schwartz not taking place yet (they will both be in heats 4, 5 and 6). When Roland De Wolfe kept on needling Hellmuth in Heat 2, Phil retorted, "You're just a bee Roland, I'm a heavyweight. Even if you move up to lightweight, I'll knock you out in the first round."

The players will each take part in 4 heats of 8 players. The table looks like this after 3 heats (in brackets: the number of heats so far):

Phil Laak 32 (2)
David Benyamine 24 (2)
JC Tran 17 (2)
Yevgenyi Timoshenko 16 (3)
Giovanni Safina 15 (2)
Roland De Wolfe 14 (3)
Vanessa Rousso 8 (2)
Ian Frazer 8 (2)
Phil Hellmuth 6 (2)
Luke Schwartz 4 (1)
Daniel Negreanu 4 (2)
Tony G 2 (1)

Negreanu and De Wolfe spiced it up between themselves by creating their individual "teams" and making a side bet on the total points outcome. Size of the bet is a mystery, but the teams look like this:

TEAM DANIEL

    * Schwartz
    * Frazer
    * Timoshenko
    * Laak
    * Tony G
    * Safina

TEAM ROLAND

    * Tran
    * Rousso
    * Negreanu
    * De Wolfe
    * Hellmuth
    * Benyamine