Business: 888.com announces Cannes promotion

Last week, online poker room 888.com announced plans to send one of its registered players to this year’s Cannes Charity Poker Event. The tournament, according to a press release, will feature eight A-list celebrity players, including Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

The poker room is sponsoring the tournament to help raise money for Affleck’s and Damon’s charities, “Not on Our Watch” and “One Voice for Freedom.,” respectively. The event is expected to draw some of the world’s most affluent poker aficionados, all of whom will be playing for a $250,000 beach house in Durban, South Africa.

To play in the event, registered 888.com players must earn 1,200 Frequent Player Points between March 1 and May 6, or finish well in the $150 buy-in Cannes Celebrity Event Satellite Tournament on May 7. Those who do so will then be eligible to play in the Cannes Celebrity Event Qualifier freeroll on May 9. 

In addition to earning one of the tournament’s 60 seats, the freeroll’s winner and a guest will enjoy free airfare to Cannes, a three-night stay in a five-star hotel and dinner at the festival’s Palme D’Or, or Golden Palm, award ceremony.

The poker room also stated that at least one celebrity player will be at each of the tournament’s seven tables. This, it said, will ensure that the sponsored player has a chance to “rub shoulders with the world’s cinematic glitterati.”

The celebrity tournament will take place during the 2009 Cannes film festival, which runs from May 13 to 24. For more information, please visit 888.com's Cannes promotional frontpage.

- Phill Provance
phill.provance@gamblingplanet.org

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