By Zach Purgason

09/19/2008

                With Dave Cain already breaking poker records in the U.K. Betfair Poker decided to break a record of their own.  Their Poker in the Sky tournament is now officially the world’s first poker tournament ever played off the ground making it the highest altitude at which a tournament has ever been played.  Though just a foot would have gotten them this title they decided to go about 174 feet better than that.

                That’s right, yesterday players invited by Betfair took to the skies in an open air platform suspended by a crane 175 feet up for the craziest poker tournament ever played.  The stunt which happened in London was a lead up to the World Series of Poker Europe which starts today.  Being that high up would be enough to ruin any player’s poker face, but the fact that there was no floor beneath the table added a serious element of pressure to the game.

                Before Betfair obtained the Belgium-made structure it was used to hoist lucky groups of thrill seeking diners for banquets high above restaurants.  Like those dinner guests the poker players had to be strapped in to chairs so that their legs could dangle beneath the table in the nothingness below.

                John Tabatabai, the runner up in last year’s World Series of Poker Europe, served as the celebrity dealer to the players while the WSOPE winner from last year, Annette Obrestad, acted as the host of the affair that was at eye level with the top of the London City Hall.  If Betfair was hoping to help the WSOPE overshadow the upcoming final table of the WSOP here in the U.S. they at least gave themselves the aerial advantage in doing so.