The Dream Team poker tournament, a revolutionary and innovative team poker variation will be launched at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on Saturday, November 7^th, giving players a more chances to win Individually and team prizes. In the opening event, a total of 25 teams consisting of three players each will put up $3,000 per team. A considerable percentage of the prize pool will be divided between the top four players, and the rest goes to the four teams with the best scores.

Teams will get a score based on its players’ performance, when a player is busted out, he/she will get a score depending on the place they finished during the tournament, for example, if a player is busted in 17^th place, then he /she will get 17 points. Each team has to us its best two score to complete a final ranking, and at the end the team with lowest score wins. For example, if the team members finish in 8^th, 11^th and 13^th the highest score is taken out and the two lowest scores are added up. If another team also finishes with the same score then the third score is used as a tie breaker. Also, players are randomly seated to keep players from the same team from playing at the same table and to reduce the possibility to collude with other players.

“Team poker is not a new concept, but getting it out where the tournament is structured in a way that benefited the players and the casino was the most important thing to do. We call this a player development tournament; because we’re going to be bringing players who normally wouldn’t be playing in a poker tournament, but feel more comfortable with a team. They’re going to be more comfortable to join the poker tournaments.” said Daniel Delshad, co-founder and CEO of Dream Poker.

The Dream Team event at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel will pay the winning team a $36,000 prize and a $9,000 prize to the winning player. The debut tourney has already reached the maximum of 25 teams of three. Some of the players who have confirmed are David Daneshgar, Jamie Gold, David Benyamine, Chris Bigler, Jean-Robert Bellande and Kenny Tran as well as several casino executives from L.A. and Las Vegas. So far, there are no events programmed after the premiere event, however, Dream Poker is currently working to increase its presence in the casinos and cardrooms around the country and probably hold a Dream Team “championship tour” in 2009.