Late registrations permitted

The relaxed atmosphere in the Spanish capital extends to the poker table, it seems, as the locals continue to filter in despite the play starting a short time ago.

The cardroom is slowly filling up (and we should mention there have been some severe traffic delays this evening), but we won't have our final field total until the first break in three hours time.

That interval in play (at approx 22.15 blog time) will be the Fantasy Poker deadline too, so there's still plenty of time register your team!

As always, simply post your three selections (real names please!) as a comment along with your ParadisePoker username.

The PPT blog understands there have been a few technical problems with the comments today, so you can always tweet your team to @ParadisePoker instead. You can find us at http://twitter.com/#!/paradisepoker

Good luck!

Calm before the storm

We're closing in on the first deal back in the Gran Casino Madrid and while the heavens open outside, the dealers are awaiting the rush of players due any minute.

It's far brighter indoors courtesy of the black cloud, thunder and lightning outside, but once the clock starts our players will be in a poker Paradise.

Right now the growing field are registering upstairs and will soon join the casino staff and gathered media in the cardroom.

We'll pick out the familiar faces regular PPT blog readers will have come to know once play gets under way, but for now, here's at a peek at the calm before the storm!

More fantasy pickings...

A few more names to add to the online qualifier list below, including PPT regulars António Lemos, Joao Brito and Thomas Merved.

Also among them is ParadisePoker Tour League leader Ronnie Espensen, who naturally has proved a popular Fantasy Poker pick in Season Two!

Players

António Lemos
Filipa Lemos
José Cerqueira
Joao Brito
Daniel Fresneda Piña
Bastian Bluem
Jens Weigel
Ronnie Espensen
Thomas Merved
Jesus Montes
Pablo Ubierna
Luis Ubierna Martinez
Ismael Arribas Muñoz
Jose Maria Somolinos Garcia
Jacob Irsberg
Jyri Räsänen
Kajetan Masiewicz
Andrzej Migala
Bartłomiej Świeboda

Fantasy Poker - online qualifiers

The list will be updated closer to the start of the Main Event on Friday, but in the meantime, here are 98 online qualifiers from which to start picking your Fantasy Poker team!

In case you've forgotten, here's how it works:

1. Sign up for a ParadisePoker account (if you haven’t already got one!)
2. Pick three players from the list of entrants and post their full real names as a comment, along with your ParadisePoker username, here on the PPT blog
3. Make sure you do so before Friday's deadline, which is expected to be around 23.00 CEST
4. The top 50 finishers in the Main Event score Tour League points
5. And the highest scoring fantasy team wins the PPT prize package!

Players list

Manuel Belinchon Garcia
Heiko Kenning
Hector Gonzalez Martinez
Miguel Rato
Alejandro Rodrigo Gutierrez
Daniel Korczak
Guillermo Fernandez
Marek Viščak
Martin Nielsen
Jakub Szczotka
Nat Jarmonthavat
Isaias Martinez Valverde
Daniel Fresneda Jaro
Marcos Miguel Gomes Monteiro
Robert Král
Attila Pintér
Tom Lane
Martin Soukup
Ruben Guzman Pareja
Kamil Paluszkiewicz
Joaquin Poveda Ganga
Maciej Sumara
Jose Fernandez Pire
Dimitrios Tychalas
Juan Herranz
Sol Martines
Gert Løfgren
Sergio Lazaro Alarcon
Caspar Engelien
Jose Luis Ruiz Cruz
Jay Boyce
Nikolaos Liakos
Lukáš Hájek
David Pishvafar
Javier Monja Peña
Adam Ziarkiewicz
Kamil Jędrzejczyk
Miguel Benitez Ojeda
Mariusz Niski
David Montoro
Andreas Maragoudakis
Arthur Sinkiewicz
Angel Gomez Palmero
Pantazidis Anestis
Thomas Bandias
Bo Erichsen
Tibor Boros
Kamil Jamroż
Miguel Castro Lago
Fernando Martin Blanco
Pantelis Palioudakis
Javier Garcia Bermejo
Jose Maria Sanchez Garcia
Christian Schulz
Jürgen Bachmann
Suse Posny
Marcus Westhoff
Steve Warner
Christian Brox
Lothar Kock
Bernhard Gerdemann
Lars Neujeffski
Doering Dietmar
Schröder Uwe
Tom Mellinger
Uwe Kock
Srinivasan Tavarajah
Hatem Hammami
Salim Alibas
Pino Popolo
Wolfram Henke
Sutharjan Tavarajah
Marcus Hein
Robert Haigh
Mischa Dankert
Fedja Kapetanovic
Mark Holt
Martin Christensen
Claus Uhrskov
Miroslav Angelov
Teodor Krastev
Aleksandar Asenov
Ina Damyanova
Petar Simeonov
Dimitar Dimitrov
Sven Karlson
Henrik Suttinger
Luís Machado
Jose Belinchon Crespo
Georges Tohme
Hanno Siegel
Toni Merivuori
Balázs Jablonkai
Jagoda Piwowarczyk
Branislav Baňas
Emilian Dimitrov Aleksandrov
Jari Hurri
Morten Kjær

Gran Casino Madrid looms

The ParadisePoker Tour hits Spain from tomorrow evening with the bumper €125,000 Guaranteed Main Event set to light up the Gran Casino Madrid.

The 2010 event will be remembered for the unstoppable charge of Miguel 'Miki' Rodriguez, as the local pro cleaned up at the final table to claim the big cheque and the PPT trophy.

This year promises even more action, with the increased prize pool in the Main Event coupled with Thursday night's Super Satellite (which starts at 20:00) and three further side events over the weekend.

You can follow all the action right here on the PPT blog and play Fantasy Poker - the free game where you could win a €1,100 prize package to Barcelona! Click for details.

A list of online qualifiers will be published here soon but if you already know three players set to pull up a chair in the Main Event, we're accepting Fantasy Poker entries now. Simply write your ParadisePoker username plus the players' real names as a comment below.

Good luck all!

PPT Madrid Schedule

Venue: Gran Casino Madrid, Spain
Date: April 28th – May 1st 2011

Super Satellite
Event date: Thursday April 28th, @ 20:00
Buy-in: €50 + €10
Starting chips: 2,000
Add ons: 4,000
Blind intervals: 20 min
Guaranteed seats: 15

€125,000 Guaranteed Main Event
Date: Friday April 29th – Sunday May 1st, 2011
Starting times:
•Day 1 - 20:00
•Day 2 - 17:00
•Day 3 - 17:00
Buy-in: €500 + €50
Starting chips: 15,000
Blind intervals: 60 min
Guaranteed Prize Pool: €125,000

Side Event 1
Event date: Saturday April 30th, 2011 @ 18:00
Game: NL Holdem Freezeout
Buy-in: €200+20
Starting chips: 8,000
Blind intervals: 30 min

Side Event 2
Event date: Sunday May 1st, 2011 @ 18:00
Game: Pot Limit Omaha
Buy-in: €150+€15
Starting chips: 8,000
Blind intervals: 30 min

Side Event 3 (Deep Turbo)
Event date: Sunday May 1st, 2011 @ 20:00
Game: NL Hold´em Freezeout
Buy-in: €100+€10
Starting chips: 20,000

ParadisePoker - a safe bet!

In light of recent developments in the poker world, ParadisePoker have made the following announcement:

ParadisePoker is one of the world's largest and safest online poker sites. The company is owned by Sportingbet, a UK FTSE 250 public listed company, and has been operating for over 11 years.

You can be certain that your money is safe with ParadisePoker. We currently have several great promotions, including the final satellites to the ParadisePoker Tour in Madrid and satellites to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Good luck at the tables and if you want to talk to us please email, start a live chat or call us, all contact details are on our website.

PPT Prague's tale

Whether you missed the ParadisePoker Tour Prague event altogether or just want to re-live our trip to the Czech Republic, the latest PPT video is now on YouTube.

I'm sure Tibor Boros would rather not watch as the topsy turvy final table is retold, while Luboš Galuška will also rue his missed opportunity watching Radoslav Průcha take down the €30k top prize.

Alongside interviews with regulars like Carlos Oliveira and Tommy Ahmedof, we like to think it's a decent watch.

Click to watch the PPT video now.

Enjoy!