Empire Poker Will Send  "Dream Team"  to $1.3-Million Australian Tournament;  Online Players Can Win Their Way Onto Team

Dream Team Players Receive $9,200 Package That Includes Buy-In and All-Expenses-Paid Trip to Crown Casino's Australasian Championship in Melbourne.

It was not so long ago that players perfecting their poker skills on the internet didn't hold out a hope that they could compete with the world's best at a major high stakes casino tournament.  But all that changed this year when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker and Juha Helppi beat the pros at the World Poker Tour Caribbean event.  Both of them started their quests online and progressed into the event tournaments on site.

Now EmpirePoker.com,  the largest and fastest growing community of poker players on the Web,  is offering its players a chance to go for the  'gold'  with a new kind of Dream Team,  a delegation of top players advancing from its online tournaments to a $1.3-million championship at a leading casino in Australia.

EmpirePoker.com is going to give online poker players a chance to make that Dream Team by competing in multi-table tournaments on its website from September through December.  Players can enter as many tournaments as they want in order to try to win their way to Australia.  Once assembled,  EmpirePoker's Dream Team will represent the organization at the prestigious Crown Casino?s Australasian Championship Finals in Melbourne on January 15-17.  Each member of the team will be awarded a $9,200 package that covers the all-expenses-paid trip to the tournament,  the buy-in and a shot at a $1.3-million prize pool.

"Using our online platform is a shortcut to a top level casino championship and a shot at big payday,"  said Ron Burke,  EmpirePoker manager.  "The EmpirePoker Dream Team will advance directly into the tournament's finals without participating in any of the preliminary rounds.  EmpirePoker will give players a number of ways to play their way to Australia for this world class event."

Dream Team candidates for the EmpirePoker Crown Championship may enter through any of the following methods:

I. League Tournaments

Qualifiers

$25 League Tournament:  Every Sunday at 9 p.m. EST. One seat to the Semifinals will be awarded for every 8 participants. $10 League Tournament:  Every Tuesday  (9 p.m. EST),  Thursday  (6 p.m. EST)  and Saturday  (9 p.m. EST).  One seat to the Semifinals will be awarded for every 20 participants. BigBuck Tournament:  Every Monday  (6 p.m.EST),  Wednesday  (9 p.m. EST),  Friday  (9 p.m. EST).  Players can win an entry to The EmpirePoker.com Crown tournament with just $1.  Winners of the BigBuck Tournament advance to the $25 League Tournament.

Win any of the League Tournaments and advance to the SemiFinals.  The first three places outside the winning entries will be awarded 50%,  30%,  and 20% respectively of the remaining prize pool.

II.  Super Satellites

Enter directly into an Empire Poker Super Satellite and then win one of the "Crown Packages" worth $9,200. The Super Satellite Tournaments will be held on Sept. 3, Sept. 24, Oct. 8, Oct. 29, Nov. 5, Nov. 26 and Dec. 10 starting at 9 p.m. Eastern Time.

III.  Semi-finals

The first set of SemiFinals for The EmpirePoker.com Crown will be held on September 13 and monthly thereafter through December.  Players may buy-in directly to each SemiFinal for $200 or win an entry through any of the League Tournaments.  For every 50 participants in the SemiFinals,  one will be awarded an all-expense paid entry to the Finals in Australia.

The Crown Casino in Melbourne is one of Australia?s leading gaming establishments and luxury hotel resorts.  Two hotels are included in the facility,  as well as beauty spa,  indoor heated pool and workout room.  The Crown shopping promenade features boutiques from all of the top names in fashion,  plus 22 restaurants,  nightclubs and movie theatres.

The Crown Australasian Championship will actually begin on January 3.  The total value of the package -- including airfare,  hotel and buy-in -- is $9,200.

"This is an incredible opportunity for our players to participate in an international high stakes tournament at a major casino--and have EmpirePoker foot the bill,"  said Burke.  "Our Dream Team will realize their dreams indeed!"

Players wishing to land a spot on the EmpirePoker Dream Team should go to www.empirepoker.com for more information.

About EmpirePoker.com

With more than 12,000 simultaneous players at peak hours,  EmpirePoker provides participants the best in live,  multi-player online poker -- 24 hours a day,  7 days a week -- offering a wide variety of games including Texas Hold'em,  Omaha,  Omaha Hi/Low,  7 Card Stud,  and 7 Card Stud Hi/Low.  In addition,  EmpirePoker continues to develop its world-renown reputation for exciting and dynamic daily,  weekly,  and monthly tournaments,  with appealing cash prizes - all geared to offer an international community of players the best online poker experience.  EmpirePoker puts forth extensive efforts and resources in providing a fair, secure, stable and safe gaming environment.  For more information,  go to www.EmpirePoker.com.