The largest pub poker league in Europe has announced the launch of their very own online poker room. The Nuts Poker League (TNPL), in conjunction with leading service provider and largest online poker network, Inside Gaming, will provide more than $8,000,000 in guaranteed prizes each month.

Aside from the variety of special tournaments provided through the network, Nuts players will be privileged to "Lock In" tournaments. These nightly tournaments are designed to capture the community spirit found so often in land-based pub poker leagues.

The Nuts Poker League became enormously famous in the UK when Steve Bellis, Managing Director of TNPL, made an appearance on Dragons Den, a BBC program for new company investments. With the dream of taking his poker league to a higher level, Bellis attracted the confidence of two out of five Dragons, set to back his online poker venture. Bellis accepted the offer at first, but in the end, he declined funding from the Dragons. With his pub poker league currently boasting 19,000 members, Steve Bellis did not regret the decision.

"I have always believed and understood the value of TNPL, and although I can respect the expertise and contacts each Dragon could bring to the table, when it came to the crunch, the Dragons wanted too much," Steve commented on his reasons for turning down the investment. "We have been looking to combine the pub poker league with an online offering for a while - but it was important that we took our time to find the right partner. Inside Gaming has grasped a true understanding of our business and has the flexibility to create bespoke tournaments to suit our players and allow us to continue creating the community environment that we've worked hard to establish."

Step into any of the pubs across the UK signed up to the poker league and you're likely to find more than 600 poker players at the tables on any given night. For those who can't make it to the pub, they may now simply log onto the TNPL web site and join in the action.

- 2007-12-06