After weeks of suspense, PKR the next generation online poker site today officially announces the full line up of the brand new ‘Team PKR Pro’; a collection of the brightest poker players plucked from PKR.com who will now represent the site at major poker events.

The inaugural six-man ‘Team PKR Pro’ team include TV celebrity Ashley Hames (ashleyhames1), PKR Live runner-up Henrik Eklund (PKR username ‘pokey85’) and 2008 Irish Open finalist Kai Danilo Paulsen (kingkai84), along with PKR community favourites Raymond O’Mahoney (callmebabe), James Sudworth (James666) and Andrew Teng (golfpro699). Full profiles and biographies are available in the Notes to Editors section.

‘Team PKR Pro’ will be exclusively sponsored by PKR and act as brand ambassadors at live events, as well as providing a range of content for the PKR.com website and PKR TV. They will also be available to play on the PKR.com site in both cash games and specially organised bounty tournaments.

Simon Prodger, Marketing Director, PKR said; “We’ve been following our initial ‘Team PKR Pro’ members for some time and are convinced that they all have the game and personality required to be genuinely world class poker players. They are also among the most recognised and respected players within the PKR community so are guaranteed to have over two and a half million people cheering them on every time they play.”

Henrik ‘Pokey85’ Eklund
Stockholm, Sweden

Aged 24, this Stockholm resident has been playing poker for four years. A regular at PKR’s highest cash tables since April 2007, Henrik has started to make an impact on the live scene with a second placed finish at the inaugural PKR Live in November 2008 followed by a victory in the APT Manila Headhunter side event.

Henrik’s ambition for 2009 (beyond winning the WSOP) is to make a final table of a major event – we think he’s got the game to do it.

Ashley ‘ashleyhames1’ Hames
London, UK

Ashley Hames is the popular TV presenter and writer (not to mention PKR TV commentator) who is known to an army of fans for his series Sin Cities – still Bravo’s highest rating show ever in the UK.

Ashley caught the poker bug way back in 2000, and is a regular face at the Vic’s tables. He rates his poker highs as playing in the WSOP main event, reaching the final of Celebrity Poker Club and playing on the TV table at this year’s Irish Open.

Ashley’s goal in poker? “To become known and respected for having a good poker game rather than for having had my scrotum nailed to a plank of wood”. Enough said. A true legend.

Raymond ‘callmebabe’ O’Mahoney
Dublin, Republic of Ireland

A PKR regular since April 2007, Ray is another fixture at PKR’s biggest cash games and tournaments.

His first major live cash came courtesy of the inaugural PKR Live $500 Main Event, where he entertained the crowd as the catalyst for action at the final table. He went onto finish fourth in the event for $6,500, and is set for another deep run this time round.

Ray’s poker high point is that it allows him to make a living from doing something he loves. Hs ambition is to take down his home major, the Irish Open.

Kai ‘KingKai84’ Paulsen
Trondheim, Norway

A true PKR star since August 2007, the 25 year old Norwegian has the finest live tournament record of any PKR regular with more than $322,000 in offline earnings alone. This includes two cashes at the WSOP (including finishing 18th out of a 3000+ field) and a fifth placed finish at the 2008 Irish Open, where he scooped a $250k payday.

With an amicable off-table persona and a focused, unperturbed and analytical approach to the game, Kai is the perfect example for any aspiring young player.

Kai’s ambition is to win one of poker’s majors – and preferably bring home a bracelet. We’ll be backing him to do just that in Vegas this summer.

James ‘James666’ Sudworth
Kent, UK

Already a familiar face on the UK poker circuit, this 22 year old is representative of the new breed of fearless young online pros successfully transferring their games to the live arena.

A PKR regular since the old days (he joined just two months after launch in November 2006), James is a well known figure within the PKR community with a reputation for fearless aggression at PKR’s biggest cash games.

James’ poker resume is topped by a runner-up finish in the Brighton leg of the GUKPT in January 2009 for which he earned more than £40,000.

Andrew ‘Golfpro699’ Teng
London, UK

This 23 year old Londoner is a successful high stakes pro with big time tournament experience. A hugely strategic thinker, Andrew is a renowned member of the 2+2 poker community.

Andrew says that he has been playing poker “seriously” for just the past two years. It would appear that taking the game seriously is paying dividends, with Andrew cashing twice at last year’s World Series, including a deep run in the Main Event where he finished 126th. Andy first major title came at the Thanet leg of the GUKPT in October 2008, where he added another £70,000 in tournament winnings to his record.

The poker player he most respects is Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan as “he put a $1 million overlay out there to the world and next to no one can even consider it”.