Poker and Chess

While Poker and Chess are obviously different games, there has been plenty of 'cross fertilization' in recent years. A number of strong chess players are also reasonably successful poker players, while a number of strong poker players were strong junior players before being lured away by the big bucks.
Normally players will play one of the other, but an upcoming event on the Isle of Man has found a novel way of combining the two.  There is the usual poker tournament with a 200 pound buy in, but the initial chip stacks will be determined by a blitz tournament. Each player starts with 8,000 in chips and picks up an extra 1,000 per win in the blitz (I assume draws will net 500 each). So players can start with anywhere between 8,000 and 13,000 chips to begin with.
Despite the initial advantage to the chess players, most pundits (chess or poker) concede the advantage will still lie with the poker pros. While big stacks tend to push around little stacks, this can all change in a single hand, which is where the poker experience comes in handy. Nonetheless and number of strong chess players (including Michael Adams) are giving it a go.
If you are in a position to travel to the event it begins on October 3, and further details can be found here.