Full Tilt Announces Onyx Cup Series, With Six-Figure Buy-ins
Full Tilt Poker has launched the Onyx Cup Series, a live tournament series with buy-ins of up to $300,000.
The series is set up to pit elite Full Tilt Poker players against one another with big buy-in events, although the tournaments are open events that anyone can enter. The set of six live tournaments will feature an estimated prize pool of $30M, with the smallest buy-in being $100,000, and a grand final with a buy-in of $250,000. The tournaments will be televises, although Full Tilt’s television partner either has not been finalized or has not been announced, as of yet.
The tournaments are slated to be held across the world, in the U.S., Europe and Asia, although only the location of the first event has been revealed so far. That event will take place on May 11th and 12th in Las Vegas, and has several committed players already: Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren and John Juanda. All are Full Tilt pros.
The list of players who can afford to commit nearly a million dollars or more to six tournaments is fairly small. Other good bets to see in the Onyx Cup at some point include Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius, all Full Tilt pros. It remains to be seen if players from other brands will play in the series (i.e. PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu).
You can see a video press release on the Onyx Cup here, with Dwan, Antonius, Hansen and Seidel.
There will also be qualifying for the Onyx Cup events which will be held at Full Tilt Poker starting on Tuesday, March 15th. The buy-ins for these events are not yet known.
In the Onyx Cup, the top three players in each of the five preliminary tournaments and the grand final receive Onyx Cup leaderboard points; the player with the most points at the conclusion of the series will be crowned champion and will earn a luxury sports car, on top of their winnings from the rest of the series.
The Federated Poker League, announced earlier this year, is attempting to do the same thing in many respects — create events for the top pros to play in which they only face each other. The buy-ins for the “pros-only” league, however, are much smaller.
The series is set up to pit elite Full Tilt Poker players against one another with big buy-in events, although the tournaments are open events that anyone can enter. The set of six live tournaments will feature an estimated prize pool of $30M, with the smallest buy-in being $100,000, and a grand final with a buy-in of $250,000. The tournaments will be televises, although Full Tilt’s television partner either has not been finalized or has not been announced, as of yet.
The tournaments are slated to be held across the world, in the U.S., Europe and Asia, although only the location of the first event has been revealed so far. That event will take place on May 11th and 12th in Las Vegas, and has several committed players already: Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren and John Juanda. All are Full Tilt pros.
The list of players who can afford to commit nearly a million dollars or more to six tournaments is fairly small. Other good bets to see in the Onyx Cup at some point include Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius, all Full Tilt pros. It remains to be seen if players from other brands will play in the series (i.e. PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu).
You can see a video press release on the Onyx Cup here, with Dwan, Antonius, Hansen and Seidel.
There will also be qualifying for the Onyx Cup events which will be held at Full Tilt Poker starting on Tuesday, March 15th. The buy-ins for these events are not yet known.
In the Onyx Cup, the top three players in each of the five preliminary tournaments and the grand final receive Onyx Cup leaderboard points; the player with the most points at the conclusion of the series will be crowned champion and will earn a luxury sports car, on top of their winnings from the rest of the series.
The Federated Poker League, announced earlier this year, is attempting to do the same thing in many respects — create events for the top pros to play in which they only face each other. The buy-ins for the “pros-only” league, however, are much smaller.
