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Posts Tagged ‘Buyin’

Anyone who has been around a major poker festival knows what can happen. Where there are big-money tournament players, there is a lot of money, and where there is a lot of money, there are people looking to play cash games. We’ve seen it happen time and again. It happens at the PCA. It’s happens at EPT events. It happens at the WSOP. It happens in Macau. As far back as poker festivals go, there are people looking for the biggest, juiciest cash games they can find.

In Monaco, one of those games may be simply huge. How huge? If the game goes off, it would start with a €1 million buy-in…per person.

As you might have heard, this year’s PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final will host the largest festival of cash games in the tour’s history. The EPT has worked hard to set up games for just about every bankroll. They’ve brought in extra tables, dealers, and staff to handle what is expected to be a big demand for cash games.

But a €1 million buy-in game? Well, yes, the EPT is ready for that, too.

There has been a rumble recently about this big game kicking off next week in Monaco. In fact, several people have already said they’d play if the game goes. Sam Trickett, Paul Newey, Philipp Gruissem, Isaac Haxton and Niklas Heinecker have all confirmed they’re ready and willing to play. There are several others who prefer to remain anonymous for now.

“It’s not often you get an opportunity to play in a game this big, so obviously that’s pretty exciting,” Haxton told us today.

Team Online’s Issac Haxton ready to play bigI need to be very clear here: I have no idea if this game will go or not. We may not know if it’s going to happen until it actually happens. I’d put it at a coinflip at this point. It will all be to up to the players and whether anyone else decides they want to play that big.

I’ve seen some proposed rules for the eight-handed game. Players would begin Saturday May 11 at 16:00 Monaco time and play until 06:00 the next day or when the game breaks, whichever comes first. If they want to keep playing, they could resume the next afternoon. Players are suggesting €1,000/€2,000 blinds with an optional straddle.

Will it happen? I honestly don’t know. But I know this: TV crews are standing by just in case it does. We at the PokerStars Blog are on high alert, too.

Who would have ever thought – a $ 1M buy-in for a poker tournament! But make no mistake, without the charity aspect of this tournament, I seriously doubt it would ever take place.  Guy Laliberté, the founder of the Cirque de Soleil shows, had a vision to make this event happen and knew it would create tremendous publicity for his charity, ONE DROP.

Sure to be a lot of talent at that event

Guy has numerous rich business associates who are playing, that looks to be great ‘value’ for poker pros who are all trying to figure out how to get in – and many are succeeding (but don’t think all these business entries are suckers at the poker table, because they’re not.

Guy himself has made a final table on the WPT and I doubt he’s entered four WPT events.  Others, like Bob Bright, play regularly in the biggest NL game in Vegas and is a winner). Certainly, these extremely successful businessmen are not as good as top pros, but anything can happen in the One Drop tournament.

The Bucket list of Bucket lists!

Trust me, all the buzz at the WSOP is about this event.  Everyone is talking about it, from small players playing satellites to all the big-name players.  As for me, I’m thrilled to be at the starting gate and entering this tournament – it’s very exciting to get to play in the most anticipated poker event in poker history – the $ 1,000,000 buy-in Big One for ONE DROP at the WSOP on July 1st.  Like all others entered into this tournament (which is supposed to be capped at 48 – and I’m predicting without a doubt, it will be sold out “if” they cap it at 48), I’m very blessed.  This is the ‘bucket list’ of all bucket lists for a poker player.

3′s the magic number!

Obviously, everyone entering this event loves to play poker.  As I see it, there are three ways to get to play in this tournament.

1. Be extremely well off financially,
2. Know somebody extremely well off and get staked, or
3. Have friends and/or investors take shares of you.

For your info, I don’t fall into category 1.  Whoever wins will be the most successful person in history in terms of tournament winnings of all time.  And I’m confident that the media attention for this event (especially mainstream media) will be, by far, the most in history.  Just having an opportunity to go after this title is really special, but like the rest, I’m dreaming about winning it!

Great for charity!

It’s a great plus for poker that so many are willing to participate in an event that raises so much for charity ($ 111,000 from each entry will be donated to ONE DROP). Everyone, whether they play poker or not and whether they’re in favour of gambling or not, will see the kind of money being raised for charity, take a step back and say, “Wow! These poker people are pretty good folks.”

My only question is:

I sincerely appreciate everyone’s support.  The only question I have is, “Tony G, where are you?”

Head to Vegas with PartyPoker for the WSOP

Get yourself on over to Vegas for the WSOP2012 only with PartyPoker! Grab a package and you’ll get:

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) will this summer stage its largest buy-in event ever. BIG ONE for ONE DROP will feature a $ 1,000,000 entry fee and is slated to take place from July 1-3, 2012 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The event will be televised on ESPN.

The event has been organized by Guy Laliberté, founder of Cirque du Soleil. ONE DROP is a non-governmental organization established in Montreal, Canada and active worldwide. The organization’s mission is to fight poverty by supporting worldwide access to water and raising awareness to water-related issues.

The historic WSOP bracelet event has 30 committed participants. Its prize pool is projected to exceed $ 26,000,000 with the winner to walk away with an estimated $ 12,266,668, the largest amount ever awarded in a poker tournament.

The first prize in the event will exceed the $ 12 million first prize won by Jamie Gold at the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event.

From each entry fee, $ 111,111 will be donated to ONE DROP with “a goal of raising enough money for a legacy project that will help a country with access to clean water,” according to the organization. “With the commitment from 30 players already, more than $ 3.33 million is slated to go to ONE DROP.”

The confirmed players include poker professionals Erik Seidel, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony Guoga, Jonathan Duhamel, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Also participating are Bob Bright, CEO of the stock trading firm Bright Trading LLC; Paul Newey, co-founder of London-based private investment firm New Wave Ventures; Phil Ruffin, owner of Treasure Island; and Laliberté.

“A million dollar buy-in seems crazy, and well, it is, but when you factor in a great cause like One Drop getting a percentage of the prize pool, all of a sudden it seems like a fantastic idea, and a great way to raise money for charity,” Negreanu said in a statement. “Count me in.”

The event is capped at 48 players. If that number of players is reached, first prize will likely be around $ 18 million.