On Monday, Full Tilt Poker announced the debut of the Onyx Cup, a series of six high-stakes live tournaments starting in May in Las Vegas. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill tournaments, either. Instead, five preliminary No Limit Hold’em events will have buy-ins between $100,000 and $300,000, while the Grand Finale comes with a $250,000 price tag and will have $1 million added.
Full Tilt Poker pro Ali Nejad narrated an online press announcement today and gave the background to the newly formed Onyx Cup: “In big tournament fields, great players rarely have the opportunity to compete against one another and the rest of the poker elite, so we wondered, ‘How would these players fare if their only competitors were the other giants of the game?’ Well, we’re about to find out.” Average Joes will have the opportunity to compete, however, as qualifying begins tomorrow on Full Tilt.
Every tournament in the series is open to the entire poker community and the top finishers in each will receive points for the Onyx Cup Leaderboard. When all is said and done, the player who sits perched atop it will be presented with the Onyx Cup and a luxury sports car.
The live tournaments will take place in North America, Europe, and Asia, although the Las Vegas stop in May was the only one announced today. The series will be broadcast in 40 countries.
Five high-profile members of the Full Tilt Poker stable joined Nejad to discuss the Onyx Cup. All were dressed in the prototypical white collared shirt with a dark blazer and sat around a poker table.
After being asked about the series’ six-figure buy-ins, eight-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey countered, “I think it’s not just about the money in this event. It’s more about playing with the caliber of players that we’re going to be up against. A lot of these guys here at the table are my friends. We’re friendly, but we’re also super competitive against each other, so there’s going to be a lot of pride that comes with winning this type of event.”
Ten days ago, Erik Seidel took down the National Heads-Up Poker Championship after finishing as the runner-up in 2010. In the process, he leapfrogged Ivey and PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu on poker’s all-time money list, according to the Hendon Mob, and now sits at #1 worldwide.
Seidel discussed the creation of a high-stakes tournament series like the Onyx Cup: “I think it’s a natural progression because there’s so much money around and people are playing for such high stakes. It was inevitable. I think Full Tilt was really the only online organization that could pull this off because they have all the best players in the world.” During the 2011 Aussie Millions, Seidel banked $2.4 million for winning the Super High Roller Event, which boasted an AUD $250,000 buy-in.
Finally, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who is in the midst of two Durrrr Challenge matches, told viewers about the field he expects to turn out during the Onyx Cup: “I think there will definitely be fewer amateurs who want to play for $100,000 when they hear that right away, but as the events start happening and people start seeing the fields and seeing people they want to play with, it could easily grow in a way like the World Series did. Maybe in 2013 there will be 12 events. Who knows?”
Full Tilt Poker happily takes action from the United States, so start your Onyx Cup quest by signing up today.