The Onyx Cup

“There should be 4 of these a year, Macau, Australia, Vegas and Monte Carlo,” wrote Dwan, who followed it up a few minutes later with an addition. “Make that 5, London too.”

Well, it appears that Dwan might have been hinting at something. On Monday Full Tilt Poker announced the creation of the Onyx Cup Series, a series of six tournaments with buy-ins from $100,000 to $300,000. The first five events will be preliminary events with the sixth event being the $250,000 buy-in Grand Finale.

The events are open to any players wishing to play who can afford the six-figure buy-in and all tournaments will be No Limit Hold’em. The top three finishers in each event will be awarded Onyx Cup leaderboard points and the player with the most points after the Grand Finale will be awarded the Onyx Cup and a luxury sports car. The buy-ins and prizepools are staggering numbers but for the player many consider the world’s best, it’s not just about the dollars.

“It gets my blood pumping. It’s not just about the money, in this event it’s more about playing with the calibre of players that we’re going to be up against,” said Phil Ivey. “there’s going to be a lot of pride that comes along with winning this event.”

The first Onyx Cup Series event is scheduled for May 11 and 12 in Las Vegas. While complete dates and locations have yet to be announced the events are scheduled to take place in the United States, Europe and Asia and will most likely be scheduled around the same time as other major events in those countries. Qualifying for the events will be offered exclusively on FullTiltPoker.com begininning on March 15.

The hottest player on the planet right now, Erik Seidel, is looking forward to a buy-in level and format that guarantees the best of the best are in play.

“I’m very excited about it. I think what’s unique about this event is that you’ve got players like Tom, like Patrik, like Gus and Phil who sometimes don’t want to get on an airplane to play in these $10,000 buy in events because it just doesn’t make financial sense for them because they’re playing for hundreds of thousands and millions every day,” said Seidel, who has now moved to top spot on the all-time money list. ”So this is a tournament big enough that it will draw all the best players in the world. I think the whole poker world’s going to be very excited about this.”

The Onyx Cup will be filmed for broadcast worldwide with a television deal expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

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