The gap between online poker land based poker is narrowing
down. The online poker site PartyGaming.com now owns the land
tournament series WPT. The owners of the land tournaments WSOP
have started an online poker site WSOP.com. Now another leading
online poker site FullTiltPoker.com has launched the Onyx Cup
Series.
There will be six tournaments in the course of the year with buy-ins ranging from $100,000 to $300,000 per tournament. The combined buy-in for the entire Onyx Series will be over a million dollars. But the total prize pool is expected to be more than $30 million. The players will be given points depending on where they finish in each tournament. Whoever accumulates the most points by the end of the series will be the Onyx Cup winner and have his name permanently engraved on the trophy for posterity. He will also take home a luxury sports car.
The first two tournaments will be held in Las Vegas with a buy in of $100,000 each. The first event has been scheduled for May 11 and May 12 and the second event for June 7 and June 8. The third and fourth tournaments will be held in Asia in September and the fifth will be held in Europe in October. The exact dates and venues are to be announced. The grand finale will be in December in Las Vegas.
The professional poker players, who members of Team Full Tilt, will participate in the Onyx Series. Some of the names announced are Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius. The regular players at FullTiltPoker.com can also enter the Onyx Series and rub shoulders with the legends of the game. The qualifying online tournaments for Event 1 are already under way.
There will be three qualifier tournaments, one each in March, April and May that will each award one free seat in Event 1. The buy-ins range from $640 to $2,100. Players can pay the buy in or enter the qualifier tournaments through special online satellite events. The online poker site FullTiltPoker.com has also organized a three tier freeroll tournament that will give one free seat in Event 1 of the Onyx Series.