Full Tilt Poker Announces New ONYX Cup Online High Roller Series

While the rest of the world continues to tighten its belt in these unsure economic times, poker players continue – sometimes inexplicably – to chase life-changing pots via nosebleed ring games and the small handful of live high roller events on offer. Finally a poker site has acknowledged the increased demand for high stakes tournaments. That poker room is none other than Full Tilt Poker and the tournaments in question will happen as part of the site’s new ONYX Cup Series.

This announcement comes as no surprise to FTP players that already enjoy the site’s cash-rich Sunday guarantees and FTOPS tournaments. Full Tilt has always been a leader when it comes to creating profit potential for its players, and the new ONYX Series is no exception. With the popular FTOPS and MiniFTOPS already in place online, and with well over a dozen different international poker tours offering high stakes live events, one might wonder why Full Tilt felt there was a need for yet another poker series. The answer is obvious as soon as you see the list of buy-ins. While Full Tilt’s other popular poker series are all about being inclusive to pros and amateurs alike, the new ONYX Cup Series is strictly for high rollers.

While it’s no doubt disappointing for the site’s loyal amateur followers to hear that the ONYX Cup Series will feature strictly live events, they might find comfort in hearing that the poker room will offer ample opportunities for its members to win a satellite seat to any of the series’ six tournaments. Winning a seat is probably most players’ only option, too, since buy-ins will range from $100,000 to $300,000 per event.

So what’s the deal with the ONYX Cup? The first season of the series will include five different preliminary tournaments hosted across at least three continents including the U.S., Europe and Asia. The inaugural year will wrap with a $250,000 buy-in Grand Finale event that will feature an added $1 million in prize money. The ONYX Cup Series Champion will be determined not by this final event but by a series-wide leaderboard. The overall winner will have the unique distinction of being the first name inscribed on the new ONYX Cup Series trophy and will also drive away in a six-figure sports car.

In true Full Tilt style, the announcement was made via a video interview with some of the world’s leading high rollers, Team Full Tilt pros Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel. Seidel has already committed to competing in the first ONYX Cup tournament, as have fellow FTP pros Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Howard Lederer and Erick Lundgren. That first ONYX Cup tournament is less than two months away. It’s slated to run from May 11-12 in Las Vegas. With such a tight deadline, qualifying online events will begin ASAP (as in tomorrow).

Related Entries