Full Tilt Poker Launches ONYX Cup Series

If you want to be considered the world’s best tournament poker player, it seems likely that you’ll have to find success on the ONYX Cup Series, a new venture announced by Full Tilt Poker. However, don’t expect the chance to play in this series to come cheaply – even by the standards of world-class poker players.

The ONYX Cup Series will feature six tournaments, with the first being held in Las Vegas on May 11-12. The tournaments that make up the series will have monster buy-ins that range from $100,000 – an absolute bargain – to $300,000. The final tournament, known as the Grand Finale, will have a buy-in of $250,000, with an additional $1 million being thrown into the prize pool.

By competing in these tournaments, the top finishers (currently, the top three from each event) will earn points on the series leaderboard. At the end of the series, the player with the most points will win the ONYX Cup, along with what is being described as a “luxury sports car.”

“Great players rarely have the opportunity to compete against one another and the rest of the poker elite," said Ali Nejad in a video promoting the series. "So we wondered, how would these players fare if their only competitors were the other giants of the game?"

According to a report on ESPN.com, it appears that many of the world’s top players are in favor of the new series – including, of course, most of Team Full Tilt. While they can be expected to participate, what remains to be seen is just how many players will be able to afford the super-high buy-ins. Even more pressing is the question of how many players will be able to continue playing in these tournaments after failing to cash in several in a row, or if any poker site will be capable of sending players to these tournaments through satellite play. Full Tilt Poker has already announced that they will be running satellites, though it will be difficult to give away many seats at that dollar value.

The ONYX Cup Series is the second poker series announced in recent months that seeks to allow top professionals to primarily compete against each other. Annie Duke is heading up a similar effort that is more akin to a PGA Tour for poker, where players will have to earn tour cards in order to regularly play in events. It is unclear whether the two tours will compete or share a relatively cooperative relationship with each other.