Full Tilt Poker has released some more details on the six-stop Onyx Cup Series of high buy-in poker tournaments they announced on Monday, with the dates and location of the second stop announced, as well as tentative dates and locations for the remainder of the tournament stops.
As was announced on Monday Event #1 of the Onyx Cup Series will take place in Las Vegas from May 11th-12th and will feature a $100k buy-in. The tournament will be in direct competition with the PokerStars EPT Grand Finale in Madrid, Spain which runs from May 7th through the 12th, but the Las Vegas location of the Onyx Cup does coincide perfectly with the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio from May 14th through the 20th.
The second stop on the Onyx Cup Series was announced today, and Event #2 will also take place in Las Vegas this time near the conclusion of the World Series of Poker –just prior to the Main Event– from July 7th -8th and will once again feature a $100k buy-in.
The other four stops on the Onyx Cup have only been narrowed down to Continent and month:
- Event #3 Asia September TBC
- Event #4 Asia September TBC
- Event #5 Europe October TBC
- Grand Finale Las Vegas December $250k
The Asian stops will likely focus around the APT Macau tournament, while the European stop seems likely to begin just after the European Masters of Poker in early October. The tournaments seem to be working in conjunction with other tournaments already scheduled –except those sponsored by PokerStars; Full Tilt Poker’s chief rival.
Another announcement by Full Tilt Poker was in regards to the structure of the Onyx Cup tournaments, which will be played in a similar fashion to the Aussie Millions Super-High-Roller tournament:
- Players will have 30-seconds to make their decisions
- Each player will receive three 30-second extensions that they can choose to use at any point
The “shot-clock” format as it is known will keep action at the tables moving along, and will likely make the tournaments more TV-friendly –a major part of the Onyx Cup Series PR seems to be revolving around the tournaments being broadcast in 40 countries around the world.
One pro who seems non-plussed with the format is Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu who Tweeted:
“Reading up on Onyx Cup and see that its a speed poker/turbo tourney. Well that’s tilting. Also runs against EPT Grand Final. Count me out,”
“Would have absolutely played but being a structure geek I’m not looking to take poker back 20 years with crapshoots on TV. This is so dumb,”
“I’d play Onyx if: no shot clock, minimum three-day event, dates didn’t conflict with EPT Grand Final, WSOPE, etc. I’m not that hard to please.”
I doubt Negreanu would be playing these Full Tilt sponsored tournaments regardless, but his comical assertion of not being hard to please seems to run counter to his demands of the Onyx Cup organizers. So, if they want Daniel to play all they have to do is completely scrap the structure they have set-up –including adding a third day to each event—and move the dates around so they do not clash with Negreanu’s schedule; seems like a fairly simple thing to do!?!?!?!
For more information on the Onyx Cup you can visit FullTiltPoker.com.
Related Posts
- Full Tilt Poker Unveils the Onyx Cup - March 16, 2011
- Full Tilt Poker Rolls Out VIP Program, FTP, and Rakeback Changes - October 4, 2010
- Full Tilt Poker Readies for FTOPS XIX - February 3, 2011
Written by Steve Ruddock on March 16th, 2011