If you’ve ever seen Casino Royale, you remember the ridiculous poker tournament featured in the film where there was a $10 million buy-in. In typical James Bond fashion, this $10 million tournament seemed like something out of a science fiction movie since even billionaire high stakes poker fish Andy Beal might think twice about paying this buy-in.
And while there are currently no $10 million buy-in tourneys to speak of, International Poker Players Association Championship organizers are doing their best to one day reach this amount by offering a $250,000 buy-in tournament. And for the measly sum of $250k, you can compete for a $12 million prize pool where the winner will take home $5 million of this amount. Somehow….the WSOP $50,000 Players Championship seems like a nice little side event now.
The $250,000 IPPA Championship was actually supposed to happen last year in Monte Carlo. However, the H.O.R.S.E. format didn’t suit the taste of many high profile players so the IPPA decision-makers chose to change the tournament to Texas Hold’em this time around.
The move looks to have paid off because some of the world’s best high stakes players are already signed up to compete. The current lineup is a who’s who of poker with Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Freddy Deeb, Huck Seed, Robert Mizrachi, Michael Mizrachi, and Gus Hansen all registered.
Ivey and Dwan’s registrations alone make this an impressive tournament since these two rarely venture into the tourney world anymore unless it involves winning gold bracelets or prop bets. It’s interesting to see Hansen signed up too since he has been getting battered in online high stakes games as of late. Maybe this tournament will spark a turnaround for him.
HORSE is tough, you need to be a complete player to have a chance against some really good mixed games guy. That leaves load of Achilles’ heels for most guys. Holdem makes more sense indeed…