Anyone who has been around a major poker festival knows what can happen. Where there are big-money tournament players, there is a lot of money, and where there is a lot of money, there are people looking to play cash games. We’ve seen it happen time and again. It happens at the PCA. It happens at EPT events. It happens at the WSOP. It happens in Macau. As far back as poker festivals go, there are people looking for the biggest, juiciest cash games they can find.
In Monaco, one of those games may be simply huge. How huge? If the game goes off, it would start with a €1 million buy-in…per person.
As you might have heard, this year’s PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final will host the largest festival of cash games in the tour’s history. The EPT has worked hard to set up games for just about every bankroll. They’ve brought in extra tables, dealers, and staff to handle what is expected to be a big demand for cash games.
But a €1 million buy-in game? Well, yes, the EPT is ready for that, too.
There has been a rumble recently about this big game kicking off next week in Monaco. In fact, several people have already said they’d play if the game goes. Sam Trickett, Paul Newey, Philipp Gruissem, Isaac Haxton and Niklas Heinecker have all confirmed they’re ready and willing to play. There are several others who prefer to remain anonymous for now.
“It’s not often you get an opportunity to play in a game this big, so obviously that’s pretty exciting,” Haxton told us today.
I need to be very clear here: I have no idea if this game will go or not. We may not know if it’s going to happen until it actually happens. I’d put it at a coinflip at this point. It will all be to up to the players and whether anyone else decides they want to play that big.
I’ve seen some proposed rules for the eight-handed game. Players would begin Saturday May 11 at 16:00 Monaco time and play until 06:00 the next day or when the game breaks, whichever comes first. If they want to keep playing, they could resume the next afternoon. Players are suggesting €1,000/€2,000 blinds with an optional straddle.
Will it happen? I honestly don’t know. But I know this: TV crews are standing by just in case it does. We at the PokerStars Blog are on high alert, too.
If we get any confirmation the game is going for sure, we’ll let you know, and we’ll be on hand in Monaco to keep tabs on it.
Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging
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