Home / Poker News February 2011 / Super high roller events – the good, the bad and the ugly
Super high roller events – the good, the bad and the ugly
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Thu, 2011-02-10 02:20
In January, the poker world was treated to a bit of a shocker during the Aussie Millions: a $250k buy-in event. That’s right folks: this event featured a bigger buy-in than the money some – not even stingy – tournaments award to the their winners. Erik Seidel won this super high roller event, in the wake of which the poker industry was left flabbergasted and in awe. While some immediately recognized the potential of such ultra high roller events, others were left gasping and crying foul.
Why would such events be good for poker in general? For starters, if the buzz generated by the above mentioned event is any indication, such nosebleed buy-in events will attract more attention than just about anything. It is true that “only” 20 players took part in this tournament, but provided another one was held, and properly hyped before, one could pretty much take it for granted that more players would show up for it. According to Tom Dwan, at least 5 such events should be held each year. While even some of the poker elite may find it a stretch to pony up that much money for a single event, there’s clearly a market out there for such extreme
poker tournaments.
The likes of Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan for instance, usually can’t be bothered about events which offer less than $1 million for the winner, unless of course we’re talking about a
WSOP event and some fabulously lavish side bet associated with it.
Naysayers on the other hand make a bunch of valid points too. After all, who on this world could produce a bankroll large enough to allow him to play in such events without over-stretching his bankroll. Such events will only add to the variance, and elite players will end up losing more.
Whatever the case, seeing how hype seems to drive the poker industry these days, we’re fairly certain we’ll see at least another such super high roller event this year.
