PokerGO Tour Announced With 150 Global Events
There have been multiple attempts in the past to put poker on par with professional sports. Whether it be professional poker leagues or televised broadcasts on NBC, poker has desperately looked for a way to put the game on par with other sports.
PokerGO is making the latest attempt to do so with the PokerGO Tour. The tour will be a professional poker league consisting of over 150 qualifying events globally along with a ranking system that ranks players based on performance.
PokerGO Announces Professional Poker Tour
Late last week, PokerGO announced the formation of the PokerGO Tour, a professional poker tour that will rank its players based on money finishes in tour events. The tour will feature over 150 qualifying events that include established PokerGO events along with a couple of new additions.
The tour will kick off with the 2021 U.S. Poker Open, running from June 3rd to June 14th at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. There will be 12 events where players will battle to win millions in prize money. The overall player of the series will receive the inaugural Eagle Trophy.
HIGH ROLLERS: @PokerGO releases 2021 High Roller event schedule, adds enw tour ranking systemhttps://t.co/s5I20lQzjW#poker #pokeronline#gamingnews #pokernews #pokerlife
— Poker Scout (@PokerScout1) April 28, 2021
That’s just the first of several events to feature throughout the year. Here is a quick rundown of the other events on tour:
PokerGO Cup – This is a new major series of eight tournaments covering various formats. It will run from July 1st through 10th and will feature a $100,000 NL Hold’em Main Event.
PokerGO Heads-Up Championship – The inaugural PokerGO Heads-Up Championship will run on July 12th with 32 players looking to battle for a $3.2 million prize pool. This will be a bracket-style event.
Poker Masters – The Poker Masters returns from September 13th through 24th. The event will feature 12 events this year and will award the Purple Jacket to the player of the series.
Super High Roller Bowl – The Super High Roller Bowl returns on September 26th with a $300,000 buy-in. The three-day event could be one of the most lucrative events of 2021 outside of the 2021 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Point System Based on Cash Won
The PokerGO Tour will feature a somewhat unique format where Player of the Year points will be based on the amount of money won in an event. In the past, High Roller championships were based on where you finished as opposed to the rest of the field. However, this allowed the winner of a $10k event to accumulate as many points as someone winning a $100k event.
This series will award points based on the buy-in and the amount of money won. The scale will also account for the buy-in. For example, if someone wins $3 million in a $10k buy-in event, they will get more points than someone winning $5 million in either a $25k or $100k event.
PokerGO Tour Leaderboard: @aliImsirovic holds top spot 🎉
The next set of tournaments are the @ARIAPoker High Rollers running May 5-8!
Read More: https://t.co/CJckJUyCqM pic.twitter.com/b1XtCrnQNM
— PokerGO News (@PokerGOnews) April 29, 2021
All players that cash in a PokerGO Tour event will get points towards the Player of the Year and the overall POY will receive a $100,000 prize. Second will get $50,000 and third $25,000.
According to President of PokerGO Mori Eskandani, “The sport of poker is hundreds of years old and until now, there has not been a globally recognized tour and ranking system that establishes and celebrates the most elite players across the globe, so we started something we hope will evolve and grow. The PokerGO Tour™ events will include the world’s most challenging high stakes events in the world, bringing poker front and center in the world of sports in a way that has never been done before.”
You can expect all final tables to be live-streamed on PokerGO. This should prove an exciting venture for the poker streaming company. With any luck, they will achieve some of the notoriety that poker has sought for over a decade.