The last few months of 2021 seem to be flying by. The WSOP in Las Vegas is keeping poker players (and media and fans) quite busy through October and most of November. That will leave one month to wrap tours that use the regular calendar year – like the PokerGO Tour – to cap off their seasons.
The PokerGO Tour – which is now officially the PokerGO Tour Presented by Guaranteed Rate – has been running since January. The new organization of high-stakes poker tournaments into a tour brought many different offerings together, from the Aria High Roller series to those held at Venetian and Wynn, from the US Poker Open to the new PokerGO Cup, and more. They even included some of the high buy-in events from the World Series of Poker into the tour. And to finish the inaugural year, the PokerGO Championship is set for December 22.
With that only a month and a half away, PokerGO is now releasing more details about that season finale.
Championship Details
The PokerGO Tour Championship will be a $50K buy-in tournament – not the highest or lowest buy-in of the year – at the PokerGO Studio at Aria on the Las Vegas Strip. It will be a two-day tournament with one reentry allowed.
“For one-time registrants,” the announcement reads, “a $1,000 appearance fee and zero rake are on offer for the PokerGO Tour Championship.” This means that the $1K will be a discount on their tournament entry. In addition, those who preregister, even it is just prior to the actual start time of the tournament, will receive that $1K appearance fee with their entire $50K going into the prize pool.
This seems to be the very first time that poker players will receive appearance fees. Since the poker boom, players have tossed around the idea of being paid to play high-profile tournaments or televised special events, but the idea never caught on. The poker industry always assumed that players would or could benefit in other ways from the fame of broadcast appearances. PokerGO seems to be trying to implement a new component for the players they call the “elite” of the game.
PokerGO President Mori Eskandani said that the tournament will be livestreamed from the PokerGO Studio. Calling it the PGT Championship, he noted, “We have showcased several deserving champions throughout the year, and we look forward to celebrating the winner of the PokerGO Tour Championship and PokerGO Tour Player of the Year as we conclude an outstanding first season of the tour.”
PokerGO Tour Leaderboard
The other purpose of the PGT Championship will be to award the final points of the year toward leaderboard standings. The ultimate winner of the Player of the Year award will win $200K in cash and their name on the Guaranteed Rate Cup.
The runner-up on the POY leaderboard competition will win $100K, and the third-place finisher will receive $50K.
PokerGO set up the points system to calculate points for cashes on the tour. The basis for the calculations was:
For example, a player in a $10K-$24K buy-in tournament who cashes for $10K receives 10 points. A player in that same buy-in category wins $500K and earns 500 points. (The players competing in this league probably understand better how it all works.)
As the leaderboard stands on Saturday, November 7, these are the top five spots:
-1. Ali Imsirovic = 3,576 points ($4,850,460 earnings, 12 wins, 28 cashes in 2021 qualifying events)-2. Michael Addamo = 2,683 points ($7,460,268 earnings, 5 wins, 7 cashes)-3. Sean Perry = 2,348 points ($3,217,506 earnings, 6 wins, 22 cashes)-4. Sean Winter = 2,111 points ($3,802,570 earnings, 2 wins, 18 cashes)-5. David Peters = 1,940 points ($4,461,670 earnings, 3 wins, 11 cashes)
The only two non-Americans in the top ten are the two leading the race, as Imsirovic hails from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Addamo is a native Australian.
Anyone can follow the leaderboard competition on the PokerGO website.
https://twitter.com/PokerGOnews/status/1455666035789639690?s=20
Many More High Rollers on the 2021 Tour
The season is far from over. Despite the PGT Championship only a month and a half away, the list of tournaments on the PokerGO Tour calendar remains long.
-November 8: Aria High Roller 33: $10K NLHE-November 9: Aria High Roller 34: $10K NLHE-November 10: Aria High Roller 35: $10K NLHE-November 11: Aria High Roller 36: $10K NLHE-November 12: Aria High Roller 37: $10K NLHE-November 13: Aria High Roller 38: $10K NLHE-November 13: WSOP Event 73: $10K Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship-November 15: WSOP Event 76: $10K Super Turbo Bounty NLHE-November 16: WSOP Event 78: $10K Razz Championship-November 17: Aria High Roller 39: $10K NLHE-November 18: WSOP Event 82: $250K NLHE Super High Roller-November 19: WSOP Event 84: $50K PLO High Roller-November 20: WSOP Event 85: $50K NLHE High Roller-November 21: WSOP Event 87: $100K NLHE High Roller-November 29: WSOP Europe Event 11 at King’s: €25K NLHE Platinum High Roller-December 2: WSOP Europe Event 14 at King’s: €50K NLHE Diamond High Roller-December 2: Bellagio High Roller 1: $10K NLHE-December 3: WSOP Europe Event 15 at King’s: €10K NLHE Main Event-December 3: Bellagio High Roller 2: $10K NLHE-December 4: Bellagio High Roller 3: $10K NLHE-December 5: Bellagio High Roller 4: $10K 8-Game-December 6: Bellagio High Roller 5: $10K NLHE-December 7: Bellagio High Roller 6: $10K NLHE-December 8: Bellagio High Roller 7: $10K NLHE-December 9: Bellagio High Roller 8: $10K PLO-December 10: Bellagio High Roller 9: $25K NLHE-December 11: Bellagio High Roller 10: $25K NLHE-December 12: Bellagio High Roller 11: $10K NLHE-December 14: Bellagio High Roller 12: $25K NLHE-December 15: WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio: $10K NLHE-December 20: PokerGO Tour Championship at Aria: $50K NLHE
For the most part, the biggest decision for high-stakes poker pros is whether to play at Aria, Bellagio, or the Rio. There will be a decision as to whether or not to travel to the Czech Republic to participate in WSOP Europe, though only players also competing for the WSOP Player of the Year will likely do so.
Meanwhile, some players are already looking toward 2022. PokerGO has something for them as well, already having released the first quarter of the schedule for the second season.
https://twitter.com/PokerGOTour/status/1450508299170979844?s=20
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