Managing Editor
The CoinPoker High Stakes Cash Game World Championship is now underway and is already producing an impressive volume of action at extremely high stakes. On Friday, PokerScout observed no fewer than 12 tables running at $50/$100 stakes with at least five of six seats filled.
The HSCGWC kicked off Monday and is off to a fast start. The winner will receive a $35,000 Rolex, but far more money than that will change hands in the process. The real incentive for the players is that the entire tournament is 100% rake-free.
TaxHere currently holds the top spot on the leaderboard with 6,322 hands played and over $150,000 profit already. He’s taken over from DavyJones922, who was on top yesterday.
It’s extraordinarily rare to see this many players sitting concurrently at tables with a $10,000 buy-in in the modern online poker world. It harkens back to the days when the likes of Viktor Blom and Phil Galfond would battle each other on Full Tilt, before Black Friday 2011.
As a point of comparison, GGPoker, currently the world’s largest international poker site by traffic, only has games running up to $10/$20 at the moment, and only 20 players seated at those stakes. The HSCGWC now has about four times as many players, playing for five times the stakes.
CoinPoker’s official YouTube channel will have a live stream with commentary this Sunday starting at 1 p.m. ET. If you can’t wait, our friends at PokerStrategy hosted a live stream from SeaLlama (currently third on the leaderboard) that’s viewable as a replay. The Templar hymns he’s chosen as a soundtrack provide an interesting counterpoint to the intensity of the poker action.
