The team behind PokerGO is betting on live poker’s return in 2021, including high rollers getting back in the action. The company unveiled the PokerGO Tour last week, a global professional poker ranking system with some extra winnings for top performers.
The tour highlights 150 tournaments around the world with tens of millions of dollars at stake. The goal is to rank top poker pros as seen in professional sports such as golf or tennis.
“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,” PokerGO President Mori Eskandani said in a news release.
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“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.”
The tour’s addition comes online poker has also exploded internationally – including numerous online high roller events. As of now, the PokerGO Tour only highlights live events however.
Details on the PokerGO Tour
As part of the new tour, players earn points throughout the year for every finish at each qualifying event. The top performer will be named Player of the Year and score an extra $100,000.
Second and third place also earn $50,000 and $25,000. The tour rankings are updated regularly and showcase the top spot in the world of high stakes poker players.
So far, the standings have included about 20 events so far this year. As of Monday, Ali Imsirovic stood atop the leaderboard.
Online players will recognize many of the names from some of the world’s biggest online events as well. Here’s a look at the top five players with their winnings:
- 1st – Ali Imsirovic, $1.4 million
- 2nd – Sean Perry, $731,700
- 3rd – Chris Brewer, $759,565
- 4th – Sean Winter, $708,590
- 5th – Arthur Conan, $733,320
PokerGO high roller schedule released
As part of the PokerGO Tour’s launch, the company also released the schedule for its 2021 high roller events. That includes a few new events planned.
The US Poker Open is set for June 3-14 with 12 events at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. The player of the series wins the inaugural Eagle Trophy this year.
The company is also launching the PokerGO Cup, a new series with eight events and running July 1-10. The Cup features various poker formats including a $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event.
Other qualifying PokerGO Tour events from the network include:
- PokerGO Heads-Up Championship – This is a new $100,000 event slated for July 12 with a $3.2 million prize pool. The tournament features 32 poker pros battling in a bracket-style format.
- Poker Masters – A 12-event series from Sept. 13-24 challenging the world’s best all-around players. The overall winner takes home a championship purple jacket.
- Super High Roller Bowl – A $300,000 buy-in, three-day tournament set for Sept. 26 with some of the world’s best players. The pros battle for millions of dollars with the winner also taking home a championship ring.
The PokerGO platform will stream all the action from each series.
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Live poker returning in big way
The PokerGO tour uses any live tournament with a $10,000 buy-in or higher in calculating standings. As April closes out, players seem to be eager to return to live poker.
The World Poker Tour has seen massive fields in events run since January. The $3,500 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is currently underway in Florida.
That event produced a field of 2,482 entries for a $7.9 million prize pool, easily topping the $2 million guarantee. The champion earns a top prize of almost $1.3 million.
To put into perspective just how big this @WPT @shrpo is, there are enough people starting day 2 to crush the guarantee
— Ray Henson (@Ray_Henson) April 25, 2021
The series also includes a pair of events counting toward the PokerGO Tour. Arthur Conan won a $50,000 Super High Roller event last week for $733,320. A $25,500 High Roller also kicks off Monday.
Online poker also remains extremely hot at the moment. Tournament series around the world continue awarding hundreds of millions of dollars each month.
Partypoker currently has its annual POWERFEST underway. The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is also running at PokerStars.
The WPTDeepStacks London Online also wraps up today at 888poker. The US market has also seen some major series this month at WSOP.com, partypoker US Network, and PokerStars.