Macau has dominated talk in the poker world with their huge cash games and rumors of a $100 million tournament. Interestingly enough though, the latter may be nothing more than a rumor because certain poker industry insiders have yet to hear anything about a tournament of this size on the horizon.
APPT founder Tom Hall, who is one of the best sources of info on these matters, was especially telling in his assessment of the tournament. He told reporters, “This to me seems to be utter garbage. Nobody sensible I know in Macau knows anything about it. None of the casinos, poker room managers, big game players, junket room operators or media guys has heard anything credible.” He finished by adding, “You also have to get any poker event approved by the DICJ (Macau regulator) in conjunction with the hosting casino.”
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When looking at the numbers, you would certainly have to agree with Hall that a tournament of this magnitude would be extremely difficult to pull off. Based on the $100 million prize pool that this rumored tournament will offer and the target field of 500 players, everybody involved would have to ante up a $200k buy-in. Taking a look at the comparative 2011 Aussie Millions $250,000 High Roller, only 20 players bought into this tournament. And while the $200k buy-in is cheaper, is it cheap enough to encourage 480 more players to buy-in?
Sure you also have to account for all of the rich Asian businessmen who’ve been fueling the Macau cash games lately, but that still doesn’t add up to an extra 480 players. To sum this up, it doesn’t seem like the poker world is at a point where it can attract 500 players to a $200,000 buy-in poker tournament.
