In December, I heard something I found hard to believe. There was going to be a $10 million dollar buy in poker tournament. Ten Million Dollars. The first question that came to mind was 'what is the juice on that tournament?' The second question was 'who would pay $10,000,000 to enter a poker tournament?' It appears we will have to wait a little while longer for the answer.
PokerNews.com has learned that the $10 Million dollar 'Mega Event' originally scheduled for July 12th has been cancelled. FSN, and MansionPoker.net were teaming up for this event, which was announced back in December. This event was scheduled to be a $60 Million dollar winner-take-all event, with six players putting up the ten million each. Phil Ivey was announced as the lone confirmed participant, but sources at FSN told us they actually had four players confirmed to participate. The tournament was to be played live on FSN, and there were rumors of the last couple hours of the tournament airing live on FOX network here in the states. Alas, the logistics couldn't be worked out, and the tournament has been cancelled.
According to George Greenberg, FSN's Executive Vice President of Programming and Production, FSN was simply not prepared to produce both the upcoming Poker Dome series, and the $10 million event at the same time. "When we took a step back and looked objectively at the size and scope of producing both the premiere season of the Mansionpoker.net Poker Dome Challenge series and the 2006 Mega-Event, we had to be honest with ourselves - these are two massive projects, each requiring considerable resources and manpower." Greenberg said "To produce them both simultaneously would compromise the quality of each, a concession FSN is not willing to make. Therefore, we have decided to cancel the 2006 Mega-Event and focus on delivering an explosive 43-week series that will change the way poker is televised."
The $10 million dollar event had many in the poker community wondering how they were going to pull it off. Unfortunately, it seems we will have to wait another year to find out. The plan was originally to hold three of these mega events, one in 2006, and one each the following two years. We are told the plan is still intact for the event to happen in 2007, but poker viewers will have to wait for 2007 to see the mega event.
In place of the 10 million dollar event, Mansion Poker is going to run a live televised poker tournament on the originally scheduled date of July 12th. In this tournament, several online qualifiers will square off, and battle for a one million dollar prize.
It certainly was an ambitious plan to hold a $60 million dollar winner-take-all event. If it someday comes to pass, it will be the most anticipated TV poker event of all time. Stay tuned.
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