By TheNuts - Nov 19, 2018
The turn out for the inaugural event in early 2018 for the U.S. Poker Open was less than stellar none-the-less Poker Central, owners of PokerGO, have agreed to give it another shot in 2019. The series will get under way at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas on February 13th and runs for 10 days ending on February 23rd. This is a made for streaming event mainly for high rollers as there is no single event in the line up that has a buy-in lower than $10,000. This serves as the 4th big annual event for PokerGO in their exclusive broadcast line-up with the other three being Super High Roller Bowl, ARIA High Rollers Series and the Poker Masters. It looks like their goal it to model and market these events similar to PGA tour and tennis ’majors’.
The Tournaments Rundown
This series will comprise of 10 tournaments in total with buy-ins ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 so yes this is a true high rollers event much like the WSOP. This is a Texas Hold’em exclusive tournament, however, there is a bit of a twist, two event games will be ‘Short Deck Hold’em’ or 6+ Hold’em. This game has gained in popularity as of late and features a deck of cards where all cards below 6 are removed. This makes for the probability of getting a great hand much higher but that goes the same for all your opponents sitting at the table as well.
The U.S. Poker Open 2019 complete list of events:
Event #1- February 13 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em
Event #2 - February 14 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha
Event #3 - February 15 – $10,000 No Limit Hold’em
Event #4 - February 16 – $10,000 Short Deck Hold’em
Event #5 - February 17 – $25,000 No Limit Hold’em
Event #6 - February 18 – $25,000 Pot Limit Hold’em
Event #7 - February 19 – $25,000 No Limit Hold’em
Event #8 - February 20 – $25,000 Short Deck Hold’em
Event #9 - February 21 – $50,000 No Limit Hold’em
Event #10 - February 22 – $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event
Another interesting feature of the U.S. Poker Open in 2019 is their ‘Player of the Series’ award. They will rank each participant and award points using a system based on each player’s finish in each tournament. If you are lucky enough to not only afford to play in multiple events in this series but to finish in a strong position, you have the chance to win a $100,000 payday.
How to Watch this Series
All 10 events will be live streamed on PokerGO. If you don’t want to pay for a subscription to PokerGO, an edited version will be shown on cable TV. The parent of PokerGO, Poker Central, has a contract with NBC Sports Network to air select tournaments. It is not yet clear which events will be shown but one can assume the events with the largest payouts will be made available.
Will the Players Come?
Last years inaugural U.S. Poker Open had what can be described as modest participation with no event drawing more that 67 entries and the 2018 $50,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event drew a mere 33 entries. With this years Main Event at doubled the buy-in as last years (a huge risk) all eyes involved in this tournament will be on the participation numbers. You can catch the action starting February 2019.