Will The Poker Masters Be the Next Big Event in Poker?
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Poker Masters will be a week-long tournament series of high roller events. Four of the events will carry a $50,000 buy-in and a two-day runtime. The final tournament will be a $100k buy-in competition over three days.
Each $50,000 tournament will allow players a single re-entry, while the $100,000 tournament is a freezeout. Players who play the four $50,000 tournaments will not have to pay rake on the $100,000 event.
To expedite play, Aria will be implementing a thirty-second “shot clock” for each player. This innovation, along with the more frequent clock-calling on display at this year’s WSOP in Nevada, should help to improve the flow of the game.
Quite frankly, the pace of play had become rather glacial in recent years. However, since some decisions take more time, tournament officials will also allow a limited number of extensions to each player each day.
This series is for the serious poker player
Obviously, with such large buy-ins, this tournament will not be for the average player. Instead, the hope will be to create a high roller series as a follow-up to the Super High Roller Bowl.
As such, this series will likely draw out a veritable who’s who of poker to play. If the SHRB is any indication, most of the players will be recognizable names.
An event with these sorts of buy-ins will stand in opposition to the recent trend at the WSOP. The expansion in the number of events and the presence of low buy-in options at the World Series worries some players. Their fear is that these more-accessible events dilute the value of the vaunted bracelet.
For their part, Aria and Poker Central will dub the player with the greatest combined winnings in all five of these tournaments the Poker Masters Champion. In a nod to the more famous Masters in golf, the champ will indeed receive a commemorative jacket. The jacket will be custom-made by Waraire Boswell and will be purple, rather than green.
How to watch the Poker Masters
Coverage begins on September 13. PokerGO will stream each event. Here is the schedule:
| Name | Date | Buy-in |
| Event #1 | September 13 | $50,000 |
| Event #2 | September 14 | $50,000 |
| Event #3 | September 15 | $50,000 |
| Event #4 | September 16 | $50,000 |
| Event #5 | September 18 | $100,000 |
All $50,000 events will run for two days. The $100K event will run for three days.
Tune in and watch players battle for a mountain of cash!