Hi Guys,

Starting March of 2012 we are going to run the first ever tournament series on the Merge Network. We are confident this will be a massive event and it is something that players have been asking for consistently for a while now.

The event will be called Poker Maximus and will officially start on March 4th 2012. Satellites will start running for the events in late January 2012. Here is a brief overview of the details:

Dates - March 4-25th

Satellites - Will start early to mid January and run until completion. Players who have existing tournament entry coupons will be able to use them throughout Poker Maximus. Poker Maximus specific satellite tickets will need to be used between March 4 - 25.

Main event - $109 entry - $150,000 Guaranteed NLH Freezeout. Players receive 5000 chip starting stacks and the tournament will run 15 minute levels commencing at 10/20.

Other bonuses / Awards - Tournament Leaderboard Champion (players of the series paid to 1st, 2nd and 3rd) and a Tournament of Champions event.

Schedule: Starting from the 4th March, there will be a minimum of three tournaments per day with buyins for daily tournaments ranging from $3 to $200.

- 70 Poker Maximus Events
- $60,000 Guaranteed Poker Maximus High Roller Main Event ($215 Buyin)
- Poker Maximus $530 Deepstack Main Event
- Minimum $150,000 Guaranteed Main Event ($109 Buyin, with $40,000 Guaranteed to the winner)
- Player of the series award
- A Tournament of Champions for all Poker Maximus Tournament Winners
- Over $1.25M worth of guaranteed cash and prizes
- Buyins ranging from $3.00 to $200 with one $500 buyin tournament
- Unique accolades for event winners and leaderboard places.

Full details will be announced late in January 2012. Please let me know any feedback or question you have.

Thanks.

Can players buy into these tournaments with VIP points?

So is this open to only Carbon players or the whole Merge network? Also, when will the full schedule be posted?

Nice!

This is amazing. Thanks!!

This is open to the whole network.....more specific info will be available closer to the time.

Ryan

This is obviously a good thing and am glad to see it but Merge, you can do yourselves and your players a lot better by being a little more aggressive with the buyins and guarantees. I mean, a main event with the same buyin and only 50% higher guarantee than your weekly major!!??.......C'MON MAN!!

This is not planned to be a one off event. If successful, this is going to be something we run regularly. The guarantees are all reasonably large increases from similar tournaments that run daily or weekly now. We plan on this being a major success, and will be able to really increase the guarantees going forward if that's the case.

Sorry Chris but not really. Theres a 109 100k every Sunday and we're supposed to get excited about a 109 150k 3 months away? I mean really, your main event is basically just any other Sunday right?

I guess I don't understand, a 50% increase is not an increase?

Yeah it is but not really significant enough to be the main event of a 70 tournament series. I bet it will be on a Sunday and replace the weekly 100k too.

While I can obviously see your point of view (when compared to WCOOP, FTOPS, etc), you have to appreciate that our player base is significantly lower; therefore, a 50% increase in guarantee is quite a decent jump.

Also, seeing as this is the first offering of this kind of series on our network, we obviously want to take small steps to ensure that it is a success. Once we know that our players want this kind of series, and it is a success at this level, we can really 'swing for the fences' in future offerings.

Ryan

I can appreciate that. Is it going to replace the weekly 100k though or will there be two good 109s on the 25th?

It's pretty standard online for the main event of a series to replace the flagship tournament.

It will replace it initially, as far as I am aware.

Ryan