The International Poker Players Association Championship event has the biggest buy-in in any poker tournament, a staggering $250,000. The 48-player event is played in Monaco at the end of November with the winner taking home 5 million. If you don't have the 250k to spare, you can also qualify via live satellites in Monaco or at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, these being played in new format.

Thirteen big money players have already entered the tournament: Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Michael and Robert Mizrachi, Huck Seed, Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Freddie Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Allen Cunningham, and John Hennigan.

Players can also qualify for just $1,000 via live satellites in Monaco and Los Angeles. A novelty called "equity rebuy" is used at the qualifiers: The first round is played in 10-handed Shootout tables with the winners getting their $1k buy-in back and advancing to the second round. At this point the players who busted have a chance to make an "equity rebuy" of $9,000, equalling the value of a second-round seat in the qualifiers.

The founder of the IPPA is the professional player Yosh Nakano who has also worked as the poker manager at the Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. The Monte Carlo IPPA Championship will be televised.

source: coinflip.com

oh baby

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wow sick! like, really sick.

actually wanna root for cunningham, since he s so good. But we have to root for the onlineplayers, to keep the money in the big cashgames.

+1 hope this sheeeiiiit is on ESPN may bring the rich fishies back to poker

Someone stake me please. I'd be surprised if they found 48 entrants for this buy in though.

What are they going to play? Just hold'em?

This event was so popular, when they had a qualifier at the Bike last week, 20 people showed up for the 1k.

NLHE only

they should have made it winner-take-all

last hand: flipping a coin for 12,000,000$ haha

Between the web sites, the big guys and the satellites they will get the 48 no probem.

That's insane. I don't see it getting 48 entrants tho, especially by November.

lol donkaments

looks like at least half of the players on that list have been staked already

"Thirteen big money players have already entered the tournament: Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Michael and Robert Mizrachi, Huck Seed, Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Freddie Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Allen Cunningham, and John Hennigan."

Where's the best No Limit Holdem Tournament Player of all time?