The second largest online poker room in the world, Full Tilt Poker, is offering a new promotion aimed at allowing amateurs the opportunity to take on the world’s best players one-on-one. The $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship begins this Saturday on Full Tilt Poker and Mac players can get in on the action by utilizing the site’s popular OS X software client.
The action for the Heads-Up promotion begins on Saturday, May 23rd at 15:00 ET and will play down to the final four. At that time, the tournament will be suspended and resume the next day for the final two rounds of play. In order to make sure the field is balanced, first round byes will be allowed.
Both Team Full Tilt players and Full Tilt Poker pros are expected to sign up for this promotion and vie for the title. Players who have already committed to be a part of the fun include notable pros such as Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson (who won the 2008 NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship), and Huck Seed (who won the 2009 event). Since the announcement of the promotion on the Full Tilt Poker website, other notables have registered for the event like Andy Bloch, David Singer, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, and Scott Montgomery.
Players who want to get into the event can buy directly in for $25,000 or its equivalent in T$. Alternatively, there are tons of satellites available for players to qualify. These started on Sunday, May 17th and will be running continuously until the event’s 64 player maximum field is filled. According to the rules spelled out by Full Tilt Poker, players that qualify into the event will not be able to un-register.
Players who want to qualify in have five different ways to get themselves into the action. The two most direct routes will be the tournaments held on May 18th and 19th, each of which are a $500+$35 buy-in. These unique events run at 21:15 ET with one seat to the $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship awarded as well as $7,000 in cash. Satellites for either one of these events include $133+$7 and $69+$6 sit and go tournaments as well as super satellites that have a $24+$2 buy-in.
Alternatively, there are 16 player turbo sit and go tournaments available on Full Tilt Poker specifically set up for entry into the event. These sit and gos have an entry fee of $1,750+$50 and award one entry for the winner and $3,000 cash for the runner up. There are two other types of sit and gos available. The first is a $3,125 eight player heads-up shootout that only awards one player entry into the event. The second is a $6,250 buy-in four player heads-up sit and go shootout that also awards an entry to the $25,000 spectacle to its winner.
It should be noted that the four and eight player sit and go satellites listed on the Full Tilt Poker promotion webpage are incorrectly labeled as “6,250 FTPs” for entry; they are $6,250 buy-in satellites from within the Full Tilt Poker tournament lobby. The super satellites running not listed on the website, but available from within the sit and go “Satellites” lobby, include the $133+$7 super satellite that is played as a four-man event. The winner gets entry into the $500+$35 event previously mentioned. Other options start as low as 50 Full Tilt Points or a $13+$0.75 heads-up sit and go game.
With so many ways for the average player to satellite into this mega-event, it seems that Full Tilt Poker will have no problem gaining the maximum 64-player field. Having big-name participants registered already should make for a historic $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship on the Mac-friendly online poker room.
Comments are closed.