Poker Masters 2017

For the past week, the poker world has been watching the tournament room at ARIA in Las Vegas for what was, at the minimum, a unique series of tournaments. The inaugural Poker Masters event was a series of high dollar buy in tournaments that brought together if not the best players in the world, then the ones who had the deepest pockets (or the deepest pocketed backer – but we’ll get into that in a moment) for a five-tournament series. This series was unlike any other tournament series in the history of the game, however.

1. Poker Masters 2017 Full Match Hd
2. Poker Masters 2017 Results
3. Poker Masters Results
4. Poker Masters 2017 Results
5. Poker Masters 2017

1. Bryn Kenney Wins 2017 Poker Masters Event #3 for $960,000. Posted September 16, 2017 at 21:34 by Remko Rinkema. The way the first few days of Poker Masters action has played out, it is clear that it is going to take a lot more than just one deep run or victory to win the Poker Masters Purple Jacket™.
2. Sep 22, 2017 Part of it is the fact that the Poker Masters is a brand-new concept. In contrast, the 2017 World Series of Poker was its 48th. Of course, it’s a heck of a lot easier to believe in something that’s been around for almost 50 years. However, a concept like Poker Masters must start somewhere. It’s not easy to embrace change, but change is.
3. Steffen Sontheimer - 2017 Poker Masters Event 5 Winner The inaugural Poker Masters was comprised of four $50,000 buy-in tournaments and a $100,000 finale. Germany’s Steffen “Goose” Sontheimer made the final table of four of them, and closed out two to earn $2,733,000 in combined winnings and The Poker Masters Purple Jacket™.

Nick Schulman - 2017 Poker Masters Event 1 Winner. The first event of the inaugural Poker Masters is in the books, and Nick Schulman finished as the first winner in this five-event series. Steffen Sontheimer - 2017 Poker Masters Event 5 Winner The inaugural Poker Masters was comprised of four $50,000 buy-in tournaments and a $100,000 finale. Germany’s Steffen “Goose” Sontheimer made.

The first four events on the schedule were ALL $50,000 buy in No Limit Texas Hold’em tournaments (with an option for one rebuy if busted), pretty much ensuring that the Average Joe would have to mortgage his house to take part. If that wasn’t enough, the Main Event of the series was a $100,000 buy in tournament (with UNLIMITED rebuys), something that a mere five years ago was unheard of. The question must be asked, however: was the Poker Masters series worth it?

If we’re looking at it from a televised poker angle, that question is difficult to ascertain. The entirety of the inaugural Poker Masters was streamed live over PokerGO, the subscription service started by Poker Central after they pulled the plug on their cable network aspirations. Since Poker Central only started the subscription service at the start of this summer’s World Series of Poker, there have been no reports on how many subscriptions have been sold or how many viewers are partaking of the offerings on the subscription service.

If we’re looking at it from the “star power” of the participants, then the Poker Masters officials had to be happy. There was a nice mix of the “old school” poker professionals – players such as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel – with the “young guns” of the game – pretty much the entire German contingent, to be honest, but also Bryn Kenney, Doug Polk and even Justin Bonomo (although it seems he’s been around forever, he’s only 31) and they all played outstanding poker. Hellmuth and Negreanu had their own personal feud regarding the skills of the German players, Hellmuth provided a couple of nice blowups for the streaming audience and the Germans dominated the proceedings, with Steffen Sontheimer winning two events, including the Main Event, to capture the Purple Jacket (and, while we’re here, PokerGO…let’s not try to hold the Poker Masters Purple Jacket as the epitome of the game. If you’re still around 50 years from now – you know, like the WSOP – THEN perhaps you can tie some significance to the jacket).

The very thing that was expected to bring the viewers to the event – the massive amounts of money being tossed around – might also have turned out to be the thing that turned off some potential viewers. When you have people in some cases spewing off enough money that a normal person could buy a luxury car by playing an off suit 6-3 from under the gun, it might tend to irritate people. Many people argued that the play at the tables wasn’t “true poker” because of two reasons.

First, the money. If a player (and no player did in this year’s tournament) had the “mother of all misfortune” fall upon them, they could spend up to $500,000 on this tournament. That is an inconceivable number to most people for playing a card game. While the poker fandom might fantasize about playing at such stakes, the Average Joe just looks and shakes their head at anyone who might spend a small fortune for playing a card game (even if Sontheimer earned over $2.7 million for his four cashes).

A subset of the money issue is whether these players actually were putting up their own cash. There is a long history of “swapping” pieces and backing players in poker and the High Roller events have made this fact even more apparent. For example, Sontheimer two years ago wasn’t even heard of in the world of live poker; after winning the 2017 Poker Masters, suddenly he’s being hailed as the greatest player in the game (and if not him, then his fellow countryman Holz) because he’s won almost $5 million…just where did the money for this guy come from (18 of his 31 career cashes have come in High Roller tournaments)?

Finally, one of the biggest draws of poker is that a) anyone can play, and b) the upstart can sometimes beat the big stars. The very price of the Poker Masters events ensured that it would be an exclusive field (and it also didn’t sustain itself well; entries went from 51 in the first event to 50, 48, 39 and 36 for the subsequent events), not exactly what the casual observer has come to expect from the “chance and a dream” that is constantly sold to them. In these types of “made for television” tournaments, there is NOT an upstart to get behind.

If the Poker Masters is to go on (and there’s absolutely no reason to believe that there won’t be a tournament schedule next year, if not sooner), there could be a couple of changes made. First, show the players themselves putting up the money for the events AND sign a document that it is their own cash they are playing with. The power of backers and “swapping” is an ugly little secret in this business and, without it, there probably wouldn’t be anything like the “High Roller” phenomenon that has overtaken the business.

Second, try to draw the Average Joe into the game in some manner. It may be out of line to expect someone to pay a $50K or $100K pop for some contest winner, but it isn’t out of the question to have them perhaps win a piece of one of the contestants. Have a drawing where each player in the tournament is paired with a contestant. The contestant stands to win, say, 10% of what the player does should he make the money. That would drive interest WAY up if a person could win a four, five or six figure score.

The inaugural Poker Masters series clicked off the boxes for a majority of the poker community. It provided a forum for the richest/best players in the game to display their talents for a series of events. But what it might not have done is appealed to those who watch for the excitement of seeing someone “like them” making a huge amount of cash. Sure, there are outlets that do that – the WSOP, the World Poker Tour, the Heartland Poker Tour, etc. – but you’ve got to have some contact with your viewer if you want them to watch. Seeing poker’s elite spewing money between each other isn’t the type of thing many want to see.

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POKER MASTERS 2017 UPDATE

DAY 3?

Wow! What a final day to the 2017 Poker Masters. We had everything possible on the final day as the final 18 battled it out until 6am to crown the very first winner pf the Masters! All final 18 were in the money. In the end it was a heads up battle between Andrew “The King” King and Michael “Irish Open” Farrelly. After a lot of back and forth Andrew was crowned the champion, the trophy winner and the 20k first prize! Congratulations to Andrew and to all the finalists at the inaugural Poker Masters. Also a big thanks to everyone who played in the Main Event and helped make the event a huge success! Final finishing positions and prize payouts are listed below.

DAY 2

In the end we smashed the guarantee and the total prize pool comes to €68.500. We had 153 runners in total and a fantastic turnout for our first yer of running the masters. Club members and new visitors created a great atmosphere at the end. Some big name players made the 2nd day including our good friends Padraig Parkinson, Christine Machmann, Paddy Clarke, Tim Farrelly and Michael Farrelly. In the end the bigger names fell to the club members who showed great skill and feat in lasting to the final 18. After a marathon 2 1/2 hours on the bubble the final days players stood tall. Who will be the 2017 champion and the €22,800 first prize?

DAY 1B

After all of the excitement of Day 1A we had a combination of members and walk ins for day two to push the numbers past the 50,000 euro guarantee to make it another hugely successful tournament. 72 Players on Day 1B and after Level 12 we had a further 19 qualifiers for Day 2 . The Leaderboard at the end of Day 1’s play is as follows.

DAY 1A

Poker Masters 2017 Full Match Hd

The 2017 Poker Masters kicked off with a flurry of activity with all ins, eliminations and bad beats a a plenty in the first hour of activity. 81 Players in total on a great first day. When play ceased after level 12, 27 players progress to Day 2.

Fitz Masters Day 1A Results

The Fitzwilliam Poker Masters will be held at the club from Wednesday May 24th to Monday May 29th 2017. Following on from the huge success of the November Festival, which was a sell out for all events, we have decided to add a Second Poker Festivalto the annual poker calendar.

The format and tournament structure will be very similar to the previous festival with a few tweaks to streamline it a bit better and to have update facilities online to keep players informed on the tournament. The exact tournament structure will be posted at a later date. The Full Events Programme for the festival is listed below:

Wednesday May 24th – €50 Super Satellite to the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters. 8pm Start Time

Thursday May 25th – €280 End of Month Freeze-out. €25,000 Guaranteed. 8pm Start time

Friday May 26th – Day 1A of the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters. 6pm Start Time

Saturday May 27th – Day 1B of the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters. 6pm Start Time

Sunday May 28th – Day 2 of the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters. 6pm Start Time

Monday May 29th – Day 3/Final Day of the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters. 6pm Start Time

Monday May 29th – €80 Freeze-out Side Event. €3,000 Guaranteed

Blinds Structure for the €500 Buy-In €50,000 Guaranteed Poker Masters

Day 1A & AB Blind Structure(it is anticipated that Day 1 play will conclude at the end of level 13)

Starting Stack 40,000

Days 2 & 3 Blind Structure

Poker Masters 2017 Results

Poker Masters Results

Meals will be served each night to players.

Poker Masters 2017 Results

54 Players or less will make it through from each Day 1 (Day 1A & 1B) to Day 2

18 finalists will make it Day 3 to compete over 2 tables for the inaugural 2017 Poker Masters title

Poker Masters 2017

Places are limited to 216 in total – 108 per day