With more than $4 Million in guarantees and 35 different tournaments – including a dozen mixed game events – the March 10-29 Texas Poker Championship at Prime Poker in Houston is the largest series ever offered in the state.
The feature event for the series is the March 24-29 $2 Million Guaranteed $5,300 Main Event, with three starting flights, an 8-hour day 1, registration through the first Day 2 level, 90-minute levels days 2-4 and satellites starting at $150 to win a Main Event entry.
The day before the Main Event is two 25-seats-guaranteed $800 satellites, with nightly $150 step-satellites throughout the entire series for players to win a $800 satellite entry. March 22 features two 25-seats-guaranteed $150 step-satellites to the Main Event Mega day. Two evening $800 Main Event satellites are offered during each Day 1 flight, and more than 70 Main Event seats are guaranteed via satellites. Overall, there’s nearly 200 different satellites and just shy of $500,000 in entries guaranteed throughout the series via steps and satellites.
Both the buy-in and the guarantee for the Main Event are the largest ever offered in Texas state poker history, and there’s even online satellites for players to win seats through ClubGG, Poker BROS and America’s Cardroom.
There’s a featured event for each of the three weekends during the series, kicking off with a $500,000 guaranteed $500 Mystery Bounty March 10-13. All players making Day 2 are in the money and playing for Mystery Bounty cash prizes up to $50,000. The middle weekend features The Big Texas $500,000, an $1,100 buy-in NLH with four starting flights.
Mixed games are prominent throughout the series, with 12 different tournaments ranging in buy-in from $250-$3,000, including PLO, Dealer’s Choice, HORSE, NL 2-7 Single Draw, Omaha 8, Short Deck, Big O, Triple Stud and PLO8.
Single-table Sweats (aka flips) are very popular among tournament players at Prime Social, dozens of seats won via Sweats in the last three main events held there, so a Sweat-and-Go tournament is added on March 14-15. Players enter for $200, play one face-up hand on the 14th and the winner advances to a full NLH tourney on the 15th. Houston-area players are very familiar with the format, with Prime Social tournament regular DJ Alexander winner of last year’s first-ever WSOP Flip-And-GO bracelet.
There are $100,000 guarantees on the March 20 One Day $100k and the March 21 PLO Championship. A Seniors event and a Ladies event are part of the series schedule, as well as postlim events offered after the Main Event, including a Big Bounty Turbo, Dealers Choice and Big O.
Tournament Director Justin Hammer brings in a veteran tournament team of floor staff, dealers and reporters to combine with Prime Poker staff, offering players the best available tournament experience. Jordan Cutter, DJ Villegas, Dan Ross, Ryan Lucchesi and Haley Hintze are among the traveling team members coming in for the 20 days of tournaments.
The host hotel for the series is the Marriott Courtyard Westchase, located two miles from Prime Poker. Rooms are available for as low as $70 nightly. Players traveling to Houston for the series use either George Bush Intercontinental or William Hobby airports.