Live tournament series offers more than $300,000 in guaranteed prize money
A first of its kind live poker tournament series is on its way to Houston, TX, in the form of the Lone Star Poker Series. The inaugural edition of the event kicks off Oct. 23 and runs through Nov. 1, with more than $300,000 guaranteed across 16 tournaments.
The series commences from Houston's Prime Social poker club, with a collection of tournaments bookended by the two biggest guaranteed prize pool events offered in the series.
The Lone Star Poker Series begins with a $360 buy-in Kickoff Event, with four flights running Oct. 23 and Oct. 24. The survivors of those two flights return Oct. 25 and play down to a champion.
The Kickoff Event promises $75,000 in prize money, as the debut offering from the Lone Star Tournament series begins with one of the biggest tournaments on the 16-event slate.
That $75,000 guarantee offered in the Kickoff Event is only topped by the $104,000 guaranteed Main Event. That tournament comes with a $580 buy-in, with four starting flights taking place Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. Players emerging from those four flights come back Sunday, Nov. 1, and play until a champion is crowned.
In addition to the winner's share of the prize money, each champion from the 16 events will also receive a sterling silver championship belt buckle and custom engraved money clip.
Texas hosts thriving poker club scene
The Texas live gambling and poker scene presents one of the more unique landscapes among U.S. states. The legal casino market is limited to a trio of tribal casinos, none of which include an traditional poker room setup.
Poker clubs abound, however, in the state that spawned the name for Texas Hold'em, the world's most popular poker game. By state law, gambling establishments can't legally operate with the traditional system of taking rake from the pot.
Texas poker clubs can operate, however, using a system that charges players membership dues and hourly fees. In the past five years, more than 20 poker clubs have launched on the Texas landscape using this system.
Prime Social stands as one of the biggest of the Texas poker clubs. The Houston-based poker room offers 23 tables, daily tournaments, and cash games running from $1/$3 up to $25/$50 for No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha.
The Lone Star Poker Series will mark a new milestone on the Texas poker scene as the first major tournament series offered in a Texas poker club. The series will also play as one of the first major live tournament series to run in the U.S. since COVID-19 brought all U.S.-based poker tours to a halt in mid-March.
The Venetian DeepStack Showdown, Mid States Poker Tour Grand Falls, and the ill-fated Midway Poker Tour Chicago are the only other major tournament series that have run live events in the second half of 2020. The Lonestar Poker Series joins that list as live tournament poker continues to make its way back in the states.
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