Delaware Park Hopes To Set World Record For Marathon Poker TournamentIron Man Poker Challenge Begins Saturday, August 25 |
|
This Saturday, Aug. 25, Delaware Park in Wilmington will attempt to establish a Guinness World Record for the longest continuous poker tournament when they kick off the Iron Man Poker Challenge.
The $600 buy-in tournament features a $100,000 guarantee and tournament organizers are expecting a field just shy of 400 with a first-place prize in the area of $40,000. The unique format gives players an extremely large starting stack, added blind levels and no of breaks of any kind.
“The tournament starts and we play to a winner, no matter how long it takes,” said Poker Room Manager Kevin Castora. “There are no scheduled breaks whatsoever. Players are permitted to be away from the table whenever they’d like, but they will still be required to post their blinds and antes. We don’t even stop the tournament clock for color ups, since that will be done during play, table by table.”
The same event was attempted in 2011 and lasted roughly 32 hours. According to Castora, the players towards the end of the tournament, including the eventual winner, were exhausted and were caught a number of times sleeping at the final table.
“We like to think of ourselves as poker innovators,” said Castora. “We tried this last year, but this time around, we contacted Guinness and they established the criteria for the record for a marathon poker event at 36 hours.”
This year’s attempt has been rigged to go the distance, thanks to an incredibly deep starting stack and long levels. Each player in the event will start with a stack of 50,000 in chips and blinds of 50-100. The first eight levels will last an hour, the next eight levels will last 90 minutes and after that, the remaining levels will all be two hours in length. Additionally, unconventional levels such as 700-1,400 and 900-1,800 have been added. Click here for a full look at the structure.
Tournament Director Calvin Beene, however, isn’t sure how much the structure will matter once the tournament cross the 30-hour mark.
“Regardless of the structure, there’s always the human fatigue factor,” said Beene. “The number of big blinds doesn’t matter when you can hardly see your cards.”
Those who are gluttons for punishment can be a part of the record attempt this Saturday at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Delaware. Players can register online at PokerTickets.com.
Delaware Park is located 10 minutes from the Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania state line and offers a full-service casino spreading blackjack, roulette and craps, among other table games, slot machines and horse race simulcast betting.
Those who can’t make the tournament can still follow the action online at DelawarePark.com with live updates and a web stream of the final table.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
