Poker Tournament With $50 Million Winner-Take-All Prize Appears To Be A Hoax

Just a few days ago, a press release came out for a $1 million buy-in winner-take-all tournament in Australia. However, the casino where it will supposedly be held hasn’t heard of it. It appears that the tournament is a fake.

The “Royal Poker Challenge” claimed it will take place on Mar. 30 at The Star Hotel and Casino in Sydney and award a record-setting top prize of $50 million. When Card Player contacted the casino’s poker room on Thursday the staff said that there wasn’t any such event scheduled to take place at their casino.

The press released claimed: “48 players have already enrolled — a majority of these are wealth business leaders, entrepreneurs and industry titans from Asia who indulge in high stakes poker for entertainment.” The alleged tournament added that it “is also seeking professional poker players to join its participation ranks.”

While the Royal Poker Challenge event appears to be phony, there will be a $1 million buy-in event coming up this year (it won’t be winner-take-all, though). At the 2014 World Series of Poker dozens of pros and rich amateurs will compete in the One Drop High Roller. In 2012, the event awarded poker pro Antonio Esfandiari a record top prize of more than $18.3 million.

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