U.S. Poker Championship Prelims Start Sunday

The Taj Mahal is home of the United States Poker Championship, one of the oldest major tournaments around, and the 2008 installment of the series begins on Sunday.

The first of 24 events is a $340 buy-in limit hold’em event at 11:15 a.m. Prelims have buy-ins ranging from $340-$1,080 and feature a variety of games, including no-limit hold’em, pot-limit hold’em, Omaha, and seven-card stud. The main event is a $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, which is scheduled for Oct. 5-8.

The USPC has been known for attracting the world’s best players and has been doing so since 1996. In its inaugural year, the championship featured a lower buy-in of $7,600. Pros Surinder Sunar and Phil Hellmuth finished second and third, respectively, that year, behind the $500,000 first-place finisher Ken Flaton.

The tournament consistently attracted around 75 players until poker began booming in 2003. That year, the buy-in was increased to $10,000 and 99 players paid to enter. The world was introduced to Toto Leonidas in that event, who defeated Erik Seidel and Hellmuth, the respective second- and third-place finishers. Leonidas was awarded more than $388,000 for first-place. The main event of the USPC continued to grow until last year’s event, largely due ESPN’s decision not to televise the tournament.

Here are the results for the USPC in recent years:

Players who would like to play in this year’s main event can compete for a cheaper seat in a mega-supersatellite for $1,080 at 11:15 a.m. from Oct. 3-5 or a $550 buy-in supersatellite on Oct. 3 at 4:15 p.m. A complete 2008 USPC schedule can be found on CardPlayer.com under the Tournaments tab.

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