The Fight Is On: Poker Superstars Invitational ReturnsCardPlayer.com Will Be the Place to Catch Up on PSIT 3 Action |
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Twenty-four of the top players in the world made the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas their office for a week last November, because that's where the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament 3 (PSIT 3) was filmed.
Each player bought into the PSIT 3 for $50,000 and competed for a prize pool worth $1.7 million. The show's producers chipped in an additional $500,000. And poker fans everywhere can tune in to Fox Sports each Sunday at 8 p.m. local time to see how the how things turned out. The previous week's show repeats at 7 p.m.
The series runs for the next 34 weeks, concluding with a special two-hour season finale.
CardPlayer.com is providing player biographies, pictures, tournament storylines, weekly leader boards, and everything else to do with the third installment of the PSIT.
A weeklong event, the PSIT 3 is a uniquely structured tournament. The first round has players playing for points in five six-player single-table tourneys. The higher they finish in each match, the more points they receive. Oh, and if they win the table, they also win $10,000.
Be in the top 16, and move on. Finish 17th or lower, and it's sayonara.
Succeeding rounds then revert to the more traditional freezeout structure, with a few twists added to the mix. See the tournament structure page to read about it and view a structure chart.
Those lucky enough to garner an invitation to the PSIT 3 would try to make certain that they at least advance to the round of eight, where a winner-take-all sit-and-go for $500,000 would take place.
Make it another two rounds after that, and be one of two players left, and play in a heads-up match for $400,000. The runner-up of this receives $140,000.
For a more detailed explanation of the structure, see below.
The invitees comprised a list of the powerful and dangerous. Between all the players who accepted the invitation, there were 54 World Series of Poker champions, eight world champions, and a dozen World Poker Tour winners.
Competing in PSIT 3 were Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, Ted Forrest, Freddy Deeb, Gus Hansen, Mike Sexton, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, Phil Hellmuth, Jeff Shulman, Antonio Esfandiari, Mimi Tran, Cyndy Violette, and Jennifer Tilly.
The night before the tournament started, the players attended a drawing party hosted by Card Player Magazine where they found out who their table partners would be for the next four days.
If you missed the first two shows, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari won his table and $10,000 in the first elimination match. He also received 10 points for first place. Jennifer Tilly earned seven points for second, Mimi Tran five points for third, Carlos Mortensen earned three points for fourth, Cyndy Violette earned one point for fifth. Joe Hachem earned zero points for being the first player knocked out.
In the second elimination match, Shulman earned the $10,000 and 10 points by winning his table. Barry Greenstein earned seven for second, Todd Brunson earned five for third, Eli Elezra earned three for fourth, Phil Ivey earned one for fifth, and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson earned nothing for being the first player knocked out.
The top 16 points earners will advance to the second round. Each player plays five matches in the qualifying round. The points system makes the tournament a unique and challenging event for all involved.
Bobbin' and Weavin'
PSIT 3 is a unique tournament that is a true heavyweight fight. Players have to make it through several rounds in a week of play before seeing significant money, and it all starts in the qualifying round.
"The structure of this tournament is excellent," said Shulman. "You can go broke a few times and still advance to the next round, and it gives you a chance to play against the toughest competition in the world."
For the first four days, each player played five six-handed elimination matches in the qualifying round. Players received points determining how well they finished in each match; 10 points for first, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth, one point for fifth and zero points for being the first one knocked out. The winner for each of these matches also received $10,000.
The 16 players who accumulated the most points advanced to the Super 16 round. Consisting of four groups of four players, players were seeded in their groups according to how well they performed in the qualifying round.
To add another twist, the better players performed in the qualifying round, the more chips they received at the start of the Super 16. Players' chip stacks in the second round were determined by multiplying 10,000 by the number of points players managed to accumulate in the qualifying round.
In the Super 16, a four-handed match took place within each group. The winners received $15,000 and advanced to the quarterfinals with 600,000 in chips. The remaining four groups of three competed against their same group in three-handed matches. These winners received $15,000 and also advanced to the quarterfinals with 400,000.
The quarterfinal round consisted of two groups of four players. The groups battled again, and the winners received $30,000 and advanced to the semifinals with 1.5 million in chips The two remaining groups of three who did not win their four-handed match competed in two three-handed matches, and the two winners also received $30,000 and advanced to the semifinals with 1 million in chips. The third- and fourth-place finishers received $15,000.
The eight players who made it to the quarterfinal round also got to play in the winner-take-all Poker Superstars Invitational Championship for $500,000.
In the semifinal round, the four remaining players played heads-up against the same opponent in a best-of-three match. The two winners advanced to the final round, each earning an additional $50,000 in prize money. The runners-up each received $30,000.
In the final round, the two remaining players played a heads-up best-of-five match. The winner received $400,000 and the runner-up $140,000. They each start with 2 million in chips.
Tune in to both Fox Sports and keep an eye on CardPlayer.com to follow all the action that took place at the PSIT 3.
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