After going with an online format in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, the “powers that be” at PokerGO have announced that the 2021 Poker Masters will return to a live format for this year’s tournament. The 2021 Poker Masters is scheduled to start this Monday, September 7, and run through September 18. The 12-event schedule will be a part of the PokerGO Tour roster of events, and it should provide a chance for the “High Rollers” in the tournament poker world to shuffle some money around in preparation for the 2021 World Series of Poker that starts at the end of the month.
Minimum Buy-In? $10,000
The 12 tournaments on the schedule are not for the faint-of-heart. For the first 11 events, there will be a double re-entry option, meaning players could contribute three times the initial buy in to try to reach the top of the leaderboard. In the twelfth event, there will only be one re-entry available for players but, since it is a $100,000 buy-in tournament, that will be a steep cost to incur for the chance to win an event on the 2021 Poker Masters schedule.
September 7 will see the first of five $10,000 No Limit Hold’em events played out, with the final table to take place the next day (all tournaments on the 2021 Poker Masters schedule will be two-day tournaments). A $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament on September 9 will provide the competitors with a bit of a change of pace, while a $10K Eight-Game Event on September 12 will arguably be the biggest overall test of poker skills over the schedule.
Starting on September 14, the price of poker will go up, as the legendary Mike Sexton would say. $25,000 events will become the standard as two No Limit Hold’em tournaments and a Pot Limit Omaha event step to the fore. On September 17, the $50,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament will take center stage and serve as a precursor to the Main Event, a $100,000 No Limit Hold’em event on September 18.
The players will all by vying for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket, which signifies the overall champion of the series, and an additional $50,000 payday that goes along with the wardrobe accoutrement. All final table events will be live streamed on PokerGO beginning at 4PM (Eastern) daily from September 8-19.
A Look Back at Poker Masters History
Of course, last year’s Poker Masters had to adapt for the COVID pandemic. Instead of the live schedule that they had done in years past, the 2020 Poker Masters was strictly an online event. 30 tournaments would cover the gamut of games, with such players as Mike Watson, Kahle Burns, Mustapha Kanit, Jason Koon, Steve O’Dwyer, and Dan Smith. Kanit would join Ali Imsirovic and Linus Loeliger as two-time winners during the schedule, with Loeliger’s second win coming in the $50,000 Main Event and earning him a $3 million-plus payday. It was Alexandros Kolonias, however, who mustered enough points for the overall championship and the Purple Jacket.
In 2019, Sam Soverel was a steamroller as he powered his way to two championships on the ten-event schedule, including the $50,000 Main Event finale, to capture the Purple Jacket. He prevented Imsirovic, who was the 2018 Poker Masters champion, from repeating in the event (Imsirovic would finish fifth in defending his title). Finally, in the inaugural event in 2017, Steffen Sontheimer would win two tournaments on the five-event roster to end up with the overall championship and the Purple Jacket.
Who will win the 2021 Poker Masters? Current contenders from the PokerGO Tour Leaderboard include Imsirovic, who has been atop the standings for much of 2021, with Sean Perry in hot pursuit. Others that might be looked at as contenders are Sean Winter, who always seems to play well in these events, Jake Schindler (currently #7 in the standings) and Soverel. It all starts on Monday as the 2021 Poker Masters hits the felt.
