From August 17th to 23rd, Foxwoods Resort Casino will hold its 17th Mega Stack Challenge. This time around will be like none other, as 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker and 2009 runner-up Darvin Moon will be in attendance.
Tournaments to be held as part of the Mega Stack Challenge XVII include a $340 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event with a $125,000 guaranteed prize pool and a $560 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event that also comes complete with a $125,000 guaranteed purse. The former kicks off on Tuesday, August 17th at 11:00am local time. Players start with 15,000 in chips and blinds last for 40 minutes.
In the $560 preliminary Mega Stack tournament, each player will receive a starting stack of 50,000 and blind levels will stretch for 50 minutes. The tournament gets underway on Thursday, August 19th at 11:00am. Both preliminary contests will run for two days. Foxwoods boasts a fully furnished World Poker Tour (WPT) poker room. Accordingly, from October 28th to November 2nd, it will play host to the World Poker Finals, a $10,000 buy-in WPT staple.
A flyer distributed by Foxwoods encourages readers to “test your poker skills against two WSOP final table players.” Moneymaker and Moon, two seemingly “Average Joes” of the poker world, will be found in the Mega Stack tournaments as well as other daily events including single-table sit and gos. Moneymaker defeated Sammy Farha in Las Vegas in 2003, while Moon fell heads-up to Joe Cada last year. Both are sponsored by PokerStars.
The crowning glory of the Mega Stack is the $1,650 No Limit Hold’em event, which kicks off on Saturday, August 21st and runs for three days. Players will receive a starting arsenal of 40,000 in chips and blinds will last for 50 minutes each. A purse of at least $250,000 will be up for grabs and registration for each of the three Mega Stack tournaments will open up this Sunday.
Single-table satellites start at $50 and are available daily from 10:00am to 10:00pm at Foxwoods. According to text found on the casino’s website, registration will “generally” remain available until the end of the second level of play.
Foxwoods boasts the largest poker room on the East Coast of the United States, weighing in at 104 tables. The room is available for gaming around-the-clock and features popular varieties like Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, and Omaha Eight or Better. Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee has made the casino his personal playground, winning events held during the World Poker Finals in 2006, 2007, and 2008. His three-peat nearly turned into a four-peat in 2009, when he final tabled two preliminary events.
In November 2009, Cornel Andrew Cimpan took down the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $910,000, defeating Soheil Shamseddin heads-up in a final table that also included Matt “All In At 420” Stout, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, Curt Kohlberg, and Victory Poker pro Lee Markholt. Attendance at the event, like many on the WPT’s most recent season, dropped substantially, as the field of 353 in 2009 was down from 412 in 2008.
Here is the full schedule of events for the upcoming Mega Stack series at Foxwoods. All times are Eastern:
Tuesday, August 17th at 11:00am: $340 No Limit Hold’em
Wednesday, August 18th at Noon: $340 No Limit Hold’em Day 2
Thursday, August 19th at 11:00am: $560 No Limit Hold’em
Friday, August 20th at Noon: $560 No Limit Hold’em Day 2
Saturday, August 21st at 11:00am: $1,650 No Limit Hold’em
Sunday, August 22nd at Noon: $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Day 2
Monday, August 23rd at Noon: $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Finals
By car, Foxwoods is located about two-and-a-half hours from New York City, an hour and 45 minutes from Boston, an hour from Hartford, and an hour from Providence.
