The Moneymaker Tour touches down today at the Palm Beach Kennel Club for its fourth stop at the venue. PBKC served as host for the launch of the Moneymaker Tour back in May of 2023 and, since then, the club has become a home turf of sorts for the tour.
Florida isn't the only base of operations for the Moneymaker Tour. Recently, the tour struck out for a stop in Texas and has announced plans for upcoming stops in Las Vegas and Aruba.
According to PokerOrg's most recent State of Poker survey, despite its new-kid-on-the-block status, the Moneymaker Tour ranks third on the list of where poker players want to play tournaments - edging out the long-standing European Poker Tour and the dazzling allure of the Triton Poker Series.
PokerOrg spoke to Moneymaker Tour Executive Manager Tony Burns to get the inside scoop on all the buzz surrounding the tour's next moves and what to expect in the future.
Your latest stop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club kicks off today. Is there anything in particular that's got you excited for PBKC Round 4?
Tony Burns: Yeah, we kick off the first of 28 trophy events at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach. We're going to be having a charity event with Barstool Mintzy. At our last event in February, he had a deep run and finished eighth, but took a pretty good tongue lashing from his boss Dave Portnoy. They wanted him to donate $10,000 to LifeLine Animal Project and he only donated $1,000.
So, the PBKC decided to help him out and donate $1,000 and host a charity event for LifeLine. We're hoping that between Mintzy's thousand, the PBKC's thousand, and the turnout from the charity event we can get Mintzy to that $10,000 mark to save some face with Dave.
Ben "Mintzy" Mintz made a deep run at the last Moneymaker Tour stop - partially to his own detrimentThat sounds like a great idea on multiple fronts - help Mintzy out of the hole, help the animals, and give the people a fun charity event to play in.
TB: Yeah, and with PBKC's affiliation with the dogs it just fit hand-in-hand.
Then on Saturday during the Main Event run, we're going to have a live stream cash game - either $5/$10 or $10/$25 - with Wolfgang Poker. Hopefully, we'll have a nice lineup for that game.
We did four starting flights for the Main this time - we normally just do three - because that Sunday that we historically have our Day 2s on is Mother's Day. We didn't want to "force" anybody to play on such a holiday and didn't want to get anyone in trouble with their significant other or written out any wills.
That's very considerate of you guys and the cash game sounds like it'll be a blast. Do you think Wolfgang will fire in the tournament streets while he's there?
TB: My understand is he's going to play the cash game on Saturday and then he'll play the Main on Sunday.
Another thing that I'm excited about for this series is the Ladies events, we're actually going to have two. There's one on May 5, a $500 buy-in with $100 bounties - there was a request to run a higher price point. Historically, our Ladies events have been $186, but some of the ladies asked for a bigger buy-in so we're going to do that.
Then the following Sunday, on Mother's Day, we're going to run the same $186 buy-in, $5,000 guarantee that we ran last year. I took some flack last year before the series started as some people voiced their concerns that running a Ladies event on Mother's Day was kind of a poor choice. But it ended up being the biggest Ladies event that I've personally been a part of.
Laura Hoppe took down the Ladies event at the Moneymaker Tour's stop at Texas Card House HoustonYeah, on paper it would maybe seem counterintuitive, but when you think about it, it does make some sense. If you're a mother, that's your day to pick what you want to do and if you want to go play a poker tournament, you'll go play a poker tournament.
TB: I think it also gives significant others a gift idea. We also saw a lot of mother-daughter combos come out to play the event with one another. And it's later in the day - we know a lot of moms like to do breakfast or brunch with the family. Then, after they spend the day with everybody, they can get out in the afternoon.
You've clearly put some thought into this, you know what you're doing.
TB: Yeah, I've been fortunate enough to be a part of some great events over my career. After some trial and error, you find the sweet spot for things - you talk to people, listen to your player base, and in the end it all works out.
And then the tour is headed to Vegas this summer and Aruba in October, right?
TB: Yeah, we just announced a partnership with MGM Grand in Las Vegas to be a part of their Summer Poker Festival that runs from May 29 - July 8. We're going to be a part of that series from June 28 - July 6, highlighted by our Moneymaker Main Event with a $1,000,000 guarantee.
That seems like it's going to be an awesome stop - first time in Vegas, going back to the roots where Moneymaker made his name.
TB: I'm super excited about that one. Like you said, getting Moneymaker back to Las Vegas where his magic story was created - I think it's awesome, I keep calling it a full-circle moment. Hopefully, we can create new magic and new stories.
That's what the Moneymaker Tour is all about: people taking micro-stakes money and turning it into life-changing money. Last year, Mike Rossi won his seat online and turned $90 into a quarter million dollars after getting the Triton package from [Phil] Nagy.
Mike Rossi channeled his inner-Moneymaker to turn an online satellite ticket into a Main Event victoryThese are the stories that the Moneymaker Tour loves to capture and are one of the big reasons I went back down to the grassroots level where the bulk of the players are at.
It's been great to follow along as fan as well, those are the stories that everyone yearns to hear about or experience for themselves.
TB: And our Aruba stop was a recent announcement as well, we're going to be partnering with the Caribbean Poker Series to run a $200,000 guaranteed Main Event down there.
The Moneymaker Tour also recently announced a sponsorship of the Mixed Games Festival - can you tell us a bit about how that factors into the Moneymaker Tour's future?
TB: When Chris hired me and expressed his vision for the tour, one of the things he wanted was to grow mixed games and share his love for mixed games.
Anytime we partner with a venue I try to find out who their local base is, what the appetite for mixed games is, the price points, who the big advocates in the area are.
Through my prior relationships and the poker world being such a small world, Robbie Strazynski reached out to ask if we would be interested in being the title sponsor for his Mixed Games Festival at Bellagio. We're going to donate five $400 seats to the festival that he can award on a daily basis.
You've also recently partnered with JAKACoaching - how can Moneymaker Tour players benefit from that partnership?
TB: There's a lot of training sites out there. Chance [Kornuth] with Chip Leader Coaching, Jonathan Little - very well-respected and accomplished professionals out there. I've known Faraz for quite some time from my days at Seminole Hard Rock, seeing what he's done over his career and he didn't really have any affiliations with any tours.
I saw that as an opportunity: he's not tied to any tours, his player base really hits the $1,000 - $2,000 price points, and the majority of his content is targeted at the mid-stake poker player that we also cater to. I just felt like it was a great opportunity to partner with Faraz and his brand.
There's a deal where Moneymaker Tour players can get 16% off a membership, as well as access to an exclusive video from Scott Baumstein. Scott is obviously well-accomplished himself and he's been a South Florida crusher over the years.
Follow along with all the action on the Moneymaker Tour and don't forget to check out the upcoming live streams from the Palm Beach Kennel Club.
Additionally, the Moneymaker Tour just launched a revamped version of its website.
