Watch out WSOP, ACR, WPT and APT, a new poker initialism has entered the chat.
The PSOP (Phenom Series of Poker) is the latest collection of letters to represent a new opportunity to win big. It’s the first such series to be held at Phenom Poker, and features a jam-packed schedule when it kicks off next Friday, October 23.
Execs at Phenom Poker discussed the idea of a tournament series when we spoke to them earlier this year, and true to form they’ve decided to take a different tack to many, if not all, of their competitors by not having a no-limit hold’em main event upon which to anchor the series.
Instead the big ticket event at the close of the schedule will be a 9-Game Mix Masters High Roller with 50K CHIP GTD and a 5K CHIP buy-in. A large choice of satellites will be available for this, and other events.
Expect mixed-game maestro and Phenom ambassador Brian Rast to be challenging hard for the big one.CHIP is Phenom’s recently launched in-game currency, brought in during August apparently for the purposes of faster transactions, and tied 1:1 to the US dollar. You can find out more here.
Opting for a 9-Game Mix as the effective series main event appears to be a very Phenom Poker move. While every poker site aims to position itself as player-focused, Phenom has gone beyond the usual lip-service via efforts such as its ‘Phenom Token’, allowing players to potentially share in the site’s revenue and acquire voting rights.
And while hold’em may be the standard choice for the majority of poker players, the community at Phenom Poker has shown itself to be lovers of mixed games in a big way. There are plenty of lesser-spotted variants ready to play online at Phenom every day, and the tournament schedule reflects that greater variety.
The site’s current mix of ambassadors includes Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates, Viktor Blom, Eric Baldwin and Brian Rast, 3-time winner of the world's most prestigious mixed game event: the WSOP Poker Players Championship.
34 mixed tournaments on a 92-event schedule
Hold’em will, naturally, be present throughout the series, which runs from October 23 to November 15, as will plenty of opportunities to play PLO.
But joining those two mainstays are events played in the following variants:
- razz
- stud8
- 2-7 triple draw
- A-5 triple draw
- 2-7 single draw
- badeucey 2-7
- badacey A-5
- badugi
- Archie 66+
- Sviten Special 50
- dramaha high 50
- dramaha 2-7
- dramadugi
There are also 34 different mixed-game events among the 92 tournaments, taking in everything from 8-, 9- and 10-Game to mixed NLH/PLO, TORSE, razz fusion, big bet mix, super stud and lots more.
Head here for the full schedule.
The first PSOP starts next Friday, October 23.There’s a 700K CHIP guarantee across the 92 different events, which may be small compared with those to be found on rival sites, but those won’t give you the chance to play a triple draw mix tourney with $20K guaranteed.
There’s also an estimated 250K in added prizes available via a series leaderboard, which will award 150K in Phenom Tokens to the top 10 plus a $16K package for WSOP Paradise to the winner, as well as the PSOP Rally promotion.
The latter is a rake race that awards Phenom Token at various milestones, first kicking in once you’ve paid 300 CHIP in buy-ins.
The Phenom Series of Poker runs from October 23 to November 15 at Phenom Poker.
