FSN Will Hold $60 Million Tournament 

FSN Will Hold $60 Million Tournament

Players Will Buy In for $10 Million Fox Sports Network has teamed up with soon-to-be-launched Mansionpoker.net to sponsor the largest single-table tournament in the history of poker. The 43-week Mansionpoker.net Pokerdome Series is slated to debut on Sunday, May 15, 2006. A few weeks later, a six-person winner-take-all tournament takes place at the series’ first “mega-event” on July 12 in which the winner receives $60 million. Each player will buy in to the event for $10 million. Phil Ivey is the first person to sign up for the event. FSN will release a name of a participant a month until the entire field is set. But that’s just the beginning. The series will go on for the next three years and will be played in the soon-to-be-built “Pokerdome” arena. The Pokerdome will contain a poker table, complete with an automated card tracking system, integrated chip counting capabilities, hole card-cam, and robotic cameras focused on each player's face. It will also come equipped with special cameras and card technology that allow viewers to see the burn cards before dealers flip the active cards, plus a rabbit-hunting camera for each hand, letting fans know what would have happened if each hand went to completion. The first event will take place at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. The next two “mega-events,” which will be held in 2007 and 2008, will have prize pools of $75 million and $100 million. Mansionpoker.net will be launched sometime in 2006.