March 14 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

On Friday, an announcement of an upcoming announcement was released regarding a high-stakes poker tour from Full Tilt Poker. The poker community was on pins and needles waiting for the announcement which came on Monday, March 14 at 13:00 EST.

Full Tilt Poker announced the Onyx Cup. A tournament series with buy-ins from $100,000 to $300,000, with an estimated $30 million prize pool across the entire series. There will be five preliminary events, culminating in a $250,000 buy-in Grand Finale that will see $1 million added to the prize pool.

The top three finishers in each event will earn points toward the Onyx Cup leaderboard. At the end of the Grand Finale, the person with the most points at the top of the leaderboard will earn the title of Onyx Cup Champion, and will be presented with the Onyx Cup, get a luxury sports car, and be acknowledged as “the player that conquered poker’s elite.”

Onyx Cup events will take place in the United States, Europe, and Asia and will be broadcast in 20 different languages across 40 countries. Qualifiers will begin on March 15 on Full Tilt Poker.

The announcement of the Onyx Cup came in the form of a video, hosted by Ali Nejad. He was joined by Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, and Tom Dwan to discuss the new event.

“It’s not just about the money in this event,” Ivey said. “It’s more about playing with the caliber of players that we’re going to be up against. You know, playing against the best players, and a lot of these guys here at the table are my friends and we’re friendly but we’re also super competitive against each other. There’s going to be a lot of pride that comes along with winning this event.”

When asked whether the event was a surprise to them or only just a matter of time with the way buy-ins have been increasing, Seidel said, “I do think it’s a natural progression because there’s so much money around and people are playing for such high stakes that it was inevitable. I think Full Tilt Poker was the only online organization that could pull this off because they have all the best players in the world.”

The first Onyx Cup event will be held in Las Vegas on May 11 and will feature a bevy of poker’s elite, including Team Full Tilt members, Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, and more.

For your chance to qualify, sign up for a Full Tilt Poker account. Also, remember to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.