This weekend the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas will be hosting the first of ten shootout tournaments part of the $15 million Quest of Champions. In each shootout event ten players will compete for a sponsored seat into the final. An unprecedented 15 million dollars will be awarded to the winner of the grand finale, which is scheduled for January, 2006.
The first prize of $15 million doubles the $7.5 million Joe Hachem took home after winning the 2005 World Series of Poker. It also generated a lot of interest from the media as well as professional poker players. Some high profile players that have confirmed to play in the Quest of Champions include Doyle Brunson, Chris Moneymaker, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan.
The first shoutout tournament, the "Labor Day Pro-Shootout", will be held at the Palms Casino Resort this Sunday. The following players will be competing for a seat into the grand finale: Ted Forrest, Kathy Leibert, Layne Flack, Barry Greenstein, Men The Master Nguyen, Freddy Deeb, Thor Hansen, Joe Awada, Antonio Esfandiari, and Rene Angeli.
The grand finale in January will feature only 100 players. One seat is reserved for the winner of the 2005 World Series of Poker, Joe Hachem. Twenty seats are filled by professional poker players from the shootout tournaments. This leaves 79 open seats for anyone who can bring a buy-in of $250,000 (!) to the tables.
Poker Quest's director, Jason Augustine, said Hollywood celebs and poker pros are already lining up in large numbers for the tournament, so if you're interested you'd better sell your house quickly and fill in the player application form at the Poker Quest site.