[psandman]

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250,000 total player hours in five months and the Maloofs are coming up with $1M themselves? Sounds nice but I agree that I don't see them getting anywhere near 500 players to put in that much time. I would be interested to see what the minium requirements are and what the chip hit would be for being less than 100/mo.

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It is my understanding that the money is coming from a TV production company who will be filming the tournament (qualifiers will have to sign releases).

As to the number of qualifiers I don't know how many there will be, but I suspect Bav's 100 is well below the number.f 500 people don't qualify the absolute minimum to qualify is 300 hours (I think), but if you put in the 300 hours you are not guaranteed to get in the tourney. The chip reduction for less than 500 hours may not be terribly painful.

When they put out the full details I will post them.