$1,000,000 Tournament
The Jan/Feb issue of Blackjack Confidential magazine offers some details:
Beginning April 12-13, the Las Vegas Hilton plans to host a dozen monthly tournaments each offering $64,000 in guaranteed prizes ($20K to the winner).
These satellites will lead to a 200-player championship in which a single player will walk away with a $1,000,000 First Prize. 19th-place will win $1000. The field will comprise 16 semi-finalists from each satellite and 8 wildcard entrants drawn on 8 April 2003 from among all tournament participants.
What's the catch? The entry fee for each tournament is $1000. $1000 for a chance at a $20,000 FirstPlace prize and one of 16 chances to compete for a $million. Let's see . . . 12 tournaments X 200 entrants X $1000 = $2.4million; that'd be a prize pool of $64,000 for each satellite, and $ 1.6 million for the Finals in April 2003.