The Midway Poker Tour was kicked off at the Sheraton Hotel of Chicago, Illinois on Friday 2nd of October 2020. Many players can recognize the Midway Poker brand from the mobile poker app called Poker Bros, where you can find a club with this name. The charity event gathered plenty of entries with a total of 266 runners buying in for $1,100. Charity partner of the event was Bolingbrook-based 4 K.I.D.S. Sake.
However, quite a surprise was waiting for the 31 players who made it to the final day played on Sunday. All of them were guaranteed at least $2,300 with five-figure prize money waiting for those players finishing in the last spots of the tournament. Charitable Gaming Act of the Illinois state area has placed limits on how much of the prize money can be paid with US dollars. Prize money above $1,600 could be paid in precious metals, which left many of the players confused.
The payout in silver coins
One of the players who cashed a total of $2,600 explained how they payout was different from what he expected. He was paid $1,600 in cash and 28 pieces of 1oz silver coins, which were valued by the tournament organizer at a total of $1,000.
The organizers had paid $208,420 for silver coins to cover part of the prize pool. All prizes for the tournament were listed as USD on Pokernews though. Players traveling over a long distance had no idea on how they wouldn’t be taking home cold hard cash only.
Extra effort required from the players
The eventual winner of the tournament was Renato Spahiu, who eliminated Satoshi Tanaka in their heads-up. A status update with a picture of the silver coins and bullions was posted on Twitter by Tanaka after he cashed out his winnings. In this picture, he asks if anyone knows a silver guy, meaning he will hardly be able to sell this amount of silver for a fair price on his own.
Another interesting aspect for the payouts made in silver is how you would tip the dealers from your winnings. If you give them a silver coin or two, they in turn would have to change it to cash to be able to use it. All in all, the tournament turned out quite different than expected by the players.