All Inn Prague €88Million Tournament Event a Troll?

Plans for a massive highroller tournament to be held in Prague next year have raised eyebrows in the poker industry, the advertised €88 million prizefund making it one of the biggest ever seen if it goes ahead, but few signs so far of it being legitimate...

The ALL IN Prague event bills itself as ‘the biggest tournament worldwide’ designed to ‘celebrate the 88th birthday of the giant in the poker world of Mr. Haig Kelegian’.

It also apparently plans to reward the winner with €50 million, with satellites across the world providing the cash to do so, and holding the event in a still-to-be built luxury hotel and casino.

Reports from several European poker sites have claimed that a ‘Czech-Armenian consortium’ is behind the development and poker event, but recent photos of the supposed venue show few signs of development.

The boarded-up, abandoned hotel on the outskirts of Prague will apparently look like this when finished…

…and boast ‘125 rooms, 14 suites, 2 presidential suites’, as well as a spa/wellness centre, restaurants and, of course, a ‘first-class casino…with 1000 slots’ and table games.

The birthday boy that the tournament is designed to celebrate, Haig Kelegian, once owned five casinos in California, passing them on to his son Mark several years ago.

The Kelegian’s were part of Larry Flynt’s unsuccessful lawsuit against the state’s Attorney General Kamala Harris.

According to the ALL IN Prague website:

‘The event organisers also prepared a long line of so-called satellite tournaments. These satellite tournaments make it possible to qualify for the main tournament for as little as 8 Euro.’

As of the time of writing, no such satellites could be found on the site’s satellite search function, nor have there been any official media releases from the organisers.