Onyx High Roller Series Opens in Northern Cyprus With $5 Million Premiere
The ten-day festival runs through Aug. 16 with a rules-heavy opener, a $50,500 championship and more than $10 million in guarantees.
The 2026 Onyx High Roller Series got underway at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa in Northern Cyprus with the $10,400 Premiere, a tournament that carries a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.
Following the success of previous Onyx series, many of poker’s biggest names are expected to descend on Northern Cyprus for the ten-day festival.
The series runs through Aug. 16 and spans No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha events, with buy-ins from $5,200 to $50,500. The $50,500 Onyx High Roller Championship closes the schedule.
The opening event uses three starting flights before the surviving players combine for Day 2 and play down to a champion on Tuesday, Aug. 11. Day 1A began at 1 p.m. local time with 100,000 chips, 40-minute levels in the opening flights, and 60-minute levels on Day 2 and the final day.
Late registration stays open until the start of Level 10, just after the dinner break, and players can re-enter without limit during the registration period and across all flights. Each starting flight continues until roughly 15% of the field remains, and anyone who bags a stack reaches Day 2 already in the money.
The rules package also bans sunglasses, masks, scarves, and any intentional face covering while a player has live cards. Once the final table is reached, play shifts to a hands-per-level format, with the tournament director setting the number of hands.
PokerNews also said shot clocks are in use from the start of every event, and that a full streaming schedule will be released once cards are in the air. Past Onyx events have been streamed on delay through the OnyxLive YouTube channel, and the site introduced a free MyPlayers feature that sends real-time updates on a user’s favorite players without a subscription or paywall.
The broader schedule includes a $25,500 NLH Main Event with a $5 million guarantee, a $10,400 Mystery Bounty with a $1 million guarantee, a $5,200 PLO Bounty on Aug. 9, a $15,300 NLH 6-Mx on Aug. 13-14, and a $10,200 Bounty on Aug. 15-16. Players who commit to Day 1A of both the Premiere and the Main Event can receive 11 nights of complimentary accommodation at Merit Royal Diamond and return airport transfers.
