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 $10,400 Premiere at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa has a $5 million guaranteed prize pool.
- The festival runs through Aug. 16 and includes No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha events with buy-ins from $5,200 to $50,500.
- The opening tournament uses three starting flights, unlimited re-entries during registration, and puts players who bag a stack into Day 2 already in the money.
- The schedule ends with the $50,500 Onyx High Roller Championship and includes a $25,500 NLH Main Event with a $5 million guarantee.
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.
Sources
Earlier coverage
- Merit Poker Noir Series Opens in North Cyprus Jul 28, 2026
- Merit Poker Main Event Day 1b Starts Aug 3, 2026
- Chengyu Liao Turns Cyprus Weekend Into $300,000 Win Aug 3, 2026









