Genting’s poker business has released its 2016 Genting Poker Series schedule, and the buy-ins have decreased considerably from previous years indicating that the recreational poker model is reaching the live game.

When the father of the recreational poker model, Jonas Odman, laid out his plans for the future of online poker, one imagines he was paying little thought to the live game, but his influence is spreading in that direction like an ivy-choked window.

To all intents and purposes, the 2015 Genting Poker Series (GPS) has been a great success. Only one of their £440 buy-in Main Event’s missed their guarantee, and that was only by a few quid. Genting’s poker team could maintain the status quo. But that isn’t happening.

They powers to be have released the 2016 GPS schedule and the tour has made a significant directional change. Of the 16 new events, only three of them will carry a £440 Main Event buy-in (Westcliff, Edinburgh and Sheffield), leaving 13 £220 buy-in events.