The Black Diamond Poker Open (BDPO) is an annual tournament series that has been running at Ignition Casino since 2012, and it always brings a ton of action. With millions in guaranteed prizes, it offers games that are accessible to players at all bankroll levels through a variety of events.
The Structure of the Black Diamond Poker Open
The BDPO runs for about a month, typically around February or March. The series features a number of tournament formats, including progressive knockouts, mystery bounty events, freezeouts, with deep-stack structures. These poker tournaments take place daily and follow a set schedule published beforehand. Everything culminates in a full day of tournaments with huge, guaranteed prize pools on “Main Events Sunday.
Preliminary Qualifiers and Tune-Ups
Satellite tournaments for the BDPO’s big events usually start running a day before the primary schedule kicks off. That way, players can secure entries early without putting much of their bankroll at risk. Satellites are inexpensive tournaments that offer tickets to larger tournaments as the primary prizes. For a small buy-in, a player can take a shot at winning a seat to the BDPO Main Event, for example. This lets players from smaller bankroll levels take a shot at huge paydays.
Tune-up events also run the day before the event formally starts, offering competitive warm-up opportunities that are similar in feel to the bigger tournaments to come. These early competitions can help players build a bankroll and polish their skills, and remember how to win a poker tournament. Unlike the satellite qualifiers, these tournaments are meant to give players a chance to shake off any rust and accumulate some money that can be used for buy-ins in the larger events to come.
BDPO Editions of Regular Tournaments
During the BDPO, standard recurring tournaments within the Ignition Casino schedule are remade into boosted “BDPO editions” of each game. These tournaments generally feature deeper blind structures and more money at stake, compared with the usual weekly offerings that players are familiar with. This means that, during the event, things are a bit bigger than usual. Tournament regulars will notice that their favorite games each week will still run – they’ve just been enhanced.
Keep an eye out for Morning Early Bird tournies with mystery knockouts, and nightly games with larger guaranteed prize pools. The biggest change is that the usual Sunday $200,000 Guaranteed and $100,000 Guaranteed High Roller games will get decent increases to the prize pool and expected number of competitors registering for each game.
Main Events Sunday
Main Events Sunday is an action-packed day of poker tournaments that start in the morning and run late into the night. Here’s a typical schedule:
- Early Bird Main Event. This event usually starts around 9 in the morning and features a decent buy in and prize pool (around $15,000 guaranteed in some years).
- Micro Main Event. This is similar to the Early Bird tourney, and features the most affordable buy in of the day.
- Mini Main Event. Things are heating up. The prize pool is much bigger than the first two events of the day and so is the buy in.
- Main Event. In the evening, the BDPO Main Event finally arrives. Prize pools are in the hundreds of thousands and there’s a buy in to match. If you want a truly big game, you’ve found it. You don’t need to be Michael Mizrachi, winner of the 2025 WSOP Main Event, but you have to bring your A-game.
- Mid Stakes Main Event. Think of this as a cool-down event for people who get knocked out of the Main Event. The prize pool is smaller, and the stakes are perfect for an end-of-night game. Of course, the grinders who want to play this alongside the Main Event are welcome to do so.
Something for Everyone at the BDPO
The BDPO is for everyone. With games at every level and buy in, all players should be able to participate. Inexpensive buy ins for satellites and qualifiers make it possible for newcomers and casual players to get in on the fun and take a shot at a major prize pool. Meanwhile, marquee high roller events let big shot players compete for serious money with some of the toughest opponents in the Ignition Casino community.
Buy-ins traditionally range from low-stakes levels that can be as low as $1 for qualifiers and satellites to high roller buy ins that can go over $1,000. You can play your way. The satellite games also offer a path for pretty much any player to get in the game. It can be tough to make it to the big BDPO events, but with a chip and a chair, anything is still possible.
Tournament Structures and Surviving a BDPO Event
The biggest piece of advice for newcomers to the BDPO is not to play every single game. This is a month-long series, so it pays to pace yourself. It also helps to have a budget in mind. Smaller stackers will probably want to focus on satellites and high expected value (EV) events. Examples of these games would be the first few games of Main Events Sunday: the Early Bird Main, Micro Main, and Mid Stakes Main. Each one features a much smaller buy-in relative to the Main Event. The Micro Main Event, for example, usually has a buy-in somewhere in the neighborhood of $10, but offers players the chance to compete for a shot at a portion of a prize pool that can be north of $15,000 in some cases.
It’s also helpful to focus on some of the special features of tournaments:
- Deep Stack Tournaments. These tournaments start all players off with more chips than usual. This reduces the chance that people will be going all in right out of the gate. It helps a lot of new players last longer. When the blinds start off very low relative to players’ stacks, however, you can expect people to loosen their standards quite a bit. Know that people can flip over any two cards in the early stages of a deep-stack tourney.
- Bounty Tournaments. These games offer an instant cash bounty when you knock out a player. For mystery bounty tournaments, this amount is not known beforehand. This changes the calculation for certain hands. If an opponent’s stack is getting low, you may be more likely to get into a hand with them thanks to the increased EV of playing against someone with a bounty on their head. Bounty tournaments offer the chance to get paid even if you have trouble making it past the bubble.
As with all tournament events, it’s essential to watch the blind levels and be aware of the bubble.
- Early game. Build through the early game and take advantage of weak players.
- Mid-game. Stabilize through the mid-game and position yourself to clear the bubble. If you’re a short stacker, make sure that you make your move before your stack gets blinded down to nothing. If you’re a big stacker, turn on the pressure and snap up blinds from players who can’t afford to play back at you.
- Late game. As you clear the bubble, make moves and accumulate chips where you can, so that when you make the final table, you have some room to operate. This will allow you to compete for the top spot.
The Black Diamond Poker Open is one of the best events at Ignition Casino. Mark it on your calendar and be there when the action kicks off!
