No Skill Poker Tournament Pays 10 Million

Monday April 8, 2013 : STATE LOTTERY POKER TOURNEY AWARDS $10 MILLION
 
A first prize to outstrip any WSOP finale
 
A 51-year old East Falmouth man reportedly walked away with a 10 million dollar prize after being randomly chosen from 68 000 other Massachusetts State Lottery instant ticket winners.
 
The offer ran for seven and a half years before it reached a sales target of 80.6 million scratch tickets effectively ending the game and starting the Massachusetts State Lottery $10 000 000 Hold'em Poker Tournament,  the first of its kind in the U.S., the lottery said.
 
The "no skill involved" tournament was achieved by pre-assigning two cards to each player as three more cards (which all the players shared) were drawn in each of the three rounds.  Whoever had the best five-card hand in each round advanced to the next.
 
560 players participated in the tournament held at the TD Garden Arena in Boston, Massachusetts on April 6, 2013, each already having won $2000.  64 players who advanced in the first round were billed to win $10 000 each, while the 12 who advanced in the second round would take home $50 000.  The third and most lucrative Championship Round would see three claiming $1 million and one other $10 million.
 
Massachusetts State Lottery spokeswoman Beth Bresnahan said of Condon's win, "He was absolutely stunned".
 
Condon modestly said he plans to pay off his house with his winnings which he can either take as a pre-tax lump sum of $6.5 million or annual payments of $500 000 over 20 years.
 
At the time of publishing, the Massachusetts State Lottery had yet to formally announce the full list of winners.