The Onyx Cup Series is coming up, a high-roller's series of live poker tournaments scattered around the world with a total $30 million in prizes, and Full Tilt Poker is hosting qualifier tournaments into them now.

Each event in the Onyx Cup Series has a $100,000 buy-in, with the exception of the December Grand Finale in Las Vegas, which has a $250,000 buy-in. That generally weeds out all but the most series of poker players. You can be one of the few at-home amateur players chosen to site besides these hottest players on the poker stage through qualifier tournaments happening over at Full Tilt Poker now.

There are 6 events in all in the Onyx Cup Series, with a leaderboard kept tracking the performance of the series' top players. The 2011 Onyx Cup Series Champion will be the player who, after all six events are completed, is the highest on the leaderboard. Between event #1 on May 11-12 and the end of the Grand Finale, $30 million in cash prizes will be awarded. Besides getting the biggest part of that, the Onyx Cup Series Champion will also take away a new luxury automobile.

Qualifiers into the first of these events are taking place now at FullTilt, with daily satellites seeding players into three high-rolling qualifier events of increasing buy-ins. The first, on March 27, has a $640 buy-in; the second, April 10, has a $1,060 buy-in; the third, May 1, has a $2,100 buy-in.

Each Onyx Cup Series event will feature 8-handed tables and have a shot-clock structure in which players will only get 30 seconds to act on a hand before it is automatically folded or checked.