do you know how much the entry fee is?
The 500 entry will help insure you at least get to play 2 upper echelon players . Not many scrubs can get backers for the 500.00 tourneys .
It would be cheaper and easier, {save travel and hotel expenses etc } unless you like to travel ,to find the closest "great player" or one coming through your area and tell them you want to play some 50.00 a game even and you guarantee to play at least 10 games. If you decide to go this route ,make a list of the people you would most like to play and post it on here , somebody will know them, and tell them you want to pay to have some fun, and most of them will be ok with that, as long as they have some guarantee you won't flake out and waste their time.