LIVE POKER TOURNAMENTS

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENTS

Live poker tournaments are a great way to show off your poker skills, socialize with other poker players, make some money, and generally have a good time. Live poker tournaments have a wide range of buy ins and prizes, and different poker games with different betting structures. Live poker tournaments can be found just about everywhere thanks to the widespread coverage and popularity of the game, and live poker tournament schedules can fit into anyone’s schedule.

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENT ENTRY FEES AND PRIZES

Live poker tournaments vary in entry fees and prizes. Obviously the bigger the entry fee and the more players in the live poker tournaments, the bigger the prizes. Some people actually get sponsored to play in a tournament if they agree to wear their clothes and promote a company’s product. Another way to get sponsored in a live poker tournament is by winning a satellite tournament, which is a tournament where the winner or winners receive a buy in to a tournament as a prize. Some live poker tournaments are basically play money tournaments. No real money is exchanged to enter, and the winner or winners may receive prizes in the form of league points for their local bar or pub, or gift cards and other prizes. While most live poker tournaments have a prices fixed entry fee, others may allow you to buy back in if you lose your chips, rebuy if you lose your chips, and even add on to your stack, at certain points in the tournament. The type of live poker tournaments available to play in include multi table tournaments, single table tournaments, sitngos, and the previously mentioned satellite tournament. Multi table tournaments are the most common, and allow as many entrants that can fit into the venue. Single table tournaments are just what they sound like, where there is one table, and the players there play until there’s one person left. Sitngos usually have a predetermined amount of entrants, and once that many entrants sign up, the tournament begins. These can range anywhere from a one table sitngo to a 180 man sitngo.

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENT BETTING FORMAT

Live poker tournament poker betting can be loosely defined as structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. In a limit poker tournament, the betting can be defined as structured. That is a player may only bet a ceratin amount on any hand, and raise a certain amount on any hand. In a pot limit poker tournament, you might consider the betting as semi-structured. This is because there is a maximum you can bet, the amount of the pot, but you can also choose your own bet below the size of the pot if you’d like, giving you a lot more freedom and creativity. The most popular form of live poker tournament is without a doubt no limit Texas hold ‘em. As the name might imply, the betting in a no limit tournament can be considered unstructured. While it is true that there is a predetermined set amount for blinds and antes, the bets themselves can be any amount the player wants. The all-in bet is very common in these games, and make for a wild and exciting live poker tournament.

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENT MAJOR TOURNAMENTS

Live poker tournaments have grown so popular that there are several major tournaments around the world throughout the year. For example the World Poker Tour, or WPT as it is commonly called, The WPT holds several live poker tournaments every year, with buy ins ranging from $2,500.00 to $25,000.00. These tournaments have grown incredibly popular as the WPT shows all of their major tournaments on television, and with a little skill and a lot of luck, you could not only make a lot of money, but also become a tv star! The World Series of Poker, or WSOP as it is affectionately called is perhaps the most prestigious of live poker tournaments. The WSOP has been running for more than thirty five years, and today include just about every form of poker. The series of poker events are held each summer, with buy ins ranging from a little over a thousand dollars, to ten thousand dollars to enter the WSOP main event, all the way up to fifty thousand dollars to play in the WSOP HORSE event. Along with the cash, the winners of each event receive a gold bracelet. Past WSOP main event winners include Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Moss, and many other poker legends which add a great deal of prestige to the series. ESPN covers the WSOP every year, making household names out of ordinary joes who go the distance. The WSOP has now branched out with their WSOPE or World Series of Poker Europe tournaments as well. Live poker tournaments are now open to those under the age of twenty-one if they decide to play in the World Series of Poker Europe, like Annette Obrestad who won a bracelet in 2007. Other major live poker tournaments are the Aussie Millions, the EPT (European poker tour), the APT (Asian Poker tour), and the LAPT (Latin American Poker tour).

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENT POPULARITY

Live poker tournament has never been so popular. And the popularity of live poker tournaments means great things for all poker players. There are more live poker tournaments and more entrants which mean weaker competition overall, and greater prize pools. The rise in poker popularity can be traced to a few different things. The movie Rounders which glorified and offered a romantic look at poker playing which was released in 1998 to little reaction, but eventually became a cult favorite. Another event that made live poker tournament so popular was when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP main event in 2003. His name, the way he got into the event via a $39 satellite, the fact that he wasn’t a professional poker player, but an average recreational player, and ESPN’s coverage that year combined to make the Chris Moneymaker story epic, and had everyday average guys they could replicate Moneymaker’s luck. All of a sudden online poker sites, which allowed users to play poker from their computer, became overwhelmed with members, and these players would eventually wander out to play live. The combination of all these events have made live poker tournaments more popular than they have ever been before.

LIVE POKER TOURNAMENT SCHEDULES

So if you are ready to play in a live poker tournament, here is a schedule of upcoming events.

MONACO EPT GRAND FINAL
Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort Monte Carlo
April 12-17, 2008
€10,000 + €600

WPT Ladies Bay 101
Mar 16, 2008
Bay 101
San Jose, California

World Poker Challenge
Mar 25 - 28, 2008
Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
Reno, Nevada

World Poker Challenge
Mar 28, 2008
Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
Reno, Nevada

WPT Ladies Foxwoods
Mar 29, 2008
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Mashantucket, Connecticut

Foxwoods Poker Classic
Apr 4 - 9, 2008
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Mashantucket, Connecticut

Foxwoods Poker Classic
Apr 9, 2008
Foxwoods Resort Casino
Mashantucket, Connecticut

WPT Ladies Championship
Apr 13 - 14, 2008
Bellagio
Las Vegas, Nevada

WPT World Championship
Apr 19 - 26, 2008
Bellagio
Las Vegas, Nevada

2008 WSOP
May30-July16 2008
Rio Hotel and Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada