Major Poker Tournaments: Top Plays, Top Prizes
When we speak of major poker tournaments, we mean huge. Huge participant-population, huge number of tournament events, huge television coverage and mass viewing, huge buy-in, and huge, huge cash prizes.
Several major poker tournaments are held across the year. Despite the thousand-dollar buy-in costs, they draw thousands of poker players. They are covered by big networks like ESPN. They are watched by millions of poker fans across the globe. They give multi-million pool prizes.
The World Series of Poker is perhaps one of the most renowned of the major poker tournaments. In 2007, entrants to the World Series of Poker reached a number of count of more than six thousand. This number is the main event population. This makes the World Series of Poker one of the largest major poker tournament there is.
The main event in the World Series of Poker is Texas Hold 'em with a buy-in cost of $10,000.
Top prize in the World Series of Poker is one of the biggest as well. In 2006, the first prize money was $7.5 million. In 2007, it was $8.25 million.
ESPN has regularly covered the World Series of Poker.
World Poker Tour is another major poker tournament held annually. The World Poker Tour consists of tournament series in the US. The World Poker Tour covers tournaments in Europe and in the Caribbean as well. European series has $10, 000 buy-in while US and Caribbean series tournaments have buy-in costs between $5,000 to $25, 000.
There's also the United States Poker Championship held in Atlantic City. ESPN has been covering this tournament as well.
The Ultimate Poker Challenge can be viewed on WGN. Tournaments are held on weekends. Saturday event has a buy-in of $660. Sunday event has a lower buy-in at $340.
There are major poker tournaments held in other regions of the world. In Europe, Poker Million is perhaps the most widely known and has the most media coverage.
In Swaziland, Piggs Peak Casino has been the site of All Africa Poker Tournament.
In Australia, Crown Australian Poker Championship gave a $7.47 million Australian dollar prize pool. The tournament is also referred to as Aussie Millions, and rightly deserves that name. Aussie Millions could be watched on FSN.
Major poker tournaments are large tournaments with participants usually numbering in thousands. These tournaments enjoy television coverage and have a global viewing audience. These tournaments are where the best poker players generally play for the top prize: multi-million dollar cash.