The Biggest Offline Poker Events
The current trend for online poker has seen a significant rise in interest regarding the traditional land-based events that have had such an overwhelming influence in bringing the game to where it is today.
Many of these offline tournaments enjoy a rich and colourful history that stretch back for many years. For a few years, even the largest tournaments suffered a decline in fortunes but the availability of online poker has sparked a new wave of popularity. This has become particularly prevalent since many major online poker sites began providing cheap entry satellite tournaments giving even the most novice of players a crack at qualifying for the biggest poker tournaments of them all.
The two biggest land-based events continue to be the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.
The World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) now sees around 7,000 players pitching up at the Binion Horseshoe in Las Vegas to take part in over 55 different events in search of the fabled gold bracelet that is given to winners of each individual discipline with prize money of around $10,000,000 up for grabs.
The WSOP enjoyed very humble beginnings, and the first-ever tournament way back in 1970 attracted just 7 entrants in one discipline and was won by ballot. The following year actually saw the number of participants down to 6 players although the event had by then moved to the more traditional ‘winner-takes-all’ format.
The popularity of the WSOP grew steadily, with entrants topping the 50 mark for the first time in 1979. The tournament continued to grow until a mammoth 8,773 players took part in 2006 with 57 different events being played. Although numbers have dropped in the last couple of years, the WSOP remains as the biggest one-off poker tournament in the world.
The World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is another event that has reached dizzy heights and continues to transfix poker enthusiasts from all over the world. The WPT began in 2002 and the format features a series of high profile events taking place at many glamorous locations all over the world.
The 2009 season saw the WPT pitch up in such wonderful places as Venice and Barcelona as the best players in the game bid to earn a $25,000 buy-in to the main event that takes place at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas where the prize money can reach a staggering $1,000,000 for the WPT Championship itself.
The WPT sees huge TV audiences settle down to watch the respective rounds, especially those that offer big name celebrities from the world of film and television a chance to qualify for a seat at the final table of WPT Championship.
In the past couple of years, the WPT has also offered gold bracelets to winners as well as the lucrative amounts of prize money on offer.
The World Series of Poker Europe
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) owes much of its success to the standards set by the WSOP and WPT. Until 2007, European players had to travel massive distances to be part of some of the biggest events, particularly the WSOP which only takes place in Las Vegas. The European tour is a branded WSOP event.
The WSOPE is another bracelet-winning opportunity that sees the finest European players visit a variety of venues across the continent in the hope of winning a buy-in to the final. The finals, held in England, usually see a very high standard of player reach the main event due to the size of casinos in the UK. This limits entry to some degree and only the very best will have their chance to take a place at the final table.
2009 will see the Free Million Dollar Game run alongside the WSOPE with a series of online satellite games giving regular players the chance to qualify for a final event.
The United States Poker Championship
Held annually at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, The United States Poker Championship (USPC) is another major stop-off on the schedule of many of the world’s finest players.
The tournament culminates in a Texas Hold ‘Em final table with $10,000 available to the winner although total prize pools can top $800,000.
The Poker Million
The Poker Million is a huge tournament taking place on the Isle of Man where sponsored professionals play against online qualifiers for some of the biggest prizes in the game.
The event was made particularly popular amongst a worldwide TV audience of over 30 million viewers when former snooker legend, Jimmy White, scooped the first prize of $150,000.
There continues to be many more tournaments that capture the attention of the world’s best players and an adoring poker public. The Caribbean Poker Adventure, the LA Poker Classic and the World Poker Challenge are all high profile events that receive comprehensive television coverage and attract players from all over the world as part of their annual schedule.