"Tournament Poker: Want To Know The Biggest Form Of Poker?"The biggest tournament poker event, the world series of poker, had a $100,000,000 USD combined prize pool and 63,319 entrants in 2009. Over half that ($61,000,000 USD) from no-limit texas hold-em main event #57. Granted, to enter all 57 tournaments offered at the WSOP, an impossible feat, would cost $294,500. I’m sure YOU could figure out a few things to do with a piece of that huge prize pool! And to think that this prize pool is the tip of the ice burg as tournaments both live and online run 24/7 365 days a year. Needless to say, tournaments are huge and here to stay. So what is tournament poker? Why should you consider playing it? What poker games are played in tournament form? What makes it so popular? I’ll answer these questions plus more, to make you informed on the most popular form of poker, TOURNAMENT POKER!
Your goal: the top of the mountain where the big MONEY is! Usually the top 10% of players make money. It all depends on the poker room and their poker tournament payout schedule. Each player pays the same poker tournament entry fee and gets the same amount of chips. Combine this with the poker tournament structure and poker tournament format and competition is guaranteed. What makes tournaments unique is blinds go up after a certain time period, and keep climbing. These time periods are any where from 15 minutes to two hours in live. Online poker time periods are two minutes to 20 minutes. The time period is referred to as a “level”. Just about any poker game can be played in tournament poker form. Texas hold-em being the most commonly played tournament game. Other tournament games include... · Omaha · Omaha high low · 7 card stud · 7 card stud hi/lo · Deuce to seven · Razz And lowball. The beginnings of tournament poker as we know it today started in 1970. Seven of the world’s best poker players... · Johnny Moss · Amarillo Slim · Sailor Roberts · Doyle Brunson · Puggy Pearson · Crandell Addington · and Carl Cannon gathered at Binions’ Horseshoe hotel and casino in Las Vegas Nevada. After all the players had played five different poker games a winner was determined. The winner however was not decided as it is today, where players eliminate each other until ONE player remains. Instead the best player was decided by a vote. There is some folklore behind the vote, that highlights poker players’ ego’s. In the first vote, each player was asked to vote for whom they thought was the best poker player. After the ballots were in, each player had one vote. They had each voted themselves the best poker player in the world! So a second vote was taken. In the second vote players were asked to vote for who they thought was the second best poker player. After the second vote Johnny Moss emerged with the most votes and therefore the first World Series Of Poker champion. Whether this story is accurate, no one knows, except those first seven players. Johnny Moss being crowned the champion is true. The following year (1971) the tournament was played down to one player. Johnny Moss won the second WSOP outright. Since it’s inception, the WSOP has added more events every year and to this day includes over 57 events covering various poker games in different forms. In 1973 the WSOP has it’s FIRST broadcast. CBS picked up broadcasting in the late 1970’s. In the 1980’s ESPN picked up broadcasting and it has remained there to today. Early broadcasts were simple. Only the final table was shown and players’ cards were unknown unless the hand made it to a showdown or a player intentionally showed their cards. The broadcasts were edited down to one hour, so what most viewers saw were the BIG moments where a players’ tournament poker life was on the line. Pocket cam’s (where you can see players’ hole cards) were introduced in 2002, the year Robert Varkonyi won the WSOP main event. In 2003 broadcasts were expanded to include more than just the final table. Combine the pocket cam and coverage of the main event from the start of the tournament with a virtually unknown poker player, Chris Moneymaker, winning the 2003 main event, and tournament poker skyrockets. To give you an idea of how large the WSOP and tournament poker has become, in 2003 the main event attracted 839 players, in 2004 there were 2,576 more than three times that of the previous year. From 2005-2009 the main event has attracted an average of 6817 players with an average of $9,083,311 USD for 1st place. There are many large poker tournaments today. World Poker Tour, World Series Of Poker Europe, plus all the tournaments run online, everyday tournaments in poker rooms around the world and home poker tournament (go to surviving a home poker tournament if you want to make it out of a home poker tournament alive!). It all started with seven players! Besides the financial gains of tournament poker why should you play?
Where as in cash games tilt can cost you your whole bankroll. Your poker tournament bankroll will survive longer having the right amount. Poker tournament rules make the difference in winning and losing. Tournament poker is the fastest path to a healthy bankroll. Compare cash games to tournaments and you’ll see that tournaments can make you more money. If you invested $100 in a cash game and a tournament you could cash out $200 in the cash game. In the tournament you could make any where from $500 to $5000. That’s a big difference. Tournaments suit an “aggressive” style of play. If you’re a constant action player, you’ll fair better in tournament settings. Short on time? Sit and go tournament poker is a great bet! Help your sit and go results with a poker sng bankroll. It’s safe to say that tournament poker is here to stay and will keep growing. Good luck! |
