Poker tournaments are the biggest reason poker has seen such an explosion in popularity. Televised events such as the World Series of Poker on ESPN and the World Poker Tour on the travel channel have exposed tournament poker to the greater masses, and many people have fallen in love with the thrilling action of No Limit Hold'em tournaments. Our poker tournaments page has content about all of the major poker tournament circuits, as well as the best online poker tournaments. Read the articles below for information on both online and live poker tournaments.

While online poker is great for convenience and a quick buck, nothing beats the thrill of playing in big live poker tournaments. Players can rub shoulders with big-name pros, gun for million-dollar prizepools, and experience new cities and casinos. All you need, of course, is the buy-in. Online Poker Tournaments Sign up and sign in to start playing any of our online poker tournaments at Borgata Poker Online! Find free rolls, seasonal tournaments, and more and start winning real money! Unsure how to play poker?

Online Poker Tournaments:

• Major Sunday Tournaments - Find the biggest MTTs online, which are all held on Sundays.
• Big Daily Online Tournaments - Discover the biggest online tournaments that run every day.
• PokerStars WCOOP - Learn about PokerStars' major poker tournament series.
• PokerStars FTOPS - Learn about PokerStars's major poker tournament series.
• Biggest Online Poker Tournaments - Learn about the biggest online tournaments ever.
• Best Value Poker Tournaments - Find tournament overlays and soft competition.

Live Poker Tournaments:

• World Series of Poker - The biggest and most recognized tournament series in the world.
• World Poker Tour - Another popular tournament circuit with widespread TV coverage.
• European Poker Tour - The EPT is a smaller circuit that is owned by the WPT.
• Heartland Poker Tour - The HPT is a smaller series that runs in the North Eastern USA.
• Continental Poker Championship - The CPC is a small tournament series in Verona, New York
• Empire State Hold'em Championship - Another tournament series held at TurningStone casino.

Poker Tournament Structure

If you have never played a tournament, you may become confused because tournaments are set up differently than cash tables. Instead of buying into a game with chips, you pay a fixed amount that gets you a certain number of tournament chips. Tournament chips have no cash value, and all they can be used for is playing in their specified tournament. Then, players use these chips to play until one player has every chip.

There is no 'cashing out' in tournament poker, your only goal is to survive as far you possibly can. The players who make it the furthest receive a cash prize, and the player who wins the tournament receives the most money. The payouts come from the tournament's prize pool, which is the total sum of each player's tournament buy-in.

Poker Tournament Series

Many tournaments are part of a 'tournament series', which are a group of tournaments played in similar geographic locations and around the same time. For example, the Continental Poker Championship, listed above, runs every year at TurningStone casino. There are five-ten tournaments with varying buy-ins, and all are part of the CPC. The World Series of Poker is another tournament series, as all 50+ events are run back to back in the same casino.

Often times, such as in the WSOP, players are rewarded for consistent play throughout the entire tournament with a 'Most Valuable Player' type award. In the WSOP, this is called the Player of the Year Award, and is one of the most prestigious awards in the poker world. Read our poker profiles to learn who has won this award.

Tournament Skills

Successful tournament players need a different skill set than successful cash game players. Since poker tournaments have increasing blinds and antes, players need to be much more aggressive as the tournament progresses. Also, since tournament players can't buy-in more than once (unless it is a rebuy tournament) entrants need to be able to play correctly regardless if they have a big stack, average stack, or short stack. Read our poker tournament strategy articles to learn more, or check out our list of the best tournament poker sites.

If you want to start playing poker tournaments right away, we recommend signing up at PokerStars. PokerStars offers millions of dollars in guaranteed money every week, and it all culminates with their Sunday $750,000 Guaranteed (this tournament turns into a $1 Million Guarantee on the last Sunday of each month). Also, PokerStars has lots of unique tournaments such as Bounty Tournaments where players receive an extra bonus for knocking other players out, as well as Cashout Tournaments where players can withdraw from the tournament at any time, and receive a cash prize equal to the value of their poker chips at the time of withdrawal.

PokerStars offers tournaments in a variety of games, including Texas Hold'em, Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Razz, and Mixed Games. If you decide to play at PokerStars, use bonus code MIK500 for an exclusive 100% up to $600 bonus on your first deposit.

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Table Of Contents

In-full live major poker tournaments will return to the U.S. with a World Poker Tour event in January.

In a Monday presser, host venue Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood announced they'd be joining forces with the WPT once again for the Lucky Hearts Poker Open. The event will fill its traditional January slot and culminate with the $3,500 WPT Main Event with a $1 million guarantee.

Furthermore, the WPT announced on Wednesday its first U.S.-based online Main Tour event, the $3,500 WPT Online Poker Open Main Event, set for a late December running in New Jersey. That one will also carry a guarantee of $1 million.

Live WPT Events Return

Jan. 22 will mark the return of the WPT to U.S. soil.

The Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event will kick off that Friday with the first of two starting flights for the $3,500 reentry event. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will see the tournament play down to a champion, who will get their name etched onto the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup and earn a place in the WPT Tournament of Champions.

The WPT Main Event will be part of an overall festival running Jan. 14-26. It will include an opening $600 multi-flight event with $300,000 guaranteed, a good mix of non-NLHE events around the $400 price point, and four other tournaments with six-figure guarantees.

The full schedule can be found here.

A WPT card hasn't been pitched in the U.S.since mid-March with the conclusion of WPT Rolling Thunder. Instead, the top brand has opted to go with the industry norm under the cloud of COVID-19, hosting a variety of huge online events, most notably the WPT World Online Championship.

Seminole Hard Rock properties reintroduced poker tournaments several months back, so they've started to ramp up the action in Florida, but nothing has been in the ballpark of the WPT LHPO's scale with its more than $2 million in total guarantees.

The WPT LHPO was last on the schedule in January 2020, when it guaranteed $2 million and created a prize pool a little under $2.7 million, drawing 843 entries.

COVID Safety Protocols

Of course, the reason the WPT and so many other poker tours have been on ice for the last eight-plus months is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Key word being ongoing, as the situation in the U.S. and many other countries has, if anything, worsened in recent months.

Florida has been known to be one of the harder-hit states overall, and the past week at the time of writing has seen an average of 6,602 new cases per day, according to official numbers released by the state.

Live Online Poker Tournaments

Knowing this, Seminole Hard Rock has instituted special 'Safe + Sound' protocols in an effort to make the playing environment as safe as possible.

• Eight-handed tables with plexiglass shielding players and dealers
• Temperature checks upon entry
• Mandatory mask usage
• Routine cleaning of chips, cards and newly-emptied seats
• Wide availability of hand sanitizer for players and employees
• 50% max capacity on property
• State-of-the-art air filtration system designed to destroy viruses

New Jersey to Host Additional $1M Guaranteed

Those looking to get their names on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup need not wait until January, though. In fact, they don't even need to leave their own homes or play live poker at all, provided those homes are located in New Jersey.

The WPT Online Poker Open Main Event will be held Dec. 27-29 on partypoker US Network for players in New Jersey. PokerNews has already signed on to provide live reporting.

Watch Live Poker Tournaments Online

The ambitious $1 million guarantee signifies how serious the WPT and partypoker are about making this a premier poker tournament worthy of the WPT name.

“The WPT Online Poker Open brings the most prestigious prize in poker to New Jersey and the partypoker US Network,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in a presser. “WPT’s continued pivot toward online will continue with another landmark for regulated online poker in the United States.”

Live Online Poker Tournaments Today

Indeed, the WPT has pivoted into a strong series of online offerings, however all were offered to the dot-com partypoker player pool, a much larger bunch of customers than the prospective New Jersey pool. Drawing the necessary entries to meet the guarantee will require some effort, and the WPT already announced satellites will be available for as little as $5.

Speaking of the dot-cam pool, they'll also get a January shot at WPT glory. WPT Montreal, traditionally occupying a November slot on the schedule, will take place on the main partypoker client. It begins with starting flights on Jan. 10 and Jan. 17, two Sundays that will play down to a short enough percent of the field that the tournament finishes Jan. 18.

That one will have a $3,200 buy-in and a $2 million guarantee. Click here for full details.

Live Online Poker Tournaments Free

The only other WPT Main Tour events currently scheduled at WPT Russia in Sochi for mid-February and the second edition of WPT Online Series, scheduled for May.

Live Online Poker Tournaments 2019

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