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Online and Live Poker Tournaments
Poker tournaments are the reason that poker has seen such an explosion of popularity recently. 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 more information on both online and live poker tournaments.
> Major Online Sunday Tournaments - The biggest poker tournaments online are on Sunday afternoons.
> Biggest Daily Online Tournaments - We've listed every major daily tournament at the best poker sites.
> PokerStars WCOOP - This is the biggest online poker tournament series, and is held once a year.
> Full Tilt FTOPS - Learn about Full Tilt's version of the WCOOP.
> Biggest Online Poker Tournaments - Find out about the biggest online tournaments.
> Best Value Poker Tournaments - Discover the biggest overlays and worst player fields online.
> World Series of Poker - Learn about the biggest poker tournament in the world - the WSOP.
> World Poker Tour - The World Poker Tour is one of the biggest live poker circuits.
> European Poker Tour - The European Poker Tour is a sub tournament of the World Poker Tour.
> Heartland Poker Tour - The Heartland is a smaller poker circuit located mainly in the North Eastern USA.
> Continental Poker Championship - The CPC is a small tournament series in Verona, New York.
> Empire State Hold'em Championships - The ESHC is another poker series at TurningStone casino.
Poker Tournament Structure
If you've never played in a poker tournament, you may become confused because tournaments are set up differently than No Limit Hold'em cash tables. Instead of buying in to 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 in the tournament 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. At the end, the top players all receive prizes for lasting so long, with the winner getting the biggest prize.
Poker Tournament Series
Many live tournaments are part of a greater "poker series", which is a group of tournaments often 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 always 5-10 tournaments of various buy-ins, and all are a part of the CPC. The World Series of Poker is another form of a 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 to win in the poker world.
Tournament Skills
If you want to be a successful tournament player you'll need a different skill set than what is required to be a successful cash game player. Since tournaments have increasing blinds and antes, you'll need to be much more aggressive as the tournament progresses. Also, since you can't buy-in more than once (unless it's a rebuy) you'll have to be able to play different stack sizes correctly, regardless if you have a big stack, average stack, or short stack. Read our poker tournament strategy articles to learn more.
Read the Best Poker Tournament Strategy