Biggest Online Poker Tournaments
Online poker tournaments come in all shapes and sizes. Since online poker rooms don't have the overhead of live casinos (dealers, floor space, utilities), they can afford to run micro tournaments, heads up tournaments, shorthanded tournaments, and other wacky variations. This page, however, is going to focus on the biggest online poker tournaments. The tournaments on this list have big buy-ins, big prize pools, and skilled entrants:
PokerStars is the home to the biggest online poker tournaments, as they offer the best poker software and the best tournament structure. Here is a list of PokerStars' biggest tournaments:
The Super Tuesday ($400,000 Guaranteed, $1,050 buy-in)
The Super Tuesday is a $1,050 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $400,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Tuesday at 19:55 ET. The Super Tuesday is a poker tournament with great value, because the tournament often has an overlay. In fact, only 372 players entered the Super Tuesday last week, which is less than the 400 players needed to reach the $400,000 guarantee. As a result, PokerStars had to kick in free money.
The Wednesday Quarter Million ($250,000 Guaranteed, $320 buy-in)
The Wednesday Quarter Million is a $320 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Wednesday at 21:00 ET. The Wednesday Quarter Million is another tournament that often sees an overlay. If you don't want to pay the $320 buy-in, make sure to check out the $44 satellites that run every Wednesday.
The Saturday $100,000 ($100,000 Guaranteed, $320 buy-in)
The Saturday $100,000 is a $320 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Saturday at 13:00 ET. Since the Saturday $100,000 is held earlier in the day, the tournament often has a smaller field, and thus is perfect for a player who would prefer a shorter tournament that won't last all night.
The Sunday Warm Up ($750,00 Guaranteed, $215 buy-in)
The Sunday Warm Up is a $215 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $750,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Sunday at 12:45 ET to help players "warm up" for the Sunday Million. The Sunday Warm Up almost always reaches the $750,000 guarantee.
The Sunday Million ($1,500,000 Guaranteed, $215 buy-in)
The Sunday Million is PokerStars' flagship tournament. It is a $215 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $1.5 million guaranteed prize pool. The Sunday Million runs every Sunday at 16:30 ET. The Sunday Million used to have a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, and when they upped the guarantee they stuck with the same name out of tradition.
You can expect this tournament to have at least 7,500 entrants each week, resulting in a prize pool of at least $1.5 million. We also deemed this to be one of the best value poker tournaments online, because most entrants are satellite qualifiers who are playing above their skill level. The Sunday Million is the biggest weekly poker tournament online.
The Sunday 250 ($250,000 Guaranteed, $530 buy-in)
The Sunday 250 is a $530 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Sunday at 17:30 ET, and typically is one of the toughest tournaments of the weekend.
The Sunday Second Chance ($250,000 Guaranteed, $215 buy-in)
The Sunday Second Chance is a $215 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is held every Sunday at 18:30 ET to give players a "second chance" at a big score if they have already busted in the Million.
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Full Tilt Poker is the second biggest poker room in the world, and plays host to some of the largest poker tournaments online every week. Although Full Tilt Poker doesn't quite match up to PokerStars, they still have enough big tournaments to satisfy even the highest of rollers:
The Monday $1,000 ($300,000 Guaranteed, $1,000 buy-in)
The Monday $1,000 is a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $300,000 guarantee. This tournament runs every Monday at 21:00 ET, and occasionally sees an overlay.
The Wednesday $100,000 ($100,000 Guaranteed, $109 rebuy)
The Wednesday $100,000 is a $109 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with rebuys and a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament runs every Wednesday at 21:00 ET, and is one of the biggest rebuy tournaments offered throughout the week.
The Sunday Brawl ($300,000 Guaranteed, $256 buy-in)
The Sunday Brawl is a $256 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with bounties and a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool. When players buy in to the tournament, $200 goes into the prize pool, while the remaining $40 becomes a bounty on that player's head (the remaining $16 goes to Full Tilt Poker as a tournament fee). Every time you knock a player out, you receive their $40 bounty directly into your account. The Sunday Brawl runs every Sunday at 14:00 ET.
The Sunday $750,000 ($750,000 Guaranteed, $216 buy-in)
The Sunday $750,000 Guaranteed is a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $750,000 guaranteed prize pool. This is Full Tilt Poker's biggest poker tournament, and runs every Sunday at 18:00 ET. The $750,000 Guaranteed usually draws about 4,000 entrants, which makes for a total prize pool of around $800,000.
Also, on the last Sunday of the month, the $750,000 Guaranteed is replaced by a $535 buy-in $1 Million Guaranteed No Limit Hold'em tournament. There are plenty of satellites throughout the week to let more casual players earn a $535 buy-in.
The Sunday Mulligan ($200,000 Guaranteed, $216 buy-in)
The Sunday Mulligan is a $216 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament is similar to PokerStars' Second Chance tournament, as it gives players another shot at a big score if they have already busted in the $750,000 guaranteed. The Sunday Mulligan runs every Sunday at 19:05.
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Ultimate Bet is an American-friendly poker site that offers a few high stakes poker tournaments every week. They don't have the selection of PokerStars or Full Tilt, but there are still enough big poker tournaments to keep their players satisfied:
Sunday $100,000 Deep Stack ($100,000 Guaranteed, $530 buy-in)
The Sunday $100,000 Deep Stack is a $530 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. The tournament starts each player with a deep chip stack, which provides more time to make moves before blinds place too much pressure on your stack. The Sunday $100,000 Deep Stack runs every Sunday at 14:00 ET.
Sunday $200,000 Guaranteed ($200,000 Guaranteed, $215 buy-in)
The Sunday $200,000 Guaranteed is a $215 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool. This is Ultimate Bet's premier tournament every week, and runs every Sunday at 16:00 ET. The prize pool for the $200,000 Guaranteed usually ends up closer to $250,000, because Ultimate Bet runs hundreds of satellites throughout the week.
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Titan Poker is one of the largest online poker rooms that does not accept American players. Even without Americans, Titan Poker plays host to some of the biggest online poker tournaments week in and week out. Here are the biggest poker tournaments at Titan Poker:
Friday $100,000 Rebuy ($100,000 Guaranteed, $109 buy-in)
The Friday $100,000 is a $109 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with rebuys and a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament runs every Friday at 20:00 GMT.
Sunday $250,000 Guaranteed ($250,000 Guaranteed, $320 buy-in)
The Sunday $250,000 Guaranteed is a $320 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament runs every Sunday at 19:00 GMT, and is Titan Poker's premier poker tournament every week. The $250,000 Guarantee almost always exceeds the guarantee, so you can expect a $275,000+ prize pool.
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Bodog is a small poker site, so they don't offer as many big poker tournaments as PokerStars or Full Tilt. However, they do have one poker tournament that qualified for this list:
Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed ($100,000 Guaranteed, $162 buy-in)
The Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed is a $162 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. This tournament runs every Sunday at 16:00 ET, and sees an overlay almost every single week.
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