Major Texas Holdem Events
The increased popularity of Texas Holdem in recent years has led to more major Texas Holdem events. Some of the biggest events bring together thousands of players to play in massive tournaments with multi-million dollar prize pools. There are also several major online events that take place every year with just as much money up for grabs.
The four major Texas Holdem events listed here actually consist of multiple tournaments. In similar fashion to other sports championships, each Texas Holdem event here includes a series of smaller tournaments that lead up to the main event. The smaller tournaments have impressive prize pools on their own but the main event in each series is the highlight of the year.
The World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the pinnacle of poker championship events. Held every year in Las Vegas, the WSOP is a series of 55 poker tournaments. The various poker tournaments come in all shapes, sizes and buy-in levels but the entire series culminate with the Main Event.
The Main Event is a Texas Holdem freezeout tournament and the entry fee is a steep $10,000. Yes, it’s expensive but with first place prizes of $7,000,000 to $10,000,000, more than seven thousand people are willing to give it a shot every year. Out of all the poker tournaments in the world, the WSOP Main Event is the biggest, most lucrative and most prestigious.
The World Poker Tour
Another major Texas Holdem event that you see on TV frequently is the World Poker Tour (WPT). The World Poker Tour is a series of poker tournaments that are held across an entire season of different events held in the US and around the world.
The WPT is similar to the WSOP except the World Poker Tour takes place over a longer period of time. The WSOP can be compared to the World Series of baseball and the WPT could be compared to an entire season of baseball.
World Championship of Online Poker
Major online Texas Holdem events have become big business as well. The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is held every year at PokerStars and features millions of dollars of prize money. Last year’s WCOOP featured a prize pool of more than $51,000,000 spread across 45 online tournaments.
The WCOOP Main Event is the biggest tournament in the series and has its own massive prize pool. The 2009 Main Event had a prize pool of more than $10,000,000, with a first place prize of nearly $2,000,000. Online poker has come a long ways over the years and there is no end in sight.
Full Tilt Online Poker Series
The Full Tilt Online Pokier Series (FTOPS) is Full Tilt’s answer to the WCOOP. Full Tilt Poker hosts the FTOPS three times a year and attracts thousands of players every time. The most recent 2010 FTOPS had a guaranteed prize pool of $23,000,000 spread across 27 events.
The 2010 FTOPS Main Event had a $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool and cost the players $530 to attend. For the price, the FTOPS Main Event is one of the best values a serious tournament player can find. The huge prize pool and decent cost of entry have made the FTOPS Main Event one of the most popular online poker tournaments every year.