Online Poker Tournaments

Online poker tournaments are skyrocketing in popularity, and so are the top prizes. The top poker tournament in the world is the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), and you can actually qualify for playing in the tournament at your favorite online poker room. Poker Stars is the leading poker site for qualifying players for the WSOP. In addition, Poker Stars actually produced the WSOP 2003 and 2004 champions. The 2004 champion, Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, took home the top $5 million prize!

Poker Tournament Strategies and Articles

Read about strategies, tournament tales, and other useful information for playing in poker tournaments online and at home, by our resident poker gurus:

• Introduction to Online Poker Tournaments - by PokerHo
• Types of No Limit Hold em Poker Tournaments - by PokerHo
• WSOP Satellite Tournaments - by PokerHo
• Blinds in Home Poker Tournaments - by The Texas Turtle
• Playing the Early Rounds - by Hammerhead
• Playing the Middle Rounds - by Hammerhead
• Playing the Later Rounds - by Hammerhead
• Playing the Final Table - by Hammerhead
• Manipulating the Odds - by Hammerhead
• Tournament Poker is Swingy - by Dead Money
• Tournament vs. Cash Game Strategy - by Dead Money
• Playing the Short Stack - by PokerHo
• Playing the Big Stack - by PokerHo
• The Tournament Leader Board - by PokerHo
• The Rise of Poker Celebrities - by PokerHo
• Report from the 2005 WSOP Tournament - by PokerHo
• 2005 WSOP Final Table & Final Hand - by PokerHo
• Commercialism in the 2005 World Series of Poker - by PokerHo

Top Online Poker Tournament Sites

All of the poker sites below regularly hold a variety of online poker tournaments, some of them with enormous prize pools, seats to the WSOP, and also freerolls.

RANK	POKER ROOM	DEPOSIT BONUS
1	Poker Stars	FPP System
2	Bodog Poker	10% up to $1000 Still Accepting US Players!
3	Full Tilt Poker	100% up to $600 Bonus Code BEST
4	Pacific Poker	25% up to $100
5	Poker Room	40% up to $200

Types of Poker Tournaments : Elimination, Satellites, Freerolls, Rebuy

Below are several common types of poker tournaments. The common element is that play continues until one player holds ALL of the chips.

Elimination Tournaments: Each player begins with the same number of chips, and play continues until one player has all of the chips. The winners of each table then play against each other, and so on until one player remains. Prizes are normally paid to all players seated at the final table.

Rebuy Tournaments: Same as above, except that for a set period of time players that lose all of their chips can rebuy into the tournament and keep playing. Obviously, this ultimately results in larger prize pools.

Satellite Tournaments: Satellites are essentially qualifying rounds for the main event, such as for the World Series of Poker. The winners of the satellites proceed to the next event, and so on, up until the final event.

Freeroll Tournaments: Freerolls are poker tournaments with no entry fee or initial buy-in. Many of the sites below have daily or weekly freerolls where you can win real cash prizes. See our online poker site reviews for more details.

Playing in a competitive poker league is a great and inexpensive way to improve your tournament results. Visit the Full Tilt Poker League to join a series of weekly poker tournaments with prizes awarded at the end of the season.

Bankroll: The total amount of money a player has to gambling with (and which is put on the table).

Table Stakes: The requirement that a player may only wager money he has on the table at the start of a hand.

World Series of Poker (WSOP): The premier poker tournament in the world, with No-Limit Texas Hold Em as the main event. It is held annually at Binion's Horseshoe Casino (now Harrahs Horseshoe) in Las Vegas. You can qualify for the tournament by winning Satellites at many of these online poker rooms.