Poker Games and Poker Tournaments
|
|
The two largest poker tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker, both held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The World Series has traditionally been featured on ESPN.
The 2005 World Series of Poker was the first held outside of Binion's Horseshoe Casino, though the final few days of the main event were held in the legendary Benny's Bullpen. Future tournaments will be held at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties; 2005 saw the Rio as primary venue.
Arguably the most publicized European tournament is the Poker Million, which began in 2000 on Sky Sports, following on from the success of the Late Night Poker television show.
In addition to these events, there are other major tournaments throughout the year. The World Poker Tour broadcasts a series of open tournaments throughout the U.S. and Caribbean with buy-ins from $5,000 to $25,000, as well as a European event with a Euro 10,000 buy-in. Some of these events are stand alone tournaments like the Caribbean Poker Adventure, but most are held in conjunction with a tournament series being held at the host casino, like the Commerce Casino's LA Poker Classic, the Reno Hilton's World Poker Challenge and the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker.
Atlantic City hosts The United States Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal casino, which has been broadcast by ESPN in recent years.
The Ultimate Poker Challenge is a show produced for late night paid-programming time slots on WGN & other networks. It was originally hosted at the Plaza Hotel & Casino, but has since moved to Binion's. A recent $10,000 buy-in event attracted a rather small field and was won by 22-year-old professional Alex Jacob.
The main live poker tournament in Africa is the All Africa Poker Tournament hosted by the Piggs Peak Casino in Piggs Peak, Swaziland.
The Crown Australian Poker Championship also known as the Aussie Millions is fast becoming one of the world's largest tournaments. In the 2007 tournament (Won by Gus Hansen) there were 747 entrants and a prize pool of AUD$7.47 Million. The event has gained sponsorship by Full Tilt Poker and is also filmed for broadcast by FSN.
