The World Series of Poker (also known as WSOP) is the largest poker tournament in the world consisting of several sets. The WSOP is annually held in Las Vegas. Since 2007 the tournament consists of 55 events, which usually finish in just over a month (except the Main Event).

Each winner of one of 55 events wins a WSOP bracelet and a cash prize based on the number of tournament entrants. Almost all poker games have been featured in the tournament since 1968, but during the last years more than 50% of events have been Texas Holdem variants.

The tournament ends with the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Holdem Main Event, which attracts thousands of players. Due to such a great number of entrants, the winner of the Main Event receives a multi-million dollar cash prize.

Since 1971 all World Series of Poker events became tournaments with cash prizes. A 5 Card Stud event was added in 1973. Since that time some new events were added and some removed. In 2006 there were 45 events, which covered major poker variants. In 2006 and 2007 Texas Holdem, Omaha Holdem, 7 Card Stud and some other poker variants have been played at the tournament. H.O.R.S.E., Chinese Poker and S.H.O.E. are also played at the WSOP time to time.

Just like in most poker tournaments, the sponsoring house charges an entry fee. This is usually 6-10% depending on the size of the buy-in. In 2005 the WSOP Main Event $52,818,610 in prize money have been distributed between 560 poker players and $7,5 million first prize was awarded to the winner.

The history of the WSOP begins in 1968 with an invitational event that was held at the Holiday Hotel Casino and sponsored by Tom Moore. Later on, Benny Binion, the owner of Las Vegas casino developed the modern set of events. In the beginning of 1970 the first WSOP that included series of cash games took place at Binion’s Horseshoe. The next year’s World Series of Poker included Main Event as a freeze-out Texas Holdem game. Johnny Moss, the winner of the first WSOP Main Event has been declared as the first World Champion of Poker and won a silver cup as a sign of his victory.

The World Poker Tour (also known as WPT) is the largest world poker event consisting of series of international poker tournaments that feature world’s top poker players. WPT was started in the US by TV producer Steven Lipscomb, who later became World Poker Tour Enterprises CEO.

The WPT is a series of international Texas Holdem tournaments, although most events are held in the United States. The TV show and worldwide broadcasts of the WPT led to a terrific increase in popularity of table game across the United States and many other countries of Europe. The major sponsors of the World Poker Tour are online poker rooms and land-based casinos. The internationally syndicated show is also co-hosted by actor Vince Van Patten and Mike Sexton, the winner of the WPT bracelet. Also Shana Hiatt served as sideline reporter and the show host during WPT’s first three seasons. Fourth season was hosted by Courtney Friel and fifth season was hosted by Sabina Gadecki. The hostesses of the sixth season were Kimberly Lansing and Layla Kayleigh. There were no announced hostess for the seventh season of the WPT, but Amanda Leatherman, a famous poker player and reported was hired to host live updates and tournament news on the World Poker Tour website.

The WPT debut season started in 2002 and ended in the beginning of 2003, culminating with the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio Casino (Las Vegas) in the end of April 2003. The first season was broadcasted on the Travel Channel in April and May 2003. The WPT show made its TV debut in the beginning of 2004 on NBC. The hottest spot of the show was a special Battle of Champions tournament. Although first five seasons of World Poker Tour were aired on the Travel Channel, the sixth season moved to GSN in the beginning of 2008. However, after the first WPT tournament aired on GSN, WPTE (World Poker Tour Enterprises) announced that the tournament’s seventh season will be aired on Fox Sports Net.

The major attractiveness of the World Poker Tour and most large poker tournament is that anyone who can afford to pay the buy-in can compete for the main prize. Typically the WPT buy-in costs $2,500 – $25,000, but you can also get a free seat by winning one of satellite tournaments held by both online poker rooms and some land-based casinos.

What you don’t find in ring games is the huge payoff for a day’s work. In a ring game, three hours of solid play against lesser opponents can net you $20 an hour or so, but $60 isn’t exactly life-changing money. No, to get the big money you have to play in poker tournaments, where anywhere from 20 to 2,000 players sit down together and see who comes out on top. Chris Moneymaker, the Tennessee accountant who turned a $39 PokerStars online tournament buy-in into the $2 million 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event first prize, is the poster boy for online poker. The 2004 World Series winner, Greg Raymer, is also a PokerStars player, though he had competed in several previous WSOP main events and plays a lot of high-limit Stud at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut .

The remainder of this section discusses tournament strategies you can follow to maximize your chances of finishing in the money.

Read more: Texas Holdem (Limit) Tournaments

World largest poker tournaments:

The World Series of Poker – WSOP

The World Poker Tour – WPT

The European Poker Tour – EPT

Aussie Millions

Tournament tips:

• Your first online Texas Holdem tournament
• Online Poker Tournament Tips
• Buying In to a Poker Tournament
• Achieving Goal One: Surviving
• Achieving Goal Two: Increasing Your Chip Stack
• Achieving Goal Three: Making It into the Money
• Achieving Goal Four: Making It to the Top Three Positions
• Playing in Rebuy Poker Tournaments
• Practicing Holdem Poker Tournament Play
• Should you be active early in a Texas Holdem tournament?
• Turbo Multi Table Tournament Tips

However, typical freerolls are completely free. Unlike standard poker tournaments, where the prize pool is accumulated from the entry fees, in freerolls the prize pool is provided by the house, or sponsorship fees, or broadcast rights fees, or admission charged to spectators or any other source that wouldn’t require the participants to pay for their seats. Many online poker rooms and land-based casinos offer freerolls as bonus games for loyal members or frequent players. These are usually invitation-only tournaments for the frequenters.

Don’t confuse freerolls with play money tournaments – these two types of tournaments have to differences. First of all typical play money tournaments require a play money buy-in and the winnings are also play money, while in freerolls you shouldn’t pay an entry fee, but compete for real money prizes. Many online poker rooms running point reward systems require a payment of points. Sometimes you can buy a free invitation buy depositing money into your account. Besides of cash prizes, the winnings in freeroll tournaments can be player points, various merchandise, or free entries to standard tournaments.

RoomReview.net is proud to present the following schedule of the best freerolls held by top online poker rooms listed on our site. Using this listing of freerolls you will never miss free tournaments, where you can win real money, entries to standard tournaments and other cool stuff!

The European Poker Tour (also known as EPT) is the largest annual European poker tournament that began in the beginning of 2004 as a result of terrific worldwide increase in popularity of Texas Holdem. EPT consists of series of broadcasted poker tournaments and is very similar to WPT (World Poker Tour).

During the first three seasons, the most obvious and significant difference between the two poker tours (EPT and WPT) was the size of the buy-in and its effect on the size of the prize pool. The typical buy-in size featured by European Poker Tour was about half the size of the WPT’s buy-in. However, due to increased popularity of the tournament and lack of space in sponsoring casinos the EPT buy-in size was increased to 8,000 Euros ($10,000) in fourth season, which equaled the size of EPT’s and WPT’s buy-ins.

Another significant difference between the two Tours is that EPT’s final table is made up of eight players, while WPT allows just six final table players.

The European Poker Tour is sponsored by PokerStars and exclusively taped by Sunset + Vine for further broadcasting across Europe .

The European Poker Tour was initially created winner of the first Poker Million tournament, John Duthie, who commentates the show together with Colin Murray. The show’s first hostess was Caroline Flack, who was later joined by Natalie Pinkham. The last (fourth) season of the show is hosted by Kara Scott.

The fifth season of Europe ’s richest and most popular poker tournament starts on September 10, 2008 in Barcelona . Season five of the European Poker Tour features eleven events, just as fourth season of the Tour, which involved 11 poker tournaments across Europe . The main event of the fourth season attracted a record number of players (842) and a record prize pool (8,4 million Euros) which made EPT the richest poker tournament ever held outside of Las Vegas . The total size of EPT’s fourth season was 38,2 million Euros with about 6,000 players involved in the Grand Game.

Aussie Millions (also known as the Australian Poker Championship) is a large poker tournament held at the Melbourne ’s Crown Casino. Aussie Millions is the richest poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere with a prize pool over 7 million Australian Dollars.

The Australian Poker Championship was introduced in the beginning of 1997. The first major poker championship was held a bit later, in summer 1998. The Main Event of Aussie Millions was a Limit Texas Holdem Poker tournament with a $1,000 Australian Dollars buy-in that attracted 74 participants. The prize pool of the 1998’s Aussie Millions Main Event was 74,000 Australian Dollars.

The Crown Casino’s Australian Poker Championship, which became known as Aussie Millions then moved to the early winter of 2001 and attracted 40 participants competing for a 200,000 Australian Dollars prize pool (with a 5,000 Australian Dollars buy-in). In the beginning of 2003 the APC went international and attracted 122 participants competing for a 1,2 million of Australian Dollars prize pool.

In 2005, the Aussie Millions tournament increased in popularity and attracted 263 players competing for a 2,630,000 Australian Dollars prize pool with a 10,000 Australian Dollars buy-in to enter the No-Limit Texas Holdem Main Event. More than 50% of players were foreigners including participants from USA , Sweden , New Zealand , Ireland , England , Norway , Italy , Canada , Lebanon , Holland and Denmark .

In January 2006 Aussie Millions attracted even more players – 418 participants that competed for a 4,180,000 Australian Dollars prize pool. This championship attracted many world famous poker players including World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and Phil Ivey.

The 2007 Aussie Millions started on 14 th January 2007 and ended on 19 th January 2007 with a buy-in worth 10,500 Australian Dollars and 747 participants from 25 countries. Such quantity of players generated a prize pool of 7,470,000 Australian Dollars that was shared by 80 top players that received cash prizes between 15 thousands and 1,5 millions of Australian Dollars each.

The last Aussie Millions championship started on 20 th January 2008 and gathered a record of 780 players from 32 countries. The buy-in was 10,500 Australian Dollars, which built a prize pool of 7,800,000 Australian Dollars. The winner of the tournament, young Russian player Alexander Kostritsyn received 1,650,000 Australian Dollars and the rest of the prize pool was shared by other 79 winners of the championship.