List of largest poker tournaments in history by prize pool Wikipedia

In April 2026, the schedule for the 2026 WSOP Online bracelet series was released, featuring 30 events running from May 30 through July 14. Real money online poker is available in the United States, but only in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey. In 2005, a video game based on the tournament series, titled World Series of Poker, was released for several consoles and PC. PokerGO’s 2021 WSOP live streaming coverage began on Monday, October 4, and would include 36 days of live broadcasts from more than 20 unique events as part of the 52nd annual WSOP. The ESPN family of networks aired 36 hours of Main Event coverage leading up to the November Nine on a 30-minute delay, showing the hole cards of all players who voluntarily entered the pot once the hand ended.

The WSOP has corporate sponsors and licensed products which pay fees to market themselves as an official sponsors and/or licensees and exclusively use the WSOP insignia and cross-promote with their events. As part of PokerGO’s live coverage of the 2021 WSOP, and for the first time ever, live streaming of the WSOP Main Event moved to the PokerGO platform and would be broadcast from start to finish. Per the terms of the new deal, CBS Sports was set to broadcast 15 hours of WSOP Main Event coverage plus 36 additional hours from select gold bracelet events. PokerGO has had exclusive WSOP broadcast rights since 2017, with shared coverage of select events appearing on PokerGO. The 2010 WSOP had the same number of bracelet events as in 2009, again with no rebuy events. ESPN has expanded poker to all-new levels, especially with their coverage of the 2006 WSOP, including providing the entire final table of the 2006 Main Event via pay-per-view airing.

By 2007, the popularity of the Ladies Event had grown to the point that it became the first ladies-only event to have a prize pool greater than $1,000,000. In 2025, Leo Margets of Spain became the first woman in 30 years, and second woman overall, to reach the Final Table; she would finish in seventh place, cashing for $1.5 million. Foxen also owns the honor of the largest prize won by a woman at a WSOP event in Las Vegas, with a $1.77 million first prize in the $25,000 High Roller No-Limit event at the 2026 WSOP. The list below includes the WSOP Europe and WSOP Asia-Pacific, but excludes WSOP Circuit events and other non-bracelet events.

Online Poker Tournaments: Play Live Poker Tournaments of 2026

poker tournaments

In contrast, cash game winnings are determined by the chips a player cashes out, providing more immediate and consistent rewards. Events like the WPT World Championship, with its $15 million prize pool, attract the best players from around the globe. Notable events like the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event, which had a €5,325,300 prize pool in 2023, highlight the tour’s prestige. With stops in cities like Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Vienna, the EPT attracts top players and offers significant prize pools.

The tournament itself will be one of the biggest poker tournaments in the mid-major buyin range this year, especially if we are only considering events on European soil. In these tournaments the prize pool goes to buying tickets for the higher buy-in tournament and the ticket(s) are then distributed to the winning players instead of cash. While most online poker tournaments are the same, there can be slight variations from tournament to tournament. Whether you’re looking for micro-stakes tournaments, satellites, freerolls or high-stakes online poker tournaments – the Poker.com tournaments database has got you covered.

ClubWPT™ VIP members receive $10-off tickets with a minimum spend of $75 once per month with ScoreBig®, providing ClubWPT™ VIP members Poker News Daily with even more accessibility to their favorite games, shows, and concerts. Use our online tools and play responsibly. It’s good to have a baseline strategy that you can use at any table – maybe you never open anything worse than King-Jack offsuit from under the gun during the early levels at a 6-max Hold’em tournament. These stacks also require a different approach than you’d use with the familiar 100 big blind stacks at a typical cash table.

Since then, the WSOP Main Event has gone from strength to strength and in 2023 saw the biggest entry field with 10,043 players paying the $10,000 entry and produced the biggest winner ever! PokerStars, WSOP, WPT and other major operators have live events scheduled all over the world. You can set multiple filters in one go to narrow down the results and find the exact tournaments that are best suited to your play and strategy. At PokerNews we have made it easy for you to find a live poker tournament.

A double up early on or being an overwhelming chip-leader means little, given the total amount of chips in play and the time left in the tournament. ICM considerations, bankroll implications and gameplay dynamics become even more relevant, and there are several factors to consider in order to be profitable. WSOP.com brings the glitz and glamour to digital tables, offering a host of different REAL WSOP bracelets during WSOP Online Circuit events. GGPoker is home to the WSOP Online, where players from eligible countries can compete for actual World Series of Poker bracelets.

Active venues are included when current tournament rows, cash-game rows, or both are available from source-backed coverage. For players in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, WSOP Online has become something worth paying attention to. In the early stages of a poker tournament, prioritize playing conservatively and focusing on solid hands to build a strong chip stack.

It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker players to the Horseshoe Casino for a single tournament, with a set start and stop time, and a winner determined by a secret ballot of the seven players. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. These are the biggest events on our calendar, with dozens of different tournaments to play and millions of dollars in guaranteed prize money. Some of the most popular live poker tournaments in the world include the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the European Poker Tour (EPT).

In 2000, there were 4,780 entrants in the various events, but in 2005, the number rose to over 23,000 players. The victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win. Mike Matusow won the first prize of $1 million (US), and all the players at the final table were guaranteed a minimum of $25,000 for the eighth and ninth-place finishers. In 1970, the first WSOP at Binion’s Horseshoe took place as a series of cash games that included five-card stud, deuce to seven low-ball draw, razz, seven-card stud, and Texas hold ’em.

If you play for real money, make sure that you do not play for more than you can afford losing, and that you only play at safe and regulated operators. Participants must also register and pay an entry fee, which may vary from tournament to tournament. Major tours like the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) offer online qualifiers through their platforms or partner sites. The first tournament was held in Málaga and since then the ESPT has covered many cities including Madrid, Valencia and San Sebastian. The Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT) was founded in 2011 and has become an important part of the poker scene in Spain.

So, are you ready to win Arkadium’s Texas Holdem Poker tournament? Alternatively, if the round is getting too rich for your blood, you can «fold» and play again in the next round. Texas Holdem is a complex game for beginners, but it’s easy to learn after a few hands. PokerNews.com is the world’s leading poker website. Since 1970, the WSOP has been the place where that dream lives. This requires a keen understanding of when to take risks and when to play conservatively, balancing aggression with the need for survival.

poker tournaments

Winners of the event not only get the largest prize of the tournament and a gold bracelet, but additionally their picture is placed in the Gallery of Champions at Binion’s. In 2023, the World Series of Poker introduced a $300 no-limit hold ’em bracelet event called Gladiators of Poker, its lowest-priced event. While the Main Event is the biggest – according to prize pool – event in the series; the Millionaire Maker ($1,500 buy-in) is next up top with its latest edition bearing a prize pool of $14,603,565. The 2006 Main Event, won by Jamie Gold, was the largest single poker tournament by prize pool or by entrant numbers in history; Gold pocketed US$12 million for his victory.

poker tournaments

These tournaments are run like a cash tournament but anyone who eliminates a player also receives the losing players ‘bounty’. Generally poker sites pay 15-20% of the field – so a tournament with 100 players would pay ~ 15 to 20 players, with most of the prize money allocated to the top spots. In cash tournaments players buy-in for a nominated amount and play down to the last person. The $50,000 buy-in, being five times larger than the buy-in for the Main Event, has thus far tended to deter amateurs from playing in this event, and the variety of games played require a broader knowledge of poker. Since 1972, the Main Event of the WSOP has been the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold ’em (NLHE) tournament (in 1971 the buy-in was $5,000 and the inaugural 1970 event was an invitational with winner determined by a vote from the players).

poker tournaments

Hand history reviews can identify playing mistakes and improvement areas. Play Money tables provide an option for skill development without risking real money. Online poker learning resources cover fundamental concepts through to advanced strategy. Games run continuously online without location constraints. Physical tells are not identifiable online but online tells can include the timing of bets and bet size patterns.

If you’re just playing for fun and don’t care about the prize pool, you can ignore this factor. Choose tournaments where you think you’ll have an edge against the majority of the field, whether this means slow-pace freezeouts or turbo bounty tournaments. If you play too big buy-ins compared to the size of your bankroll, you’re essentially risking going broke – even if you’re a winning player! When you log in to a poker site and find the tournament lobby, you will see a ton of tournament options to choose from. Your strategy should depend a lot on the size of your stack when you’re playing the late stage in a tournament. Your goal in the middle stage is to stay alive in the tournament and make it to the money – if you manage to build a big stack for the late stage, that’s even better.

poker tournaments

We have sifted through thousands of live poker tournament schedules and filtered them by location, buy-in level, game type and start time. A minimum of five (5) players must be dealt into a Texas Hold’em game. Any player who wins with a minimum of Aces full (Aces full of any rank) or better will receive the designated prize in chips, cash, or check, as outlined above. Both events set WPT records in field size and prize pools guarantees, with the 2023 edition prize pool guarantee of 40 million setting a poker industry record and a top prize of over $5 million. The WPT organizers reacted by dropping the buy-in to $15,000 from 2014 onwards, limiting participation to winners of WPT events since the start of the series, and changing the name again, to WPT Tournament of Champions. From elite high-stakes action to everyday games, CoinPoker delivers a transparent, crypto-friendly poker experience for all.

Register early, and use cash or a satellite-earned ticket for your buy-in. We’ll give you an automatic refund of your buy-in when you bust during the bubble, as long as you’ve registered early for the tournament. For anyone who’s been knocked out of a tournament one spot short of the money, Bubble Protection is now here to help. Join the action across multiple tournament formats in our Coin Series of Poker (CSOP). The series saw over 43 million dealt hands, more than 578,000 entries, and 59 trophies awarded to champions. The $25,000,000 guaranteed World Poker Masters ran from May 3 to June 1, 2026, and broke all records to deliver a $48,000,000 in payouts.

If you’re ready to dive into the world of online competition, there’s no better place to begin. The biggest poker festival in Belgium is back in the heart of Wallonia. Support is available through online Help Centers. Players can study poker hand rankings to understand the hierarchy. Desktop software, mobile apps and sometimes web browsers provide access. PokerStars offers a secure playing environment.

$100 No Limit Hold’em Turbo

Players can participate in Scheduled Tournaments, Sit & Go Tournaments, and a Weekly Guaranteed tournament every weekend. Each Division has a $20,000 prize pool that will be shared with the Top 15 Point Earners. The BSOP is Brazil’s biggest poker tour and invites you to visit beautiful and exciting cities as you chase BSOP success across the country. If you like high-quality poker action at must-visit destinations, then the EPT is ready and waiting – make sure you’re part of it. Our tournament calendar is updated frequently.

The WSOP, the most iconic live poker series, provides online qualification options for events in Las Vegas and WSOP Europe. If you enjoy playing poker and want to try and win big, there are many popular and prestigious tournaments where you can enter and battle it out against the top players in the world. But if you’re after only the very biggest, best, most illustrious online tournaments, then US players can only pick WSOP.com – not available in other countries! Boosted prize pools, huge fields and unique tournament concepts and formats all make them some of the best events to play in the online calendar. Additionally, PokerStars players can win their way into major live events such as the Irish Open and the European Poker Tour.

Poker player and reporter Amanda Leatherman was the host for Season VII while Lansing was on maternity leave. In June 2015, The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced that bwin.party sold the company to Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for a price of $35 million in cash. Poker tournaments come with very high variance and require solid bankroll management. Always be aware of your position at the table and avoid getting into trouble by playing marginal hands out of position.

  • Play continues, in most tournaments, until all but one player is eliminated, though in some tournament situations, especially informal ones, players have the option of ending by consensus.
  • The prize pool is distributed among the top survivors, usually around 15% of the players who enter; the longer you survive, the bigger your prize gets, with the most cash going to the winner.
  • Head to the tournament lobby and use filters to narrow down events by buy-in, format, game type, or start time.
  • By the end of Bellagio Cup, my boss Jeff Holsey offered me a full-time role, but only if I promised not to drop out of school to take it.
  • No other tournament comes close to combining its field size, buy-in level, and historical prestige.

Pineapple Hold ‘Em can be played either high or high-low split. TEXAS HOLD ‘EMHold ‘Em is a community card game. We keep the lines short and the action non-stop in our Poker room with over 30 tables. You’re never more than a few hours away from great tournament action at Mohegan Sun. The WPT Honors Award is the WPT’s highest honor, awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the World Poker Tour and the poker community as a whole.

A small portion of the buy-in goes for the rake taken by the poker operator. Typically the lowest paid finishing spot is about double the size of the buy-in for the event. Must be 21 and up to play. Sites like BetOnline provide a comprehensive view of tournament schedules directly on their websites. Random seat assignments prevent strategic positioning advantages, ensuring fairness for all. Additionally, chip ‘coloring up’ involves exchanging lower denomination chips for higher ones to streamline play.