Major Poker Tournaments
At this page we will describe major poker tournaments held in North America and Europe. To take part in one of these tournaments you can either pay a full buy-in or participate in one of on-site or internet satellites run at major online poker rooms such as PokerStars, PartyPoker, Paradise Poker etc.
World Series of Poker (WSOP)
WSOP was founded by Tom Morehead of the Riverside casino in Reno. The first WSOP was an invitation event and included only 7 participants. Later on, Benny Binion, a Las Vegas legend and a casino owner started a massive promotion campaign and just in a couple of years made World Series of Poker the largest and the most prestigious poker tournaments on the planet. In 2004, WSOP and Binon's Horseshoe casino, the home of WSOP, were purchased by Harrah's Entertainment and since 2005, World Series of Poker events run in casinos owned by Harrah's all around the US. The most players in the history of WSOP are Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson and Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan with 10 golden WSOP bracelets each and Phil Hellmuth with nine WSOP bracelets.
World Poker Tour (WPT)
WPT is the second most prestigious poker tournament after World Series of Poker. Founded by television producer Stephen Lipscomb, World Poker Tour is a series of televised poker tournaments held in casinos over the world an on board of cruise boats. The first season of WPT started in the end of 2002 and ended in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Being designed as a TV focused event, all events of WPT are broadcasted by Travel Channel and several cable-TV companies.
European Poker Tour (EPT)
EPT is the largest poker tournament in Europe. The structure of the tournament is very similar to that of World Poker Tour: Series of events are held in different cities across Europe. However, the buy-in of European Poker Tour is about twice smaller than the one of the WPT, which makes the prize pool smaller and attracts less star players. However, the last European Poker Tour was full of world class poker players and the winners took home 6 digit prizes.
