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Offline Tournaments |
 And then there were eight. If this statement was attached to an Agatha Christie novel it would mean that some really bad things had happened to everyone but the remaining eight people; and even their future was looking a little on the bleak side. When we are talking about this statement in reference to television poker, it describes where we are in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. |
 While technically celebrity Shannon Elisabeth won the recently held charity poker tourney at the Playboy Mansion, the manner in which the winner was decided left a little to be desired among many of the players at the event. |
 Here are the most famous American poker tournaments listed randomly. Man shall not live by WSOP alone, huh? |
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In the largest series of European Poker events to date, the European Poker Tour (EPT) swept seven cities in seven European countries from
September 18, 2004 to March 19, 2005. Sponsored by PokerStars.com, the EPT gave poker pros the opportunity to test their mettle in exotic locations ranging from Barcelona to Dublin in a no-limit
Texas Hold’em tournament. |
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In most poker tournaments, everyone is welcome. As long as you have the money for the buy in and you treat the table and players with
respect, you can join the game. With the Professional Poker Tour (PPT), however, buy-in isn’t enough. |
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You’ve spent countless hours online, learning the rules and lingo of a
handful of poker games like draw and hold’em. You’ve sat at more and
more tables, putting your chips and your nerves to the test facing
down sunglasses-shielded opponents who are all out for blood. |
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Do you know what the biggest problems with tournaments are? First of all they usually don’t happen where most people live. They usually occur somewhere that orbits a casino or in some no-mans land that requires a long drive, and perhaps a secret knock to get in the door. There is also the question of expense... |
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We have all heard the familiar clap trap about how the only things that are guaranteed in life are those things that return you to the “circle of life” in a pine box, and some grumpy IRS agent miscalculating how much of your yearly income you have to shell out to Washington D.C. |
 The Amateur Poker Association & Tour will be holding court in the United Kingdom at the end of the year, offering amateurs of all stripes the chance to sit down and take a shot at the £15,000 prize pool being offered up in the APAT United Kingdom Amateur Poker Championship. |
 The World Poker Tour has created a number of memorable events, one of the most memorable of which is the World Poker Tour Invitational. |
 The FullTilt.Net Championship was recently run at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas, with Thanksgiving Day providing the setting for a victory for one of the Tiltboys themselves, Phil Gordon. |
 Running January 5 through January 10, 2007, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure will be one of the biggest draws in the poker world to kick off the new year in Paradise. |
 Running from November 20th right through Thanksgiving and the weekend after, the 2006 B.C. Poker Championships brought players from all over to the River Rock Casino Resort, located at 8811 River Road in Richmond, BC, Canada. |
 When the World Poker Tour tallies up its viewing records to see which events are the most popular of their already hugely popular televised poker tournament series, invariably the women-only Ladies Night comes out very near the top. |
 It was the final day of the Ongame Network Poker Classic and, after ten hours of intense action, only six of 45 remained. The 45 that started this event out in Barcelna, Spain, came from around the globe on Ongame’s dime, thanks to the unique format of this event. |
 It is hard to imagine hard work going on in the Caribbean, but the six final players at the Caribbean Poker Classic worked as hard as anyone to be the final player standing and to claim the $221,000 first prize. |
 Starting on October 26, 2006 and running thru February 24, 2007, the 11th annual WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star will take place at the Bay 101 Casino poker room, with a $10,000 buy in guaranteed to bring about a huge prize pool. |
 The first major professional poker tournament to be held in India, the Asian Poker Classic, will take place at the Intercontinental Grand Resort Goa in early March, kicking off a four day, No Limit Texas Holdem event that promises to be a huge draw not only for India and the East, but for poker players from around the world. |
 Kicking off on December 1st the Five Diamond World Poker Classic typically draws huge crowds, both for the fact that it takes place at the famous Bellagio Casino, and because it is one of the hottest tickets on the World Poker Tour. |
 Chris Moneymaker and PokerStars have been enticing poker players for a few months with the Moneymaker Millionaire freeroll tournament with $2.5 million in prizes in honor of the amount Moneymaker won when he took the 2003 WSOP Main Event by storm. |
 The L.A. Poker Classic will take place February 24 through March 1, 2007 as an official World Poker Tour event. This series of events is reminiscent of the World Series of Poker, with the emphasis being placed on No Limit Holdem events. |
 If you want to be like The Donald, you can watch and apply for The Apprentice, develop an abnormally behaving pompadour, or become filthy rich - and where better to develop some seed capital for your new real estate empire than the Trump Classic, the poker event played out at the Taj Mahal on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City from November 27 - December 17, 2006. |
 A slow start at the final table gave players a chance to feel each other out, with the brother of the Grinder posing the biggest threat. |
 When the World Poker Tour created the Professional Poker Tour, it seemed like a move to cater only to the pro poker players out there, as the only way to get in was by invitation. What they made, however, was a pro level tournament series that was great for pros, but also a fan favorite TV show. |
 The event known as Poker Face will be held at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas on May 16, 2007. The goal of the Poker Face event is to find one player and give them the job of being a pro poker player for an entire year. |
 South Africa is joining a host of other nations in holding pro level poker tournaments, with their first such event coming up in 2007 and hosted by poker pros Kenna James and Robert Williamson III. |
 The Showdown Poker Tour crisscrosses Europe to bring high level poker circuit action to where the players live. This season started out at the Gutshot Club in London in 2006, and is wrapping up at the Casino de Montreux and Casino Esplanade. |
 Jamie Gold, the world champion of poker thanks to his win during the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event this summer, managed to win yet another event - this time an event he was also hosting. |
 The Irish Poker Open, taking place during this year’s Easter weekend, is the second longest running pro poker series on the planet, coming in behind the World Series of Poker - which makes sense, as the Irish Poker Open’s founders were players in the WSOP and inspired by it. |
 For months the Asian Poker Classic has been heralded as the biggest poker event ever to be held in India, and it came off without a hitch. |
 The Wynn Classic this year consisted of 13 events, with players getting a taste of what the summer will hold when the WSOP comes to town. |
 Part of the World Poker Tour, the 2007 World Poker Challenge got started on March 3rd and the action will continue up through the end of the month. The World Poker Tour means plenty of action and a lot of hot competition, especially for the main events. |
 While the festivities have already got underway at the Bicycle Casino in California, you can still get in on the action at the Winnin’ o’ the Green, with tournaments running up through the end of the month of March. |
 "You call this and it’s all over, baby," those words were uttered in 1998 during the WSOP, when Scotty Nguyen tempted Kevin McBride to call an all in bet and award Scotty the championship. Ever since that moment, Scotty has been a fan favorite in the world of poker, and fans will get a chance to play in Scotty’s own tournament this May, when the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge III kicks off. |
 It has been called the "most rockin’ poker tournament in Oklahoma," and we won’t argue. The Rock-n-Roland Poker Tournament takes place at the Cherokee Casino in - you guessed it - Roland, Okalahoma, and there are four days of No Limit Texas Holdem action with decent payoffs. |
 Think that the US has the market cornered on dramatic poker television? Think again, as the Poker Masters of Europe, soon to be seen on UK TV, challenges the paradigm. This exclusive invitation only poker event will be sponsored by Betfair Poker - making it the Betfair Poker Masters of Europe. |
 When the HPT descended to what some may think of as a sleepy corner of the United States, the poker fans responded by making it the biggest HPT event ever, with attendance and prize pools approaching WSOP levels. |
 The Irish Poker Open takes place in Dublin, Ireland, and it is the oldest running pro poker circuit series in the world, right after the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. |
 When the atmosphere surrounding poker became a little uncomfortable in Sweden an enterprising poker fan took it upon himself to buy up a full board of tournament seats at a casino in Estonia, get the word out to Swedish players, and the Swedish Poker Championship was born. |
 The 2007 Johnny Chan Poker Classic took place this month from May 6th through May 13th at the River Rock Casino Resort in British Columbia, Canada. |
 Las Vegas is not the only place to find poker tournaments, and while most folks will think of Atlantic City when moving out of Vegas but staying in the U.S., there are casinos all across the land that put on some quality, professional poker events, such as the 5th Annual East Coast Poker Championships, which took place in New York. |
 The 2007 Rendez-Vous a Paris took place at the world famous Aviation Club de France, a spot where the World Poker Tour was used to stopping each season but which couldn’t happen this go round. While the WPT was not welcome due to some changes in French law, the event still went on and the poker was still extraordinary according to reports. |
 In Atlantic City poker players have a lot to look forward to this summer, including the Borgata Summer Poker Open Tournament 2007, which will run from Wednesday, June 13 through Tuesday, June 26, 2007. |
 It may seem silly to some to call a poker game a "Battle", but then, those who scoff may have never played the serious poker that was going on during Paradise Poker’s Slaget om Norden III. |
 Running the entire month of August is the World Poker Tour’s 2007 Legends of Poker, one of the most anticipated WPT events of the year. Held at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA, the Legends comprises of more than 25 events, including a number of invitation only tourneys and a $50,000 Players Appreciation event to wrap up the month and the Legends of Poker. |
 London has been touted as the best city in Europe to go for poker, and as such it makes sense why the new National Poker League has decided to kick off their very first world wide poker tour there. |
 Near the end of August 2007 one of the more popular live poker tournaments in California is taking place at the Bay 101 casino in San Jose. |
 The World Poker Tour events continue to run strong this season, and coming up at the end of August is the latest, the 2007 Gulf Coast Poker Championship to be held at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi. |
 If there was any doubt as to whether or not the European Poker Tour would catch on, they can be put to rest. Into the fourth season of the EPT, the fans will be flocking to Spain to take part in the EPT Barcelona Open, taking place at the Casino Barcelona at the tail end of August. |
 The World Poker Tour always delivers in terms of big prizes and big crowds, and one of the more popular events on their circuit is the Borgata Poker Open, taking place at (where else?) the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, located at One Borgata Way in Atlantic City, New Jersey. |
 The European Poker Tour travels to Austria for their third stop in their fourth season for the 2007 EPT Baden Classic. |
 Going on right now is the 2007 US Poker Championship, taking place at one of the more lavish of the Atlantic City casinos, the poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal. Anything that Trump slaps his name on is done in a big way, and the 2007 US Poker Championship is no exception. |
 Held out in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the 2007 1st Annual Horseshoe Poker Classic borrows a page from the founders of the World Series of Poker - at least with the name "Horseshoe" - and offers some discount poker in a big event format, which is great for both the new players seeking to get their feet wet in the game and for players looking for small to mid sized events at which to practice live poker. |
 This is a World Poker Tour event you can go to and not play poker, and still have a great time. It may be a bit odd to call an event a "Classic" if it is the first time through, but as long as the poker is great no one will mind. |
 The World Poker Tour expands on the "World" part of their name to add a Spanish destination to their Sixth Season. The World Poker Tour Spanish Championship will be played in a city well known to European poker players, Barcelona, at the Casino Barcelona. |
 In poker a deep stack tournament is akin to a deep dish pizza. With both you have more to love, and it takes you longer to get through it - and along the way you can appreciate it more. Deep stack poker tournaments have more chips and typically longer blind structures, giving poker players with the skills a better shot at winning. |
 There used to be a time that the only place you would find a poker tournament with a prize pool topping six figures was in Las Vegas, or in a similar gambling Mecca around the world. With the proliferation of poker both in the online world and in the real world, it should come as no surprise that million dollar tournaments are cropping up all over the world, such as the one in Louisiana that is coming this December. |
 Part of the world famous World Poker Tour, the World Poker Open is held at the Gold Strike Hotel Casino in Robinsonville, MS, and will kick off the new year as part of the Season Six WPT on January 3rd, and run through January 23rd. |
 The Asian Pacific Poker Tour is new this year, and it has already set a number of records. With the first live poker event to take place on the soil of the People’s Republic of China, the APPT Macau event turned a lot of heads, and the Big Event at the end of the season - the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Sydney - is likely to do the same. |
 Arizona recently joined the ranks of those US States that got a visit from the Heartland Poker Tour. Six of the final table players in this event were from Arizona, and the winner as well. It was Andreas Foulias, fifty-three years old from Gilbert, Arizona, who won the No Limit Texas Holdem freezeout event. Foulias picked up nearly $60,000 with this victory, for which he has a few interesting plans. |
 It was the first event of its kind, and it signifies the hope that poker may yet put down roots in the People’s Republic of China, where currently gambling is an illegal activity. It was the Poker Stars sponsored Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau, which took place in the only territory in China where poker could happen. |
 Binion’s casino, formally Binion’s Horseshoe, is a famous destination in Las Vegas, being the birthplace of the World Series of Poker. When they sold the franchise to Harrah’s Entertainment they needed something to fill the tables, and one way they do that is by hosting the World Tavern Poker Open. |
 When you hold a poker tournament in Las Vegas, poker pros are going to play. It may not be the biggest event, or the most advertised, or boast the largest cash prizes, but as long as it is worth the effort of driving down the street to play a game you love and possibly add to your bankroll, the pros are going to be there. Such was the case with the recently held National Poker League Vegas Open. |
 There are few places better to be in the cold months of January and February (and even March) than California. There are few places in California that are better to be than Los Angeles, so all you poker fans are in luck if you plan on attending the World Poker Tour: 2008 LA Poker Classic. |
 They say that heads up competition is the purest form of poker. You have one player against the other, focusing all their skills and tactics on each other, trying to get in the other player’s head and out play them regardless of the cards they actually hold. When NBC launched their National Heads Up Championship, they found they had a hit on their hands. |
 The Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, CA isn’t the hotspot that many of the Vegas Casinos are. It isn’t the biggest or the best in California, etiher, but when it came time for the World Poker Tour to find partners for their fledgling idea, the Bay 101 got on the short list. |
 The Bellagio is a very popular casino in Las Vegas (even more so after the hit remake of Ocean’s Eleven) that sports a water show that has to be seen to be believed. It also sports a number of high profile major poker tournaments every year, and the annual 5 Diamond World Poker Tour Classic is one of the more popular. |
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