Events

With all of the online poker rooms, tournaments, and events going on, it can be hard to keep track of the online poker world. Most of the top online poker sites have similar features and services for their players. Amongst the industry standards for online poker rooms are excellent customer service, an impeccable interface, and daily cash tournaments. Most of the people who are serious about online poker join online cash events to play for real money. The buy-ins, games, and tournament formats for these events vary from site to site. Here is a basic guide to some of the most popular and prestigious online poker events you can join:

Top online poker events: special events

The most popular online poker events are the large special events that are hosted by some of the best poker sites on the Internet. Sites like Titan Poker, PokerStars, and FullTilt Poker can generate enough traffic to run hundreds of tournaments per day. Some of these sites host main events that take place once a year or more. Players from all over the world can play in these special events that can have guaranteed total prize pots reaching millions of dollars.

Tournament formats for special events differ in a number of ways. Buy-ins for special events can range greatly from low prices at around $100 to more expensive events that have buy-ins worth thousands of dollars. While main events tend to have higher prize pots, other special events are often more popular because of the lower buy-ins. No Limit Texas Hold'em is usually the most popular type of event, but there are other formats played as well, such as Limit, Hi/Lo, Omaha, HOUSE, and Stud games.

Some of the most prestigious special events that are run on the Internet include PokerStars' World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), Titan Poker's European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) and Full Tilt Poker's Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) and Bodog Poker's Bodog Poker Open (BPO).

Top online poker events: satellites and freerolls

Special events often attract tens of thousands of players, because of the prestige and prize money that comes along with winning one of the events. Aside from special events though, satellite and freeroll tournaments also attract a lot of online players. Some of the most popular online events are the satellite and freeroll events where players can win seats in some of the biggest live poker tournament series in the world. Some of the live series that players can win seats to include the World Poker Tour (WPT), the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the European Poker Tour (EPT), and the Aussie Millions.

The popularity of satellites and freerolls is largely attributed to the relatively low buy-in costs. The buy-ins for prestigious poker series like the WSOP and WPT can easily reach thousands of dollars. Satellite tournaments, on the other hand, offer players a seat for buy-ins as low as a couple of dollars. Freerolls, as the name suggests, allow players to join for free considering they meet a certain set of requirements. For example, some freeroll seats are given to those who have enough player points from the poker site. Players win prize money along their journey up the tournament ladder, not to mention a prize package that includes the buy-in for the main event, accommodations, and pocket money.