4/9/2022»»Saturday

Biggest Poker Tournament

4/9/2022
  • When it comes to the biggest poker tournaments around the world, arguably the best place to find the most lucrative payouts is the World Series of Poker (WSOP). This one is known as the largest one. The ultimate prize is a WSOP gold bracelet, but these events also come with enormous prize funds attached.
  • Antonio Esfandiari holds the record for All-Time Biggest Win in the 2012 WSOP. Antonio Esfandiari.

If you’re searching for the top USA poker tournaments then let us draw you a map. Thanks to many years of experience in the industry, we’ve been able to dissect the best MTT products the US has to offer and give you an insight into what makes them tick.

Suitable for high rollers and aspiring amateurs alike, our list of top US poker tournaments will be enough to point you in the right direction if you’re looking to make your fortune on the live circuit.

The Biggest Poker Tournament in History - The Triton Million for Charity Movie - YouTube 🔱 Relive the prestigious Triton Million for Charity event from #TritonLondon2019 with the official.

The World Series of Poker: WSOP

Arguably the most impressive live poker tournament in the US, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is an annual event that comprises of more than 60 tournaments. Held between the end of May and the start of July, the mega festival is one of the top USA poker tournaments for a number of reasons. Aside from offering a slew of money-making opportunities, it serves as a proving ground for the every grinder in the world.

Each WSOP event offers a bracelet and over the years these have become synonymous with success. Although some bracelets may be more “prestigious” than others, anyone who has managed to win one will be forever noted amongst poker’s finest.

The WSOP was started back in 1970 when a group of the world’s best poker players decided to crown a champion. Initially decided by a vote inside Binion’s Horseshoe, the annual gathering soon turned into a tournament that would later become known as the Main Event.

Since that time the Main Event has evolved into the largest tournament on the US poker calendar. In fact, that only thing that hasn’t changed since the MTT was founded is the buy-in which has always been $10,000.

Each year the Main Event is flanked by a host of side events with buy-ins ranging from $1,000 to $1 million. All offering bracelets, these tournaments are a chance for players to prove the prowess across every poker variant imaginable, including: Texas Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Stud, Draw and H.O.R.S.E.

WSOP Circuit: WSOP-C

Born out of the WSOP’s success, World Series of Poker Circuit events are basically smaller versions of the main festival. Featuring a variety of tournament with a Main Event heading the schedule, WSOP-C events take place in various locations across America.

In total the tour boasts 21 stops, including some of the top live poker rooms in the US such as Foxwoods and They Bicycle Casino, and players are given WSOP-C rings for winning an event. Mimicking the bracelets given out to WSOP winners, the rings are now established as a symbol of success for many players.

Although the WSOP-C lacks some of the gravitas its bigger brother holds, many American grinders still see it as one of the top USA poker tournaments. The reason it’s loved by novices and aspiring pros is that it offers a steppingstone to the elite levels of the game. Typical buy-ins for a WSOP-C event will run from $300 to $1,000 and the structures are such that those with a job can still enjoy the action without impacting on the work.

The World Poker Tour: WPT

One of the US poker tournaments that helped spark a global poker boom, the World Poker Tour (WPT) is still one of the top organizations in the industry. Starting off as a handful of elite level tournaments, the WPT has since evolved to offer a mixture of high, medium and low level MTTs.

One of the main reasons why the WPT captured the imagination of the general public is that it was one of the first US poker tournaments to be shown on live TV. Utilizing Henry Orenstein’s invention, the hole card, the WPT was able to produce highly entertaining shows that aired on national TV.

Hosted by Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, each $10,000 WPT event would feature the world’s best players fighting for prizes worth in excess of $1 million. Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, John Juanda and Phil Ivey all became household names thanks to the WPT.

Today the WPT isn’t just a top US poker tournament. Visiting countries as diverse as the UK, South Africa and Cyprus, the tour is now a global powerhouse that gives punters the opportunity to play high quality tournaments from as little as $3,000.

WPT DeepStacks

In the same way the WSOP-C grew out of the success of a larger festival, the WPT’s DeepStacks offering was a way for low stakes players to enjoy a slice of the action. However, unlike the WSOP-C, WPT DeepStacks took an existing tour, the DeepStacks Poker Tour, and gave it a new edge.

Featuring the same high quality structures and organization as the WPT’s main tour, each DeepStacks festival has become a proving ground for aspiring pros. In recent years a host of players, most notably Dwight Pilgrim, have won cash and critical acclaim on the WPT’s smaller shows.

Travelling across the USA to venues in Oregon, Central California, Los Angeles and San Diego, the tour’s Main Events cost $1,000 to play and everyone that cashes in an event will earn points towards the Player of the Season title. The person who clinches this title at the end of the season will win a seat in the WPT World Championship as well as a WPT DeepStacks sponsorship package which includes free entry to a selection of US poker tournaments.

Heartland Poker Tour

Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) is a syndicated poker-based TV show that airs 52 weeks each year. Following the top low stakes poker tour in the USA, the show was created by Greg Lang and Todd Anderson in 2005.

At first the tournaments were aimed squarely at players in the Midwest, but since the HPT has grown in popularity its spread to numerous locations across the country. The tagline for the tour is “Real People, Unreal Money” and refers to its affordability for the average poker players.

Depending on the venue, each HPT Main Event will cost around $1,500 to enter, but during each festival there will be a slew of side events with buy-ins starting from $200. Thanks to the accessibility and popularity of the HPT, the show is now shown across hundreds of TV stations in America, Europe and the Caribbean. Moreover, the organization now provides a high quality tournament product for thousands of low stakes poker lovers across the US.

Youtube Poker Tournaments

The top poker tournaments in the US attract a huge number of players, but if you make it to one of these tournament’s final tables, you can win millions!

Related Pages:

Comments are closed.

The tournaments mentioned in this article are some of the biggest poker tournaments around the world. Thousands of people take part and try to win them. All these poker tournaments pay big and offer a great player experience.

Keep in mind that the buy-in amount for these tournaments is a bit on the higher end. But all these tournaments pay a huge amount to the winners that account to more than $1M. And just for the sheer challenge of winning these tournaments makes them so special. It takes a player to be a master of the game and have a great game knowledge to win in these tournaments. And if you manage to win, you’ll be treated as the best player in the world. And this is a great title to have.

What makes these tournaments so big and Special?

How to win a big poker tournament

So, you must be wondering what makes these poker tournaments so special. Well, there are four main factors that make these tournaments stand apart from the rest. They are as follows:

  1. The total number of people taking part: Literally thousands to tens of thousands of people take part in these tournaments. It feels special to play with so many people. The atmosphere built in these tournaments is the best part of all. To be a part of something so big which has great value is one’s in a lifetime experience.
  2. The tournament locations: All of these poker tournaments takes place in really big casinos which are really well-known and world-famous. To go and visit them is a dream for many people out there. Also, the locality of these tournaments are really awesome and cool places to visit for anyone.
  3. Tournaments Winnings: The winnings from these tournaments are all in Millions. This alone tells that these are not the common typical poker tournaments that happens every year. Winning in these tournaments makes you a world-famous poker player. Also, if you win in some of these poker tournaments, you’re considered as the world champion of poker. This is really a big deal in the poker industry. So, go a win in these biggest poker tournaments and make a name for your self.
  4. Challenge: It takes one to be extremely skillful to win in these biggest poker tournaments. There’s no luck as such because you compete with tens of thousands of people. And to win the title you need to be on top of the game for the entire tournament. Not just for couple of hours. And only a few players can do this. And the players that do this win most of the time.

These factors make this list one of the biggest poker tournaments in the world.

Biggest Poker Tournaments around the World

Without any further discussion let’s take a look at the top 5 most Biggest Poker Tournaments that pay big.

1. World Series Of Poker ( WSOP)

WSOP is one of the biggest poker tournaments and happens all over the world. Around tens and thousands of players compete hoping to win the tournament.

The first WSOP was played in 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. From then on the WSOP was played each year with the increasing number of contestants year by year.

WSOPbecame one of the most prestigious poker tournament a player can win. The winner is crowned as the Poker champion of the World.

Format

WSOP Las Vegas is the most popular and is conducted every year in Las Vegas in the month of June-July. Each players competing has to pay the $10,000 buy-in to get into the tournament. More than 8000 players competed in 2019 WSOP held in July.

The prize pool of 2019 WSOP Las Vegas was $80,548,600 and the Winner took $10 million in cash. The winner additional gets a bracelet to take away to his home. This bracelet signifies that the player is the world champion and the best in the world.

WSOP happens in other parts of the world too. The Variants of WSOP are as follows:

  1. WSOP Las Vegas
  2. WSOP Online Poker
  3. WSOP U.S Circuit
  4. WSOP Europe Circuit
  5. WSOP International Circuit

Each one of these tournaments offers a huge cash prize for the winners along with a bracelet to take home. The player with the most bracelets is PhilHellmuth and has won 15 times. There’s no question that WSOP is the world’s biggest poker tournaments ever.

2. World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP)

This is one of the biggest poker tournaments conducted online and is played by players all over the world. The tournament is sponsored by Poker Stars. It is played on the PokerStars site in the month of September every year.

WCOOP was started in the year 2002 and is the online equivalent to the World Series Of Poker. The WCOOP offers a variety of Poker games with Texas Hold’em being the famous one. There are different buy-ins for different variants and different prize pool.

Biggest Poker Tournaments In The World

The games featured are Limit, Pot-Limit and No-Limit Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Studand Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, Razz, Pot Limit OmahaHigh and Limit Omaha Hi/Lo, 5 card draw, 2-7 triple draw, and H.O.R.S.E.

In the year 2018 WCOOP, 186 different events were conducted by Poker Stars. The main event of 2018 WCOOP consisted of 2,044 players and the winner won $1,352,967.97. The prize pool of the Main event was $10,220,000.00. The buy-in for the main event was $5,200 No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker.

This tells us that the WCOOP is one of the biggest poker tournaments that is conducted online by PokerStars.

3. Triton Super High Roller Series ( Triton Poker)

Triton Pokerconducts one of the biggest poker tournaments in different parts of the world. Just like PokerStars, Triton Poker conducts different poker tournaments with different buy-in amounts and pool prizes.

This year Trition Million poker tournament was conducted with the prize pool of $65,660,000. The winner received $23,100,000. Also, the buy-in amount is $25,000. It is the 6th largest poker tournament in terms of the prize pool and number 1 Poker tournament with the highest amount given to a winner.

You can already tell that this tournament is super expensive and is mostly played by the businessman and professional poker players. This is not for everyone.

But, none the less, it is one of the biggest poker tournaments that attract a lot of viewers who watch the best play against each other to win the tournament.

4. Big One for One Drop

The Big One for One Dropis a $1,000,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas hold ’em tournament hosted at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was started in the year 2012 and became the highest buy-in poker tournament in history as well as the largest single payout offered. The buy-in amount itself is more than enough to make it one of the biggest poker tournaments of the world.

The event is known for its charitable contributions as much as $111,111 of each player’s buy-in is donated to the One Drop Foundation, an international non-profit organization created by Cirque du Soleil founderGuy Laliberté, which focuses on water initiatives.

This is one of those unique tournaments that are not for everyone as the buy-in to play the tournament is 1 million dollars. But the cause of the tournament is really good and the tournament has already collected $16M for the charity foundation One Drop in just four years. So, if you have a lots of money and want to spend something in doing good, then this is the best poker tournament to be a part in.

The event usually happens in the month of June or July as a 3-4 days event. The prize pool for the tournament is more than $40M and the winner usually takes home more than $10M.

So, if you have got the money then you can go and compete and play in one of the biggest poker tournaments ever conducted for a charity cause.

Biggest Poker Tournaments Online

5. World Poker Tour Championships (WPT)

The World Poker Tour(WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. The World Poker Tour was started in the year 2002 and has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the final table of each tournament. It is hands down one of the biggest poker tournaments ever.

The WPT Main Tour focuses on the buy-in range of $3,500-$25,000, and winners of official WPT Main Tour events are awarded a membership to the WPT Champions Club. The WPT Champions Cup is the trophy awarded to all winners of WPT Main Tour events, and champions have his or her name engraved on the Cup.

The winners get whopping prize money greater than $1M. This tournament is popular all over the world and millions watch the action by sitting at home and watching on TV.

In 2008, they even started the WPT ladies where there were tournaments conducted only for women. Their buy-in is usually $300 to $1500 and the winner gets more than $500,000 as of the prize money.

Without any doubt, this is one of the biggest poker tournaments that happens once a year and attracts a lot of viewers.


These were some of the world’s biggest poker tournaments and the prize money is massive. It is the dream of all poker players to play and win in one of these tournaments. Don’t forget to Check out the best cards to play poker at home. Also, check out the Best Card Shufflers you can use to shuffle the cards.

Popular FAQ’s

Who is the richest poker player in the world?

Sam Farha is the richest poker player in the world. He is worth over $100M in networth.

Who is the best poker player of all time?

It is literally impossible to tell who is the best poker player of all time. Because there are a lot of poker players who deservers the GOAT in poker. But, if you look at the earnings made by playing poker then Bryn Kenney makes to the top of the list with over $50M in live earnings.

Who won the One Drop poker tournament?

Justin Bonomo won the One Drop Poker Tournament in 2018.

Who has won the WSOP Poker Tournaments the most?

Phil Hellmuth has won the most bracelets with 15 followed by Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey with ten bracelets each.

Biggest Poker Tournaments 2020

0
0
0

Biggest Poker Tournament Prizes

0
0
0
0
5/5 (1 Review)

Biggest Poker Tournament

I am the owner of the site rohithebbar.com. I love playing poker and other card games.

Biggest Poker Tournaments In Europe

Related Posts: