Everyone deep into card gambling knows that poker tournaments are essential. Yes, cash games at dedicated card rooms and on casino floors are the backbone of the sector, but competitions, where life-changing prizes are given out, are events that have brought an aura of prestige to this landscape. The most high-profile ones have multi-million-dollar prize pools and give amateurs a shot at glory, an opportunity to turn a hobby into a profession, and an opportunity to earn financial freedom.
Such competitions are also thrilling to watch for audiences in the venue where they take place and those at home as they turn into intense, high-stakes battles. Their diverse playing fields give rise to underdog stories, and often, things do not turn out as predicted here, making them exciting to watch. They also unite players and fans, promoting poker on a grand stage via a synergy that sustains the industry’s ecosystem.
Below, we detail five poker tournaments that we are sure many will agree are the heartbeat of card gambling.
World Series of Poker (WSOP)
There is no argument about what the most iconic poker tournament ever is. That honor falls on the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, which started in 1972 (in its current form) and is held every year in Las Vegas, Nevada. It typically features a $10,000 buy-in and attracts the best players from all around the globe, with many wishful amateurs hoping to strike it big.
On average, six to eight thousand people participate in this event, usually in June or July. In 2024, the Main Event boasted a starting field of ten thousands and a hundred entrants, setting a new record. This further proved that the game is experiencing a resurgence and may be entering a new period.
European Poker Tour (EPT)
Founded in 2004 by London TV director John Duthie, the European Poker Tour is a series of competitions that got up and running during the 2000s card gambling heyday, which, according to all, got spurred on by Chris Moneymaker’s unpredictable 2003 WSOP win. In 2017, this series was rebranded as the PokerStars Championship, which only lasted a year. This rebrand attempted to align this brand with its owner and controller – PokerStars, which bought the EPT in 2011.
For those not in the gaming loop, PokerStars is an online card gambling brand available to residents of a handful of states, offering a service similar in quality to top legal US poker sites and offshore sites based in countries like Panama, Curacao, and Costa Rica. The Main Event of the EPT usually features a buy-in of around €5,000, using a slow-blind structure, attracting several thousand players, often hosted in Monte Carlo, Monaco, who vie for millions of euros.
The Triton Super High Roller Series
Considered the most exclusive poker competition on Earth, the Triton Poker Series was created by Malaysian businessmen Richard Yong and Paul Phua, card enthusiasts who regularly play in some of Macau’s biggest cash games. Their Triton Series includes Main Event-style tournaments, which do not get labeled as such. It has even run stunning charity events, like its 2019 London Hilton one, which had a staggering buy-in of £1,050,000 and fifty-four participants who could afford to be a part of this tournament, the most expensive one to date.
Naturally, the field of players here is much lower, in the sub-one hundred range, who compete using a deep-structured NLHE format. Typical Triton events have buy-ins of at least $15,000. Its 2019 series had a prize pool of $65,660,000, and its 2024 edition had a reward pool of $44,603,000.
World Poker Tour
It was organized for over two decades, with its first season in 2002, with its WPT Championship final table happening at the Bellagio in Paradise, Nevada, including one hundred and eleven, a buy-in of $25,000, and a total prize pool of almost $2.7 million. Its winner was former bond analyst Alan Goehring, who took home $1.1 million.
The twenty-second season of the World Poker Tour concluded in late December 2024 at the Wynn Las Vegas, listing a prize pool of $23.4 million, won by American Scott Stewart, who won the event’s top prize of $2.56 million.
Though not as esteemed as the WSOP, the WPT is a globally televised entertainment brand that works with many broadcasting partners and gains sizeable attention from poker fans everywhere.
The Irish Poker Open
Here is a tournament that most newbies to poker and super casuals are probably not very familiar with, but it is Europe’s longest-running No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament. For the past two years, it has taken place at the Royal Dublin Society, a campus in Ballsbridge, Dublin, run by a philanthropic organization of the same name.
The campus will also host the 2025 edition, which will be organized in mid-April. It will have a €1,150 Main Event buy-in and is projected to deliver €10 million in payouts. This acclaimed event will undoubtedly lure thousands of players to Ireland’s capital, who will be licking their chops to get some of its rewards and enjoy live music and various competitions.
