Poker Tournaments




Online Poker Tournaments in August

by Jason Kirk  

I covered some of this month's satellite and guaranteed prize pool tournaments at Poker Stars, Party Poker, Doyle's Room, and InterPoker. There are plenty of other opportunities in August to win serious cash through some of the other big online card rooms, so let's take a look at where the action is.

Full Tilt Poker

This month, Full Tilt Poker is running satellite tournaments for two big September events. The first is the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, NJ. That's the same tournament Doyle's Room is holding satellites for - one of the most prestigious events on the World Poker Tour. Full Tilt's satellites start at $4+0.40 and run daily. Every Saturday at 3 PM EDT there is a $200+15 super satellite that awards entry to the WPT event. The Full Tilt prize package for the Borgata Poker Open is worth $12,000 before the side benefits - free Full Tilt gear, and dinner with the Full Tilt pros.

This month's second satellite target at Full Tilt is the $200,000 Guarantee on September 10. Satellites for this $200+15 tournament begin as low as $4+0.40 and run daily. Not only will the winner of the big tournament get the lion's share of the prize pool, but he or she will also receive a custom avatar on the site. That's just one of the little things that make playing at Full Tilt so much fun.

Finally, Full Tilt is guaranteeing over $100,000 in prize pools every week in August. The biggest of these are the Saturday $100+9 tournament, with a $15,000 guarantee, and the Sunday $200+16 tournament, with a $35,000 guarantee. That's a lot of cash that's sure to be handed out for every tournament, whether or not the entries cover the guarantees. Check out more information on Full Tilt Poker's satellites and guaranteed prize pools here.

Monte Carlo Millions Satellites on Prima Network

This year's Monte Carlo Millions, billed as the world's most exclusive poker tournament, is bigger than ever. With a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, and a guaranteed $1 million first prize, the competition is sure to be fierce. There are only two ways of entering this tournament - first, you can receive an invitation from tournament director Matt Savage. That's a bit unlikely for most of the world's poker players. The second way is to win a satellite through a Prima Poker network site.

The single-table satellite structure for the event is unique. Round One tournaments, featuring five players to a table, start at $6+0.60 - but players can choose to buy in directly to Round Two ($15+1.50), Round Three ($60+6), Round Four ($300+30) or Round Five ( $3000+300). A victory in any early round is good for entry in the next higher round (e.g. the winner of a Round Three satellite wins entry into Round Four), and Round Five victors take home the $30,000 Monte Carlo Millions prize package. Any player starting at Round One must win five straight tournaments to make it to Monte Carlo.

There are also different levels of multi-table qualifiers available. $15+1 sit-and-go and multi-table qualifiers award one seat to the weekly Saturday $300 satellite for every twenty players, and $30+2 sit-and-go and multi-table qualifiers award one seat for every ten players. In the weekly Saturday satellite, one of every ten entrants wins entry into the month-end multi-table final - and one of every ten players in the monthly will win a Monte Carlo Millions prize package. Sound complex? Just remember that it takes three victories in a row to win a seat in Monte Carlo. That really is exclusive.

All of these satellites are available at any of the Prima Network's 36 participating sites. For more information on the Monte Carlo Millions, which runs November 20-23, visit the official website here.

Noble Poker

The big event at Noble Poker this month is the $1,000,000 Sit-and-Go Challenge. Noble has been running Jackpot Sit-and-Go promotions since last month, offering progressive jackpots for anyone who can win 5 SnG's in a row, but this month they've upped the ante. The first player who wins 7 consecutive $10+2 sit-and-go tournaments will take home a cool million dollars! For those who fall just short of this goal, other prizes are still up for grabs - winning 6 straight tournaments will net you $75,000, and winning 5 straight is worth $25,000. In addition to these rewards, anyone finishing in the top two positions of 5 straight tournaments will have $250 added to their account. These prizes are unprecedented in the online poker world, and anyone who specializes in tournament play could do much worse than to take a shot at a million dollars without ever having to leave the comfort of their homes. Terms and Conditions for the $1,000,000 Sit-and-Go Challenge are available here.