2005 World Series of Poker - Have You Qualified Yet?

by: Oddvar Pettersen
 

The 2005 World Series of Poker event is scheduled to begin June 2, 2005 in Las Vegas and an estimated 7,000 players are expected to participate in the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold 'em main event.

The event will be held at the Rio Hotel and Casino from June 3rd to July 15th, with the last two days taking place at Jack Binnions Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas.

The buy-ins for the 2005 WSOP events range from $1,000 to $10,000 and most of the final tables are taped and televised by ESPN.

The World Series of Poker started as an invitational tournament in 1970. Jack Binnion invited the best seven poker players in America to his casino in Las Vegas to decide whom Americas best poker player was. Johnny Moss won the 1970 WSOP title by actually being voted the best player by his playing companions.

The 1971 World Series of poker was played as a freezout tournament, meaning one player had to win all the chips. Thirteen players participated and Johnny Moss won it this time fair and square with some brilliant poker play.

T. J. Cloutier has been the most successful World Series of Poker player over the years and has finished in the money in over 30 events. He has won five first place gold bracelets and finished second twice in the main Championship event of Texas Hold'em.

Anyone, regardless of gender or nationality can play in the 2005 WSOP as long as they are 21 years of age and can afford the $10,000 entrance fee. If that is to much for your wallet than there is another way to gain entrance. You can register to play in online World Series of Poker satellite tournaments and with some luck, win a 10,000 seat for only a few bucks!

World Series of Poker has become extremely popular in the recent years. Especially since the 2003 WSOP Championship, when Chris Moneymaker, (yes it is his real name) won 2.5 million dollars after qualifying through a 40 dollar online satellite tournament.

In 2004 there were 2,576 entries for the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em WSOP Championship and the prize money had increased to more than $49 million. Greg Raymer beat 2576 players to win the first price of 5 million dollars for a buy-in stake of $40 which also was won online.

The 2005 World Series of Poker will last for approximately 40 days and an estimated 10,000 poker players from all over the world will compete in more than 30 different poker games. The winner of each event will be awarded a gold bracelet and first place cash prizes ranging from $500,000 to $10,000,000.

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True Poker Guide, www.pokerrule-online.com  covers a comprehensive list of poker rules, tips and strategies for all poker games including tournament and satellite play. We also provide lots of information on the World Series of Poker, poker leagues, The World Poker Tour, celebrities of the game and where to find the easiest games to beat and how to beat them.
For more information on True Poker Guide, visit www.pokerrule-online.com  

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Poker Tournaments
By Matthew Winnington

 

Tournaments are poker competitions where all of the players play at the same time and continue to play until only one player is left. Tournaments are fun to play in, have a low entry fees and offer a large prize pool to be won. For these reasons they are a very popular. They are inexpensive way for novice poker players to learn how to play the game, as well as a providing a place for more experienced players gain experience.

While there are many different types of poker games played at casinos and online rooms, tournament play is usually reserved for Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and 7-card Stud, because these games have a large following.

Poker tournaments can have as few as 6 players (single table tournaments) to thousands of players for larger events. Large tournaments consist of many tables, each table having 8 to 10 players. The tables are slowly removed from the tourney as players are eliminated, and players are balanced from table to table as needed. (These are known as multi-table tournaments). Finally all but the last table will be removed and these last 8 to 10 players play until only one of them remains.

Tournament Basics
To play in a tournament players have to pay two fees. They have to pay an entry fee to the poker room hosting the tournament to cover the expenses involved. This gives the player an assigned seat and a set quantity of tournament chips with which to play (these chips have no cash value). Players also pay a buy-in fee. The buy-in fee is held and paid out as prizes. The prize payout differs from tournament to tournament but typically it all goes to the few players fortunate enough to make the final table.

The object of a tournament is to win all of the chips. All tournament players start out with the same quantity of chips to play with and all start playing at the same time. Players play until they lose all of their chips and are then removed from the tournament. A tournament continues non-stop, often for several hours, until only one person remains. As playing progresses the stakes rise (Blinds are doubled on a timed interval), making it more and more difficult for players with short stacks to remain in the game.

Players are awarded prize money based on their finishing position in the tournament. The top finishers earn the most money with the 1st place winner usually receiving about 30% of the total prize money, the 2nd place winner about 20% and so on. The number of winners and the size of the payouts depend upon the rules for the tournament being played and the number of people playing.

Re-buys and Add-ons
Some poker tournaments allow players a re-buy option. This re-buy option allows players to purchase more chips if they run out of them at the start of the tournament. A player can purchase the same number of chips that he/she started the tournament with. Some poker tournaments allow unlimited re-buys during the first hour of play, while other tournaments allow only a single re-buy.

An add-on option is similar to the re-buy option. Add-ons differ in that they are usually only offered once at the end of the re-buy period and can be purchased regardless of how many chips you have. As the name implies these chips are added on to your stack of chips.

All proceeds from re-buys and add-ons are added to the prize pool less house fees (if applicable).

Betting
Tournament betting is structured with the betting limit increasing regularly. The changes in betting limits occur differently depending on the tournament; some are timed while some increase the limit after a set number of rounds are played.

Balancing and Collapsing Tables
Larger tournaments start out with more than one table, each having 8 to 10 players. As the tournament progresses players will be eliminated and the number of players at each table will not remain the same. For the tournament to be fair the number of players at each table should be the same, so the organizers move players from table to table in an attempt to keep all the tables equally populated.

Balancing is the practice of moving players from full tables to less full tables when the difference is 3 or more players.

Collapsing tables is the practice of removing tables once there are enough empty spaces among the rest of the tables to do so. Thus with 10 player tables when there are 10 empty spaces the players from one table are moved to empty spaces and that table is taken out of play.

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Matthew is a frequent player who offers reviews and shares his experiences playing poker online at  http://www.playrealpokeronline.com

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