Online Poker Tournaments vs. Land-Based Poker Tournaments
by Bodog Poker | Oct 20 2009
The game of
poker has been booming across the globe for almost seven years now, and is showing no signs of slowing down.
Poker tournaments have been the driving force behind this boom because they offer any player the chance to get rich with a small investment. Television coverage of the professional poker tours has always been the ultimate poker stage where a player can live the poker dream and change their life by going deep into a big tournament. But the game has evolved in many ways over the years, and today the professional poker tours don't have a monopoly on giant prize pools like they once did.
Online poker has been an important factor in the global growth of poker. Players suddenly had access to any action they desired, and weren't limited to home games and
casino poker room action. Tournaments have always been part of online action, but until recently online events never came close to producing the prize pools that high profile live events did. Live events are still the biggest, but that's changing faster every year. Brands like the
World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour continue to be the biggest because they are filled with professional poker stars and celebrities, but then some of the bigger online poker tournaments also have their share of online poker celebrities.
While the bigger land-based poker tournaments may have a slight edge on entertainment value,
online poker tournament action has slowly been growing every year. Online poker rooms realized a couple of years ago that special organized events, which mimic the big poker tour events, would draw big numbers of players. Online rooms started events like the Bodog Poker Open, which have drawn large fields and big prize pools. Some of the Main Events have had first-place prizes of over a million dollars, rivalling the WPT and WSOP series events. Online poker tournament action has caught up to some of the biggest annual live events, leaving only the WSOP Main Event and the WPT Championship prize pools superior to the online action.
Online poker players have evolved from using the online game to become better live players to online players who prefer that type of action over the traditional. Online poker stars are becoming more popular to poker fans and many have become as well known as the established poker pros. Even many live poker personalities play online tournaments to promote the site that is sponsoring them, helping them grow the way they grew the live game.
The WSOP Main Event will always be the true championship of poker, and online poker will never be as entertaining as the live events. But online poker has the potential to attract fields larger than any WSOP Main Event ever played. Freerolls with 10K players are common online, and there is no limit to how many players a tournament could hold. The online tournaments will surely evolve towards bigger and bigger prize pools, and will someday surpass the prize pools of even the WSOP Main Event.
You could be the next Bodog Poker Open champion, just check out the
Bodog Poker Open IV schedule for information on all the events.
