American Poker Tournaments Top-10

WSOP - World Series of Poker (Binions Horseshoe, Las Vegas Nevada)

Read Jim Albrecht's summary to learn why the World Series of Poker is the "granddaddy of all gaming events".

For a list of winners, plus free access to photos and videos, PokerPages provides excellent coverage of this event. You can also visit Binions, host of the WSOP, for schedules, history, and general info.

Orleans Open (Orleans Casino, Las Vegas Nevada)

 

Although having a poker tournament in New Orleans would be a tad more interesting in my opinion, the Orleans casino in Las Vegas is still pretty good. Visit the official Orleans Casino website to view their listing of the 2003 winners and find information on upcoming tournaments. Peter Costa wrote an interesting article on setting a new world record at the Orleans Open on his Paradise champion page.

 

PokerPages, one of our favorite resources, also has up the 2003 schedule and results.

Shooting Star (Bay 101 Casino, San Jose California)

 

This year the Shooting Star tournament is going to be a part of the World Poker Tour and televised on the Travel Channel, which should add to the regular excitement. The 20 'stars' who are invited are: John Bonnetti, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker, Vince Burgio, Kathy Liebert, Daniel Negreanu, Amir Vahedi, Tom McEvoy, Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, T.J. Cloutier, Men Nguyen, David Ulliott, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman-Traniello and Howard Lederer.

 

For information on the schedule, history and tournament specifics, check out Bay 101's website.

California State Poker Championship
(Commerce Casino, Los Angeles California)

While the Commerce Casino website has little information on this tournament, it's still one of the better known poker tournaments out there. PokerPages, as usual, has all the schedule information and the results from 2003 online. This tournament is not held until June, so the 2004 schedule is not up yet.

5 Star Classic (Bellagio Casino, Las Vegas Nevada)

Bellagio's site has the schedule up for 2004 as well as lists of the leading money winners for their tournaments to date. PokerPages has fantastic reports and results up from the 2003 tournament that went on in April.

Legends of Poker
(Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles California)

This tournament is in July through September and was a huge deal last year. Read the article written on the Bicycle site about the tournament. They also have the winners listed on their site. We like it when casinos have good sites. Makes finding information so much easier. They added a charity component to the tournament which was really nice. Read the report about it on PokerPages.

 Five Diamond (Bellagio, Las Vegas Nevada)

Held in December, The Five Diamond World Poker Classic is a part of the World Poker Tour. You can see a full listing of the WPT events on their site. Because this just closed, the 2004 schedule is not up yet, but you can check out the winners from 2003 on the Bellagio website.

World Poker Finals
(Foxwoods, Mashantucket Conneticut)

 

This tournament, held in October, is a part of the World Poker Tour. The Foxwood website has the 2003 schedule up so you can get an idea of the costs and winnings. Remember, online poker forums are a good source of information for tournaments. You can meet other players going to the same tournaments and add some social time to your poker trip as well as get information from players who have been there before.

 

There is a nice trip report about this tournament hosted on Ken's poker pages that would interest first time tourney players.

 L.A. Poker Classic
(Commerce Casino, Los Angeles California)

 

Held in January until February, this tournament has been gaining in popularity. Some of the online poker rooms are even offering spaces in the tournament as prizes (live tournament entry fees are a trend now for online tournament winners).

 

Check out CardPlayer for the 2004 schedule and take a look at PokerPages for the 2003 schedule and results.

Showdown at Sands
(Sands Casino, Las Vegas Nevada)

As this tournament is held in November, you won't be seeing the 2004 schedule up anytime soon. Although you might be able to watch reruns of the event on Fox as it was heavily televised this year. An interesting resource I just discovered is the unofficial World Poker Tour fan site. They have forums and discussions of all the big tournaments including Showdown at Sands. Check out Talk About Gambling for more fan thoughts on the televised portion of the tournament.

European Poker Tournaments Top-10

Euro Finals of Poker (Aviation Club, Paris France)

Held in February at the Aviation Club, this tournament is held in one of the classiest casinos around. Check out the 2004 schedule on the Aviation Club website (also pretty classy). Their tournament room is non-smoking which we're sure affects the outcome of game for some players. PokerPages has the 2003 results and schedule up. You can see some pictures of last year's winners, including Christer Johansson (who won the WPT seat in the $25,000 at Bellagio) on Poker in Europe.

Poker Million (Ladbroke Casino)

The official site is online and contains all the information that you'll need to enter as well as details on last year's winners. This year is called "The Masters II" and Ladbrokes was offering 36 spots for the tournament via the pokermillion.com website. There is still the option of paying the $10,000 entry fee for the 30 non-celebrity spots left over. The tournament itself runs from February to July 2004 and will be televised.

Irish Open (Merrion Square Club, Dublin Ireland)

The Irish Open is famous for it's hospitality. It's been said that the Irish were born to play poker, so watch for the locals at the tables. The Merrion website does not have archived information up, but we expect that they post the current schedule closer to the date of the tournament in April.

Poker EM (Casino Austria, Baden)

The official site is online and you can choose the German or English version. They have up all the schedules and listings of winners from past events. Raymond Brown was the big winner of 2003 in October. Check out the Hendon Mob's take on this poker tournament.

PokerPages describes this as "possibly the biggest 7-card stud event in the world" (won in 2000 by Phil Hellmuth) and is also known as the European Poker Championship.

 Summer Tournament (WPT Event - ACF, Paris France)

 

Held in July, this tournament was the first event of the 2003 - 2004 World Poker Tour. It was originally called the "Grand Prix de Paris" and is a televised, non-smoking event. The WPT site has a photo gallery of all their events including this one.

 Helsinki Freezeout (Casino Ray, Helskinki)

Held in December, the 2004 schedule for this tournament will not be up for a while. Visit the Casino Ray website for details (in Finnish), and have it translated at BabelFish. This is quite likely the most festive holiday atmosphere for a poker tournament. For an amusing run down on the language and tournament, take a look at this diary entry from Barney Boatman of the Hendon Mob.

European Poker Classic
(Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London England)

Last year was won by Marcel Luske. Read this play by play of the event on PokerVoice's blog. 2003 pictures from this tournament are available on Poker Images. Visit PokerPages for last year's schedule and results.

British Open
(Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London England)

Held in March, the 2004 tournament schedule can be found on the Grosvenor site. Check the second link for results in April. Poker Images has some pictures up of the 2003 tournament, including the winner Jac Arama.

Grosvenor UK Open
(Grosvenor Casino, Luton England)

The UK Open, hosted by Grosvenor (very wide spread casino in England - moving into the rest of Europe) is held in August. The Grosvenor site has the yearly schedule and I really like this trip report found on Gutshot. PokerNetwork provides 2002 coverage with results and a detailed report of the main event, No Limit Hold'em.

Vienna Spring Festival
(Concord Card Casino, Vienna Austria)

Featuring the European World Series of Poker, this is one big tournament. The official site (and schedule) is available at CCC. 2003 results are available via PokerPages. Also, because this tournament actually coincides with the beginning of Vienna's Spring Festival, you might want to take a look at some of the tourist activities in the city.