The World Series of Poker is the biggest deal in live poker, or online poker for that matter, captivating the attention of the poker world for seven weeks every summer. It draws in players from all over the world, may of whom will have won their passage into the $10,000 Main Event of the WSOP through online satellites, held at the WSOP’s official online partner GGPoker. 

Held annually in the vibrant city of Las Vegas, this prestigious event features the biggest names in the poker world, including stars of the live and online poker.

You can enter the WSOP through sites like GGPoker, which also runs the online WSOP as well as WSOP Super Circuit events. The Road to Vegas satellite promotion send hundreds of players to the WSOP event year and n 2024 they are set to make it four figures, with over 1,000 players expected to take their seat in the Main Event via GG Poker’s online satellites.

Also one of the most prestigious global poker tours, which draws many top players to its Main Tour events. The World Poker Tour runs many events per year, including the WPT Prime Tour, which is a mid-stakes poker tour that takes place globally in several locations every year. The WPT Main Tour features bigger buy-in main events and also takes place at numerous locations around the world, including stops in Asia, Australia, Europe America and even on the high seas for the WPT Voyage, which first launched itself into deep poker waters in 2024.

The launch of online poker site WPT Global has augmented the live World Poker Tour experience through online satellites to live WPT events.

The highlight of the WPT calendar is the WPT World Championship, which takes place at Wynn Las Vegas in December. In 2023 the main event had a record breaking $40m guarantee, which it missed, producing an overlay in excess of $2m! 

The Asian Poker Tour (APT), is the premier poker tour in Asia. It was founded in 2008 has held more than 80 festivals, in addition to numerous Satellites to the APT are available online at Natural8 Poker

The GUKPT is the live poker tour operated by Grosvenor Casinos and has been running since 2007, when Praz Bansi won the inaugural event held at the G Casino Bolton, where he defeated his good friend and fellow ‘Hit Squad’ member Karl Mahrenholz to take the title. the tour is now in its 18th season and retains much of the format of the inaugural season, with monthly festivals headlined by £1,250 Main Events and a Grand Final at ‘The Vic’ in London. 

The Goliath, which is Grosvenor’s low buy-in multi-day event, takes place at the Grosvenor Casino in Coventry every August and is the biggest tournament of its kind outside Las Vegas. The most recent edition in 2023 saw 1,493 players fight it out for the £178,860 first prize which was won by Alex Todd.

Grosvenor Poker, part of Grosvenor’s online casino is the place to find satellites to GUKPT events. They are held every day as ‘casino credit’ satellites, which players can either use immediately or accumulate to buy-into some of the higher buy-in events on the tour.

The European Poker Tour is one of the biggest in the World and has been in operation for over 20 years, except for a brief hiatus in 2017 when it was shelved for a short lived identity swap as the PokerStars Championship, before being restored to the live poker circuit one year later. EPT festivals take place five times a year, with EPT Barcelona being the biggest event of the year. EPT Paris is also a huge festival, as is EPT Prague. Monte Carlo and Cyprus also host EPT events.

PokerStars Live, which operates the EPT also runs several smaller mid-stakes tours, such as the UKIPT (UK & Ireland Poker Tour), the France Poker Series, the Estrellas Poker Tour and the Eureka Poker Tour. Each of these ‘national tours’ has several events per year and they are also included as warm up main events at EPT festivals.

There are usually many live satellites included at EPT festivals, held on days leading up to the main event and other keys tournaments.

Sadly, the Aussie Millions is no longer held, having been cancelled in 2021 by Crown Casino Melbourne. However, there are rumours that it might return in the not too distant future. 

There are so many live poker events and tours in the world. Apart from the big hitters, such as the WSOP and WPT, there are many regional and local tours, often aimed at the everyman player, such as the Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT), The Festival or the Irish Poker Tour, with much lower buy-ins than major series. Playing in these is a great stepping stone for anyone starting out, but who might have long term intentions to pull up a seat at the WSOP Main Event. There are also super high roller tours like the PokerGoTour and the Triton Poker Series, for those who have a spare $20k burning a hole in their pocket.

Poker tournaments are not just confined to live poker, they are a major component of most online poker sites. Online poker sites, such as WPT Global or GGPoker have tournaments running around the clock and several times a year they organise special online poker series, with bigger guarantees than their usual weekly offerings. These series often have hundreds of millions of dollars of guaranteed prize money and award huge first prizes, often in the millions for the biggest events on each series. The WSOP Online is one of the most famous live brands to have also found a home online, at GG Poker, while the WCOOP and SCOOP series run by PokerStars are still amongst the most prestigious of online poker events.