Online Poker

June 26, 2009

Many online poker rooms like Full Tilt Poker and Bodog hold miniature WSOP mirror tournaments for their members.

Right now, many of this mini tournament series are in full swing, though some begin only as the WSOP Main Event kicks off for the year. Each poker room has a slightly different take on the mini World Series of Poker concept, so let’s take a look at the best value and the closest parallels.

First up, the Mini Series of Poker at Full Tilt Poker is mirroring the WSOP tournaments as closely as it can in terms of numbers, with 57 events running over the days of the 2009 World Series of Poker. It will culminate on 5 July with a Main Event for a buy-in of $100 + $9 and a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000. While most of the entry fees are fairly low for the amount of prize money on offer, satellites are available that can help less financed players to make their way into the larger tourneys. Most of the tournaments are for around $10 to $30, however, well within the means of most players.

The Bodog Mini Poker Series takes a vastly different approach. Holding just 13 regular events from 3 July until 15 July, the initial tournaments will offer a small mix of Hold ‘Em games with $10 + $1 buy-ins. The top 30% of players in these tournaments earn leaderboard points that go towards deciding the players who get to enter the Bodog Mini Poker Series finals and that game will decide the 18 players to battle it out in the finals. The overall winner of the Bodog Mini Poker Series gets a $12,000 prize package for entry into the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. For those who missed out this year, this is an early opportunity to earn a place in next year’s Main Event.

PKR have also got a mini series, the Super Series ’09 starting Friday, 26 June. Tournaments in this series will run until 5 July, when the 2009 WSOP Main Event starts, though a Super Series Freeroll will be offered to the top 200 ranked players in the Super Series for a guaranteed prize pool of $5,000. Buy-ins range from $10 through to $250, with the biggest tournament in the series offering a $100,000 prize pool. Satellite tournaments will also be available for many of the major PKR Super Series events.

For everyone who cannot make it to Vegas, but would still like to play in some tournaments with decent prize money and quality competition, these mini tournament series can be a blast. Full Tilt Poker and Bodog accept US players as well as players from around the world. PKR cannot accept US players, but they are a great place to play for players from many other nations worldwide. New players will do well to start at Full Tilt Poker, where they can benefit from a 100% deposit bonus on a first deposit of up to $600.