Poker is a game where players keep track of the score with money. So, it's not a big surprize that as the game grows more and more popular, there will be more and more money involved.
What is a bit shocking is that these days, playing in a tournament with $1,000,000 in the prize pool is not a special event any more. Well, it is, but if you're a player at either Party Poker or
Poker Stars, it's something that's on the room's schedule every week.
Each Sunday afternoon, both of those rooms host their Sunday Million Dollar game. That means as online poker players, we can play in a Million Dollar tournament every week, without leaving our homes. And while that may not be as exciting as a huge casino affair, it is unbelievably convenient.
Think about it. The buy-in for these tournaments is $215, including entry fee. But say you wander down to the local casino, and are willing to pay 5 times that much. Pretend the entry fee is a cool grand. That would be a tournament of 1,000 players.
That's one hundred ten man tables. A thousand people in the same room, releasing body heat, clogging up the restrooms with traffic at break time, and taxing the food service areas. Instead, you're sitting at home. No one is blocking the refrigerator, or hopefully the bathroom at break time. Talk about convenient.
And of course the rooms are running satellites to these events. Party has a multitable satellite that players can enter for $3. They also have single table satellites for $26 as well. That is a reasonable way to take a shot at the big game.
Poker Stars runs satellite tournaments as well. So, there are plenty of ways to take a swing at the Sunday game at either room.
How much can you win in one of these events. Well, as Poker Stars puts it . . . "Every week, somebody turns one of those buy-ins into enough money to buy a house". That's a nice chunk of change, obviously. But, when you take a look around the rest of the sports world and see what others are taking home for winning major sporting events it helps put it all in perspective.
In the 106th US Open in the golf world, Padraig Harrington finished 2 shots off the lead. He took home $255,000. This is a golf event that the world pays attention to, and a poker player who wins the Sunday $1,000,000 event will do just as well, if not better. That's how cool it is to have these tournaments available.
