Best Live Poker Tournaments for 2026

Tournament types include bounty tournaments where prizes are awarded for eliminating competitors. Multi-table tournaments start at a scheduled point in time and have set time periods, or levels, where the blinds go up. Some of the most famous online poker sites for their sit-and-go variety and action are 888 Poker and William Hill Poker. These days Sit & Gos are so popular that they’ve been expanded to include 45-, 90- and 180-person formats. When online poker exploded, so did a tournament format that required only one table to get the action started.

Although the tournaments are usually not taken very seriously, and play is erratic, there is some real cash on the line and it’s possible to take advantage of very weak players. It’s similarly a good way for a beginner poker player to start a bankroll just for poker. Most online poker sites do one better by offering free poker tournaments, or “freerolls” as they are commonly known. Unless the tournament is winner take all, the top 10 per cent of players also usually receive some kind of prize, with the winner receiving the largest share and each player after receiving successively less. You may have to play a lot of tournaments before you manage to rake in a big win, but the rake you pay averaged per poker hand is extremely low in online tournament poker.

Online poker tournaments don’t have any physical limitations, so the largest tournaments can draw tens of thousands of players. The number of entrants plays a major role in how long completing the tournament will take. A typical poker tournament pays anywhere from 10% to 30% of the field, meaning the vast majority of participants will walk out without a prize. During the tournament, blind levels increase at regular intervals, such as every 10 minutes online or every 30 minutes in live tournaments.

It raises the bar on how tournaments should be run, with record-breaking prizes and unforgettable moments as standard. The EPT is the marquee name in live tournament poker. PokerStars-sponsored live events and card rooms have become the standard-bearers for top quality live poker around the world. If you want to start playing poker tournaments right away, we recommend signing up at PokerStars.

Unstructured betting format is by far the most popular betting format in tournament poker. If you’re playing tournament poker for the very first time, playing freerolls is an excellent way to get your feet wet. Many successful poker professionals have started their careers by playing freerolls to win money and grow their bankroll. Freerolls are tournaments that are free to enter, yet they have real cash as prizes. If the buy-ins don’t cover the prize pool, the tournament is said to have an overlay which means the amount left to cover by the house. A guaranteed tournament means a specific prize pool is offered to the players even if the amount of buy-ins doesn’t cover that prize pool.

No matter what your game preference – Sit-and-Gos, multi-table tournaments, short-handed tourneys or heads-up battles – there are always games to choose from at the top online poker sites. It’s also worth noting that online poker tournaments generally play out faster than live tournaments and you can keep constant track of your standing in the tournament. Once you’ve signed up and registered an account at an online poker site (or several online poker sites), you poker online can be playing a poker tournament online in as little as five minutes or less. You can always find a free poker tournament online and it’s not a bad way to get some experience without risking anything.

While the most popular poker variants in tournaments are No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha, there are more exotic poker games offered by most of the major online poker sites. Many players love to play bounty tournaments as they’re quite action-packed and require a different strategy than traditional MTTs. This gives extra incentive to play aggressively, especially against shorter stacks than yours. Shootout tournaments are MTTs in which each table is played until just one player remains at that table. This makes the gameplay fast, creating tons of action as the stacks become shorter quite quickly. On the major poker sites and networks, you can find a variety of SNGs starting every minute or so.

Some of the most popular live poker tournaments in the world include the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the European Poker Tour (EPT). Every year there are multiple live poker tournaments worldwide hosting poker games such as Texas Hold’em, PL Omaha, Drawmaha, and many more. Winning an online package offers amateurs and seasoned players an affordable way to experience the thrill and prestige of major live poker tournaments. The tour’s calendar features multiple stops annually, each held in prestigious locations across Europe. Players buy in to online poker tournaments for a fixed fee and start with the same chip stack as their opponents.

From hand rankings to basic rules and strategies, find everything you need to get started. The biggest poker festival in Belgium combines huge action with an historic setting. The epic Casinò di Campione once again kickstarts the latest PokerStars Open season at the PokerStars Poker Room. High stakes action meets the glamorous surroundings of the south of France in Provence.