Arkansas & Poker
The two largest and most well-known tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker, both held in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The 2005 World Series of Poker was the first held outside of Binion's Horseshoe Casino, though the final few days of the main event were held in the legendary Benny's Bullpen. Future tournaments have been held at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties; since 2005, the Rio has served as the host venue.
Arguably the most well-known European tournament is the Poker Million, which began in 2000 on Sky Sports, following on from the success of the Late Night Poker television show.
In addition to these events, there are other major tournaments throughout the year. The World Poker Tour broadcasts a series of open tournaments throughout the U.S. and Caribbean with buy-ins from $5,000 to $25,000, as well as a European event.
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What the BPO lured top players over from the US whom had not played in the UK before, such as the current World Poker Champion Greg Raymer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer and this in turn brought the BPO further exposure.
The inaugural BPO was eventually won by Adam Dujmovic, a semi-professional from Chicago whom after qualifying for the tournament online, collected a prize just shy of 100,000 pounds.
The success of the BPO 2005 inevitably bought along the BPO 2006 a year later. The 2006 version had a pot of 100,000 pounds to be won over 6 heats and a final. Noah Boeken collected around 56,000 pounds.
Poker Million II returned in 2003. Snooker-player Jimmy White won the $150,000 first prize. The final was played under the Texas hold 'em rules and broadcast live on Sky Sports 1. All cards were visible via cameras placed underneath glass panels on the tables, and the players were wired to a heart monitor, so that viewers could see the top players' strategies and how relaxed or nervous they really were.
Seventy-two poker professionals played the 2004 Poker Million III, competing for the $300,000 first prize. The tournament counted snookers stars Stephen Hendry, Mark Williams and 2003 winner Jimmy White, rugby World Cup star Mike Tindall and sports celebrities Tony Cascarino and Phil Taylor. Half of the 2004 players had qualified online via Ladbrokes Poker, marking the progress of the online qualifiers.
$855,000 were added in the prize pool by Ladbrokes for the Poker Million IV, and there was a guaranteed first prize of $1,000,000. Sixty-six of the finalists qualified online. Tony Jones, who started the evening as an 8/1 outsider, beat TV celebrity Helen Chamberlain.
