The 10 most prestigious tournaments in poker The Redux Part 1
About three years ago I offered up my thoughts on the 10 most prestigious tournaments in poker, and considering all of the tumult and changes across the poker world since January of 2010 *cough, Black Friday, cough* I figured it’s now time to revisit this list and see what changes and updates can be made.
In 2010 my choices were:
#10 – Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) Main Event
#9 –PokerStars’ WCOOP Main Event
#8 – NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship
#7 – PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
#6 – European Poker Tour Grand Final
#5 – World Series of Poker Europe Main Event
#4 – Aussie Millions
#3 – World Series of Poker $50k Mixed Event
#2 — World Poker Tour Championship
#1 — World Series of Poker Main Event
Alright, this list definitely needs some shuffling considering at least three of these tournaments need to be removed from the list entirely. So let’s take a look at the first five choices on my new revised most prestigious tournaments list:
#10 – The PCA Super-High-Roller
A new entry to the list, the PokerStars PCA $100,000 buy-in Super-High-Roller tournament has become the king of the high-buy-in tournaments. This past year 57 entries were registered for the tournament (47 entries and 10 reentries) crushing the 32 players form 2012 and the 39 from 2011.
#9 – The WSOP $50k Poker Players Championship
The first tournament to try to use a high-buy-in as an exclusionary tactic, the $50k Poker Players Championship is still one of the most coveted titles, especially with the Chip Reese trophy going to the winner.
#8 – The PokerStars’ WCOOP
Up one spot from my 2010 list, the PokerStars WCOOP is THE online poker tournament every player wants to win, and the only one to offer the winner a multi-million-dollar prize.
#7 – The Aussie Million Main Event
The Aussie Millions has been on the decline in the past few years, most likely due to the current poker economy and the travel expenses associated with travelling to Australia. Still, the Aussie Millions is one of the first tournaments poker players would name other than the WSOP Main Event.
#6 – The World Series of Poker Europe Main Event
The WSOPE Main Event is an enigma for me. The hype and media coverage surrounding the tournament is massive, yet the player interest just isn’t there. Overall, I would say the WSOPE Main Event is highly prestigious, but at the same time the most-overrated tournament in poker.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series where I list the five most prestigious tournaments in poker –according to me of course.
