current raise; thus, a player raising a current wager of 75 may not raise it by 50, but may only raise by 75 or 100.
Unstructured games are typified by No Limit Texas Hold 'em. Though there is a regularity to the blinds, there are essentially no restrictions to the wager size. The two most common words in No Limit are all in, meaning that the player is risking the lesser of his stake or any player who calls his bet on the turn of the cards. (If one player has 15,000 and calls "All In", and a player with 5,000 calls, only 5,000 of the first player's chips are at stake.)
Prizes
Depending on the tournament, most to all the money entered in the form of entry fees, chip-buy fees, or re-buys are placed in a prize pool. This pool will pay out to the top players in the event, as determined by fall-out order, and may vary due to the size of the tournament.
For example, the top ten players are given prizes ranging from 2% to 30% of the prize pool. This means that the ninth-to-last player to lose all his chips will be in 10th place and receive 2% of the pool, the eighth-to-last player will receive (in this case) 3%, etc., until the final player to drop receives 20% and the final survivor of the match receives 30%.
Places to play
Many casinos with poker rooms offer tournaments. In addition, there may be non-casino venues that offer such games, though with less scrutiny to the games it may be a corrupt game. Online, there are also poker websites that offer tournaments.
Major Tournaments
The two largest tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the granddaddy of them all, the World Series of Poker held at Binion's Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas.
WORLD SERIES OF POKER
The World Series of Poker is the most prestigious set of poker tournaments in the world.
Origins
The original World Series of Poker was started by Tom Morehead of the Riverside casino in Reno and was an invitational event. The set of tournaments the World Series of Poker (WSOP) would evolve to was the brainchild of Las Vegas legend, casino owner, and poker player Benny Binion as well as his two sons Jack and Ted.
The Binion family not only nurtured the WSOP, but poker in general. Prior to the 1970s, poker was not found at many casinos because of the difficulty of keeping cheaters out. Through better security techniques as well as the Binion's tireless promotion through events like the WSOP, poker became a very popular game.
In 1970 the first WSOP at Binion's Horseshoe took place with seven players. The winner, Johnny Moss was elected by his peers as the first World Champion of Poker and received a silver cup as a prize.
Evolution
From 1971 on, all WSOP events have been freezeout tournaments with cash prizes. In 1973 a new event, five-card stud, was added to the main event of no-limit Texas hold 'em. Since then new events have been added and removed. In 2003 and 2004 there were 36 events at the WSOP, including poker games like Omaha and Razz as well as events only for seniors and women. Event winners get, in addition to their prize money, a golden bracelet.
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