5 Live Tournament Alternatives To The World Series Of Poker

In the run-up to the World Series Of Poker, you might be forgiven for thinking that every other live tournament event disappears into thin air. In fact, you’ll find a lot of qualifiers online to a lot of live events around the world. This article covers five cool alternatives to the WSOP, that you can qualify for right now.

These tournaments are far from the only live events, in September we see the restart of the EPT for season 11, and there are more WPT events than ever now that they have their regional tournaments on top of the big buy-in events. For US players, the hot ticket is the LSOP, which takes place in Panama in September.

5 Live Tournament Alternatives To The World Series Of Poker

#1 – Party Poker WPT500

Party Poker are the owners of the World Poker Tour, and they go out of their way to offer players chances to win seats in their live events. What is surprising about the WPT500 event is that they are going head-to-head with the World Series, with the tournament at the same time as the Main Event itself.

Based in the Aria Casino Las Vegas, the dates for your diary are the 1^st through 6^th of July, and the buy-in a modest $565.

The guarantee for this event is $1,000,000 with $200,000 assured for first place. You can win a prize package at Party from just $1, this includes buy-in, accommodation and expenses and is worth a total of $1,700.

I like the idea here, they will catch a lot of overlap with the Main Event and appeal to those who can not afford the $10,000 World Series buy-in. Check out the details over at www.partypoker.com

 #2 – DSO Costa Brava At Titan Poker

The ‘Deepstack Open’ is a new venue for an established tour which has previously stopped in Cannes and even Morocco. Online qualifiers can be found  at Titan Poker on the iPoker Network. The dates are June 19^th through 22^nd and the venue the Spanish coastal town of Lloret de Mar.

You can win a €1250 prize package which includes the €550 buy-in + hotel and travel expenses through Titan Poker’s 3-tier satellite system. The games at Titan are super-soft (more recreational players compared to other sites) and the qualifiers start from just 50c.

If you want to give Titan a try, I have an exclusive offer of $20 extra free cash on top of your 200% welcome bonus. Register with bonus code SNGPLANET and I’ll ensure that the extra is in your player account within 48 hours (usually sooner) or your first deposit. Check out the DSO Costa Brava qualifiers over at www.titanpoker.com now!

#3 – LSOPII At The US Friendly America’s Cardroom

This event is going to be huge! It involves a series of tournaments held in Panama, including an $850 main event. The dates for your diary are the 13^th through 21^st of September and the prize packages which you can win at ACR poker right now include 8 nights at the five-star Hard Rock Hotel + $750 cash to cover your flight expenses.

There are two qualifiers each Sunday with a total of 7 packages being given away. I also recommend you check out the cool ‘Beast’ and ‘Sit N Crush’ promotions at this cool US-friendly site. For more on the LSOP check out www.americascardroom.eu here!

#4 UKIPT At PokerStars.com

The ‘UK and Ireland Poker Tour’ has actually left the shores of these countries… at least for one event. This tour has been growing, and now has regular million Pound prize pools with buy-ins up to £1,100.

The event I am featuring today is in Marbella, Spain. From June 12^th through 16^th, the Marbella Festival takes place, which includes a UKIPT event with a £500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

PokerStars own this one, and there are plenty of qualifiers running. If you can’t make Spain at short notice then the next stops are in Galway in August and then back to London. You can find out more about this and the upcoming EPT season 11 events at www.pokerstars.com

#5 – Unibet Poker Open, Tallin

Unibet recently made the headlines by moving away from the MicroGaming Network and going it alone with an all-new software platform. They have been running their own live events for many years in the form of the Unibet Open, and this is continuing with a stop in Tallin, Estonia from the 29^th May to the 1^st June. If this is too short notice for you, then the next event will be in Cannes, France from the 18^th to 21^st September.

These events cost €1,100 to enter, and get big fields of amateurs and pros alike. You can of course win trips to the events online.

Check out the new Unibet software and check out the details of the Unibet Open here.

I expect to see some more online World Series Qualifiers next week as some big tournament events finish.

GL at the tables, Mark