Live Poker Tournaments Continue To Thrive In 2017

The popularity of live poker tournaments is expected to increase through 2017 as a number of poker operators have come up with interesting changes and new events to bring more excitement to the game of poker.

Several recent changes like the revamp of PokerStars’ live events program has resulted in players gaining access to a wide range of tournaments to compete in worldwide, augmenting their chances of winning a title.

Along with PokerStars Championship events which replaces premier high stakes events like European Poker Tournament, PokerStars has introduced PokerStars Festivals which are lower buy-in events held in cities across the world, enabling a bigger poker player base to participate. The first London PokerStars Festival saw strong registrations, though entries for its Main Event in the Bahamas leg saw a drop. The company is hoping the that player interest for the upcoming inaugural stops of Panama and Panama will be encouraging and help provide a boost to the returning stops of Barcelona and Monte Carlo.

The most eagerly awaited poker series of the year World Series of Poker will kick off in Las Vegas later this year. The WSOP will continue with its comprehensive tour circuit that visits many major poker destination across the world. Apart from these well-known events a number of other brands like Mid-Stakes Poker Tour, Heartland Poker Tour in America and the Unibet Open in Europe will also be hosting a number of tournaments for players across all levels.

All key online poker brands are taking an active interest in the space. The world’s second largest online poker site 888poker is aiming to widen its appeal by creating events under the 888Live Tour banner to attract a wide range of players in locations like Rozvadov, Czech Republic.

888poker

Partypoker has launched its partypoker LIVE tour that will offer a variety of live events. According to Tony Dunst, a partypoker ambassador, there has been an unexpected revival of live poker in past few years. He has attributed this growth to the overall economic recovery but also to higher competition amongst casinos and sponsors, which is primarily the result of the sustained appeal of live poker tournaments.

In a statement, Tony Dunst said

That trend will continue with the launch of partypoker LIVE. I think partypoker proved that they can produce numbers at their Caribbean event in November and they’ll use big guarantees and prolific satellites to get the numbers they anticipate. That kind of competition with the existing tours can only be good for the players, who will have tons of cheap opportunities to win packages to these events.

With more and more brands getting into the space, poker players both recreational and professional will have a wide range of tournaments to choose from.