Frequent Player Point Tournaments

Poker rooms offer you more than the ability to earn real money. If you play real money ring games or tournaments, it is more than likely that you have also earned frequent player points. Depending on the online poker room you play on, these points can be redeemed for a variety of things including retail items like televisions and computers or poker related items such as cash bonuses or tournament entries.


With spring upon us it means that a number of online poker rooms, including the major players like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, will be starting their annual large tournaments. While you can buy-in to them directly, many of these tournaments will also have entries available based on your frequent player points. If you cannot buy-in directly check the satellite options that are running.


I am not going to sugarcoat things and say you can use a mere 10 frequent player points and win a World Series of Poker Main Event seat, but it is possible to turn your points into a real value. Often times you can win small tickets in a series of progressions called “steps” at some poker rooms. These tickets are used as tournament entries to get into larger tournaments. Eventually your simple step 1 ticket can be turned into a large buy-in. The value for this is huge.


In a pure monetary sense, winning entry into a tournament with frequent player points basically means you're getting a seat without spending additional money. However the side benefit to using your player points is that the tournament field is often times much softer than a buy-in tournament. In smaller player point tournaments you are likely going to find small stakes players who may not have as much experience or the amount of skill. A softer field makes it easier to win tournaments which should be factored in.


Poker rooms offer great values and the ability to earn and spend frequent player points should not be overlooked. The next time you fire up your favorite online poker site, make sure to see what is available to you.


Curtis Steuber.