Poker has evolved through the decades into a very exciting game. By 1970 the World Series of Poker spawned off the modern poker tournaments.  Today major tournaments are being held all over the country and the world. Poker tournament are becoming more popular and are being televised and watched by millions of people around the globe.

Check out the Top 10 Poker Tournaments in the US:

World Series of Poker, Las Vegas Nevada
Orleans Open, Las Vegas Nevada
Shooting Star, San Jose California
California State Poker Championship, Los Angeles California)
5 Star Classics
Legends of Poker
Five Diamond
World Poker Finals
L.A. Poker Classic
Showdown at Sands

There are two (2) ways of participating in a poker tournament. First the traditional venue, these are the casinos, poker rooms and even your dining table where you sit across the other players trying to keep the so called poker face despite having full house. The second is on-line, where you connect to a gambling site using your PC and an Internet connection and can play by yourself or with a hundred players where you can grumble all you like in your underwear.

Online poker tournament players concentrate more on betting patterns and reaction time. They can also view statistics of their game being flashed on the monitor.  While traditional venue poker tournament players focus more on the other players reactions and body language and keep track of the card play in their heads.

Another difference is the rate of play. Online poker tournaments are much faster than traditional tournaments. The computer at blazing speed does all dealing, shuffling and collecting cards. You also don't have to worry about the dealer picking on you and other players hiding their cards.

Traditional venues are more often than not for the big-time gamblers, high rollers and celebrities. Except when you're playing on your dining table with your buddies.  While on-line poker tournaments are usually for novice players. Bets can go as low as one cent but can also get as high as thousands of dollars.

On-line poker tournaments are quite common and almost anyone can join. Anyone wanting to join should however know that gambling sites might have different set of rules. They may need to understand these rules and try out the site first before making any actual betting. They should check that the venue they want to join has a capability to detect fraud like collusion between players and other security features. Customer support service should also be available in these poker tournaments.

Online tutorials or online poker schools are also features that should be considered especially if you're a novice player dreaming about making it big or wanting to impress someone. This is one way of learning poker for free, at your own pace and without annoying anyone.

Some on-line venues also provide novice players a chance to gain entry into big money traditional poker tournaments. A virtually unknown guy named Chris Moneymaker did this feat in the 2003 World Series of Poker and eventually went on to win the tournament.

Poker tournaments can be very exciting to watch on television. But it can be more exciting if you were playing instead of just being the spectator.

Some say poker originated from the Persian Empire and some say the French Monarchy. Let's leave that for the historians to debate about. All I about kings and queens is a Royal Flush.