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Tournaments and prize money
For the tournament or 'tourney' player, the real money lies in tournament
play. Over the past few months prize money has rocketed in these games, with
the significant arrival of corporate sponsorship and funding. Entry into
these tournaments is either by a fee, or by winning a series of satellite
tournaments, which bypasses the preliminaries and gets you into the big
money games.
Most of these matches have short 3 pointers, moving to 5 or seven points as
the player's progress. So it is important that luck is on your side, at
least in the early stages of the competition. This also means the less
experienced players have a better chance against the more qualified players.
Another point (excuse the expression) to consider is the actual prize money
on offer. If a site offers prize money of say $50 – or $60,000, check the
entry fee, and do your maths. See how many players have entered the event,
and check the fee, if there is less players than meets the pool, then the
sponsor is supplementing the prize money; rather than the players.
As more and more sites compete for players, tournaments are getting harder
to win, as better players step up to the board. Online backgammon has been
one of the main instigators of this strategy, tempting players with big
money payouts to enter their tournament.
Throughout September www.play65.com will be offering prizes from $500.00
through to $2,500.00, plus the chance to win exclusive entry to the Big
October Prize, where the prize money shoots up to $50,000.
Entry to the $50,000 tournament requires no buy in you win through in
satellite competitions. The BIG Prize competition takes place on October 1st
in a 3-7 tournament: with the initial rounds Matching up to 3; and the Final
Round up to 7 $50,000 – will be split across 128 players who will all win
prizes.
In January the tournament world gets serious; with the One Million Dollar
Tournament sponsored by Party gammon. The first online backgammon site in
history to offer a guaranteed One Million Dollars in prize money.
The tournament takes place on January 21 -25 2007 at the former world
championship location of the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in the
Bahamas. The ultimate winner of the top prize is set to receive a guaranteed
$500,000 in prize money plus the prestige that goes with the title of the
first million dollar winner.
Even if you are not lucky enough to make the cut for the big prizes, there
are still plenty of online backgammon sites to try your luck with.
Gammonempire and True moneygames hold regular 'tourneys' with various big
money prize competitions held during the month, between $20-30,000, so there
is ample opportunity to boost your bank balance; if you're good enough.
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