December 12-16: ITH Poker Tour – Las Vegas

The first stop on our own version of the world poker tour is the WPT Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio, December 12-16. Paradise Poker is running last minute qualifiers to this $15,300 event. Packages include $1200 for travel expenses.

December 17-18: ITH Poker Tour – Online Tournaments

Our players should head home and prepare for the holidays by playing the $1000 Grand Tournament V, on Poker Network sites including PokerRoom. This two-day event will pay over $130,000 to first place. Satellites can be entered for as little as $14.

The Party Poker Million Dollar Guaranteed tournament will play on December 17 as well. Multiple ways to qualify for this $600+40 event include $32+3 and $64+6 MTTs.

January 4-11: ITH Poker Tour – The Bahamas Part I

After a holiday break, globetrotting players can defrost on an exotic island. The five-star Atlantis Resort in Nassau will be the home of two major poker events this winter. First off is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, to be held January 4-11, 2006. Qualifiers run several times daily, and sub-qualifiers can be entered for as little as $3.

January 15: ITH Poker Tour – Online Tournament

Players should fire up their wireless internet connection to participate in Paradise Poker’s Masters IV tournament. This $1000 tournament has a $1 million prize pool guarantee. Play will be paused when the final table is determined and the final table will be played live in an exotic location. Previous final tables have been in Tahiti and Costa Rica.

January 19-22: ITH Poker Tour – Copenhagen

The next stop for world travelers is Denmark, home of the European Poker Tour’s Scandinavian Open. PokerStars is awarding $6600 packages to this January 19-22 event, which includes the $4800 buy in. Prima Network sites including Bet365 and Royal Vegas also have prize packages.

January 19-26: ITH Poker Tour – Tunica

The mighty Mississippi will be the backdrop for two consecutive events, starting with the WPT’s World Poker Open, January 19-23 at the Gold Strike Casino. Full Tilt Poker gives away $12K prize packages in its weekly $200+16 satellites. One Full Tilt advantage is that players have a choice of several live tournaments when winning the weekly qualifier, since many players may not be able to commit to a specific tournament before playing. Currently Full Tilt offers five choices to its players.

Another choice for Full Tilt qualifiers is to play in the World Series of Poker Circuit event at Tunica’s Grand Casino, January 24-26.

January 29-February 1: ITH Poker Tour – Atlantic City

The Borgata Hotel and Casino is the host of the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Classic. This tournament is another option for Full Tilt qualifier winners.

January 24-February 4: ITH Poker Tour – The Bahamas Part II

Players of all nationalities are invited to the Canadian Poker Championships, to be held January 24 through February 4, 2006. (The Bahamas is not part of Canada as of this writing, but for a mid-winter event, we will not tell.) The prize pool is expected to exceed $2 million. Party Poker is running qualifiers for this event. Winners of an $800+50 (1 in 10) or $200+15 (1 in 40) get a prize package that includes the $5000 buy in, 6 nights lodging, and $1100 cash.

The ITH Poker Tour Continues…

Future stops for traveling poker players will include Los Angeles, San Jose, Monte Carlo, Las Vegas, and a Caribbean cruise. Look for many more details (and suggestions for qualifiers) in next month’s MTT Scene.

Freerollin’

Freeroll enthusiasts should check out the action at the Prima Network sites for the Saturday night $25,000 freerolls. Freeroll players also cannot forget the Paradise Poker Million Dollar Freeroll II, which will play December 3. Qualifier MTTs will continue through December 2, so don’t miss your chance for a free million!

Around the Internet…Tournament Action

A number of sites have announced changes to their MTT offerings recently.

Ultimate Bet has a $200+15 Sunday 8pm EST tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000.

Party Poker has a new schedule of tournaments, with easy to determine start times based on game and buy in. Full details are here: http://www.partypoker.com/news/events/current_month_tourney_schedule.htm

Sit and Go specialists need to remember that PokerStars has two daily double shootout cash tournaments. Details: http://www.pokerstars.com/board2.html

Paradise Poker has increased the guarantee amounts on its daily rebuy tournaments. The afternoon prize pool is at least $40,000, and the evening guarantee is now $75,000.

Pokerroom players can now host private tournaments in a variety of games, limits, buy ins, and payout structures. Pokerroom’s weekly Big Deal $300+20 tournament now has an $80,000 guarantee.

Empire Poker hosts a Sunday tournament especially for European players. Start time of this $50+5 MTT ($10,000 guaranteed) is 1900 GMT (2 pm EST for American players). New Empire players can take advantage of the ITH Free Book Offer when signing up.

Empire also hosts two of the largest buy ins for daily tournaments. There is a $500+30 event at 2230 EST daily and a $1000+50 at 2330 EST daily.

Absolute Poker has increased its guarantee for the Saturday 1630 EST tournament to $80,000. Players can qualify for this $150+12 in a $27+3 MTT. Despite the slightly high entry fee, this qualifier can easily result a tremendous return, as 1 in 6 will qualify for the $150 tournament.

Bodog Poker now hosts a Sunday 1530 EST $50+5 tournament with a $100,000 prize pool guarantee.

WSOP Satellites Begin

A few sites have started qualifying players for the World Series of Poker Main Event. Absolute Poker is running MTTs to qualify players for only $100+8, where 1 in 110 get an $11,000 prize package. Sub-qualifiers can be entered for only $1.10.

UltimateBet is running a WSOP VIP promotion alongside its regular qualifiers to the Main Event. The first 150 players to win a Main Event seat through UB will be entered into a VIP freeroll. The top three finishers in this freeroll will receive: First Class Air and Hotel arrangements for the Main Event, $25,000 in entry fees to other WSOP events, an iPod, Bose headphones, and Oakley sunglasses (for the Phil Hellmuth impersonators), and an additional $5000 for travel expenses.

More WSOP information, including satellites to events other than the Main Event will follow in January’s MTT Scene.

Strategy Corner

Time to learn a new game? Playing in tournaments…single table sit-and-go or MTTs…is a great way to get a lot of exposure to a game with limited risk. A player with no Omaha Hi-Lo experience might drop $50 in an hour of play at a $1/2 limit ring game table. For $10, that same player might be able to play for an hour in a tournament, with no downside risk other than the $10 entry fee.

A player learning a new game should seek out several sources for learning, including books and the ITH Forum, but there is no substitute for experience, and a player must find ways to gain experience while limiting risks to the bankroll. Tournaments can accomplish that.

One warning to players planning to play primarily in ring games is to remember that tournament play changes dramatically as the blinds increase, and that ring game strategy breaks down in the latter stages of a tournament.

For Omaha Hi-Lo (O8) games specifically, players can look to many sites, but two sites with an excellent selection of tournaments are Paradise (pot limit MTTs and limit Sit-and-Gos) and PokerStars (limit MTTs including a DeepStacks and PL and Limit Sit-and-Go tournaments). Both sites have at least six O8 MTTs on the schedule daily, and Paradise adds a weekly $150 Big Blue O8 MTT.

For any questions about any of the touranments listed in this issue, please visit this thread in the ITH Forums.  For more information on Multi-Table Tournaments, visit our MTT forum.