January 1: ITH Poker Tour – Online

Paradise Poker rings in the New Year with a 5pm ET $150,000 Guaranteed tournament. This $200 tournament will feature 2500 starting chips and 20 minute blind levels to give skilled players an advantage.

January 4-11: ITH Poker Tour – The Bahamas

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. Online qualifying for this tournament has ended but direct buy-in ($8000) is still available.

January 7-15: ITH Poker Tour – Online Tournaments

Paradise Poker will be the focus of the online poker world for this nine day stretch, with more than $3 million in guarantees for the nine tournaments. The Paradise Masters Week Series should attract a lot of players. The series kicks off with a $500 no-limit tournament featuring a $300,000 guarantee.

The week continues with $200 and $300 tournaments in limit, pot-limit, and no-limit holdem (including a 5-max event), and a $200 pot-limit Omaha event. All mid-week tournaments have a minimum $100K guarantee, 30 minute levels, and 2500 starting chips.

Paradise Poker will also temporarily increase the guarantee for its daily $30 rebuy tournament to $100,000 from $75,000 for the duration of the Masters Series.

The tournaments culminate with the Paradise Masters IV tournament on January 15. This $1000 tournament has a $1 million prize pool guarantee. Play will be paused when the final table is determined, so the ten contestants and their guests can travel (expenses paid) to a mystery exotic five-star resort to play the final table live. Previous final tables have been in Tahiti and Costa Rica.

January 8: ITH Poker Tour – Online

Take a break from the NFL Playoffs. Full Tilt Poker is running a $200+16 tournament with a $200,000 guarantee at 6pm ET. Satellites can be entered for $4.40 or in freerolls for 500 Full Tilt Points.

January 15: ITH Poker Tour – Online

UltimateBet is the stop for a Million Dollar Guaranteed tournament. This $500+30 tournament includes WSOP Main Event packages for the top ten finishers.

WSOP hopefuls should consider the UltimateBet WSOP VIP Freeroll. The first 150 players to win a Main Event seat through UB will be entered. The top three finishers in the freeroll receive: First Class Air and Hotel arrangements for the Main Event, $25,000 in entry fees to other WSOP events, and an additional $5000 for travel expenses.

January 15-19: ITH Poker Tour – Melbourne

The 2006 Crown Australian Poker Championship takes players Down Under for the largest poker tournament in the Southern Hemisphere. PokerStars and Paradise Poker are running last-minute qualifiers to this event.

January 19-22: ITH Poker Tour – Copenhagen

Denmark is home of the European Poker Tour’s Scandinavian Open. PokerStars is awarding $6600 packages that include the $4800 buy in. Prima Network sites also have prize packages.

January 19-26: ITH Poker Tour – Tunica

Two consecutive tournaments take place in the Mississipi Delta in late January. The Gold Strike Casino kicks it off with the WPT’s World Poker Open, January 19-23. ITH's own Matthew Hilger will be playing in this exciting tournament.

The action moves to the Tunica Grand Casino for the World Series of Poker Circuit event, January 24-26.

Full Tilt Poker gives away $12K prize packages to either Tunica event in its twice-weekly $200+16 satellites. Players in Full Tilt Poker’s live tournament qualifiers currently get a choice of five tournaments. These include the two Tunica events, the January 29 Borgata, the February 17 Los Angeles, and the April WSOP Circuit event in Las Vegas.

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 need not be Canadian to enter the Canadian Poker Championships, to be held January 24 through February 4, 2006 at the Atlantis resort. We are sure that most Canadians will not object to their national tournament being held in the Bahamas in mid-winter. The prize pool of the $5000 tournament is expected to exceed $2 million. Party Poker is running $800+50 or $200+15 qualifiers for this event that include 6 nights lodging and $1100 cash.

February 4: ITH Poker Tour – Online

A $200 buy in enters players in a $250,000 Guaranteed tournament at Paradise Poker.

February 7-17: ITH Poker Tour – Atlantic City

Harrah’s Atlantic City Casino will host the World Series of Poker Circuit tournament. Winners of a $250+20 tournament at Bodog Poker win a $12000 prize package to this tournament or the WSOPC March tournament at Caesar’s Atlantic City.

February 8-11: ITH Poker Tour – Deauville, France

The Normandy coast is the site of the European Poker Tour’s French Open. A $6900 prize package can be won in $360+20 tournaments at PokerStars.

February 11-12: ITH Poker Tour – Online

PokerRoom announces its Grand Tournament VI. This $1000 tournament is one of the most challenging online tournaments available. Qualifiers can be entered for $5.50.

February 17-21: ITH Poker Tour – Los Angeles

The Commerce Casino hosts the World Poker Tour’s LA Poker Classic. Bodog Poker is one site where players can qualify for this tournament.

March 12-19: ITH Poker Tour – Caribbean Cruise

Join ITH founder Matthew Hilger on the Party Poker Million cruise which departs Fort Lauderdale and includes stops in Mexico and the Cayman Islands. Poker players may forget the itinerary, however, as the ship will be hosting a $7 million Limit holdem tournament on the open seas. Party Poker has many ways to win a cruise package, including limit and no-limit sit-and-go and multi-table tournaments.

June 25-August 10: ITH Poker Tour – Las Vegas

It is never too early to begin planning for a trip to the center of the poker universe for one of the 44 events that make up the World Series of Poker. This column will list all of the options for players as more sites make satellite tournaments available. The dates for the Second Annual ITH Convention have been announced to coincide with the end of the Series.

Freerollin’

Freeroll fanatics should head to PokerRoom for one of the three daily $500 freerolls.

Absolute Poker holds as many as forty daily $50 freerolls. ITH has recently announced that Absolute Poker is now part of the two free book offer.

Around the Internet…Tournament Action

Ultimate Bet has a $200+15 Wednesday 9pm ET tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $75,000. Satellites can be entered for $3.30 or $11.

Pacific Poker runs Saturday $125+10 tournaments that award a $12,500 WSOP prize package for every 100 entrants.

Pokerroom’s Sunday Big Deal $300+20 tournament ($80,000 guarantee) can be qualified for in a $5.50+.50 MTT.

Absolute Poker has a daily 7:30pm ET $20 pot-limit Omaha Hi-Lo tournament with a $2000 guarantee.

Bodog Poker has changed its Sunday $100,000 prize pool guarantee. The start time is now 2pm ET, and the entry is $100+9.

Strategy Corner

Sit-and-go tournaments are an excellent way for MTT players to stay sharp on their short-handed and short-stacked play.

Single table sit-and-go tournaments are excellent practice for late MTT situations when a player may only have enough chips for a few orbits before being blinded out.

Both single- and multi-table sit-and-go tournaments are good practice for MTT situations where table player counts change dramatically. An MTT player who has not advanced past the top 21 places has probably never played at a tournament table with fewer than seven players.

Getting high places at final tables of MTTs requires players to repeatedly shift gears as the player count changes dramatically from a full 9- or 10-handed table, down to 5 or 6, then back to full again as tables are eliminated. A player who has a lot of experience with these changes (from playing 20 or 30 player sit-and-go tournaments) has an advantage over the everyday tournament player.

A well rounded game will benefit any player, even if he chooses to primarily play one format. ITH has an excellent forum for sit-and-go tournaments. As always, players are encouraged to visit the MTT forum for additional tournament discussion.

To discuss this article with the author and others, please visit this thread in the ITH Forums.