Satellite tournaments provide a great way for regular online poker players to qualify for events of a far bigger profile, and typically with a far bigger prize pot on offer. Some online real money poker satellites offer pathways to bigger Internet hosted events, while other satellite qualifiers are routes into land-based poker tournaments. WSOP Qualifiers (sometimes called satellite tournaments) are online poker tournaments where the winners automatically qualify to play in the actual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. This is actually how 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker qualified as well 2004 Champion Greg Raymer.

It's not just the stuff of fantasy. Online satellite poker tournaments can take you all the way from playing at home to the big leagues, and more than once we've seen that story play out to spectacular effect on the biggest stage of all.

Wsop Satellite Tournaments 2019

In 2003, American poker player Chris Moneymaker qualified for the World Series of Poker main event by entering a $39 online satellite tournament. That in of itself was an achievement, but when Moneymaker went on to win the whole thing, taking home a cool $2.5 million, he became the hottest thing in poker.

Online Poker Satellite Tournaments

Moneymaker's remarkable story sent the popularity of online real money into the stratosphere and had players all over the world rushing to enter satellite tournaments, in an attempt to replicate his amazing victory. The following year Greg Raymer followed Moneymaker's lead. Raymer was already an established pro, but he managed to qualify for the main event via a satellite event and went on to win the whole thing also. By that time the prize money on offer was $5 million.