The online Poker games provided by the companies like Sky Poker have introduced millions of new players to the game in the last decade. Many online poker sites can allow new and novice players to get to know the game through free to enter and cashless games, from which many progress to staking real money after learning the ropes. The gulf between this level of play, and the big league, physical Poker competitions that take place beyond the virtual arena has hitherto been vast. Dominated by professional poker players and seriously rich private individuals – the only players with sufficient resources to compete in big live events – major competitions have largely been televised entertainment for the ordinary amateur punter, rather than something in which to actively participate. That is, until the development of poker syndicates.
Poker syndicates are basically a way of pooling the resources of hundreds, and often thousands, of amateur players, the most successful of which then sent forward to represent the syndicate at a big money live event. A common model for the poker syndicate is to first set up ‘satellite’ games on established poker sites. Details of these satellite games are posted on the syndicate website, allowing members to register, receiving a password to enter the game. The entries collected from every player that initially enters a satellite tournament are pooled together to form an overall prize fund.
Satellite games can be considered like heats in an athletics tournament, with the winners of satellite games going on to meet in what is in effect a semi final. The overall winners of this tournament, who will go on to represent the syndicate, will use the collected prize fund as the stake for entering the big money live event.
Commonly, around sixty percent of the any money won at the live event will be kept by the participating players. The remaining forty percent tends to be split evenly among the other players in those satellite games that produced a winning representative for the syndicate. In this way, if you were initially beaten in a satellite game by a good player who went on to represent the syndicate, you maintain a financial stake in the venture.
Poker syndicates can therefore be a route from (relative) rags to riches. What’s more, through this collective endeavour players are able to sample the big time in Poker without risking too much of their own money. Accommodation at and travel to the Poker tournament are the tangible prizes that syndicate members initially play for, after which it is a shot at the big time!