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.