The two largest and most well-known poker tournaments are the World Poker Tour championship event and the World Series of Poker, both held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The World Series has traditionally been featured on ESPN. Many tournament poker players practice their poker skills in poker games such as those at PokerStars.

The 2005 World Series of Poker was the first held outside of Binion's Horseshoe Casino, though the final few days of the main event were held in the legendary Benny's Bullpen. Future tournaments will be held at one of the Harrah's Entertainment properties; 2005 saw the Rio as primary venue.

Many players learn tournament poker at sites like PokerStars.com, the number one site on the Internet for poker tournaments.

Arguably the most publicized European tournament is the Poker Million, which began in 2000 on Sky Sports, following on from the success of the Late Night Poker television show.

In addition to these poker events, there are other major poker tournaments throughout the year. The World Poker Tour broadcasts a series of open tournaments throughout the U.S. and Caribbean with buy-ins from $5,000 to $25,000, as well as a European event with a €10,000 buy-in. Some of these events are stand alone tournaments like the Caribbean Poker Adventure, but most are held in conjunction with a poker tournament series being held at the host casino, like the Commerce Casino's LA Poker Classic, the Reno Hilton's World Poker Challenge and the Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker.

Atlantic City hosts The United States Poker Championship - The United States Poker Championship (USPC) is a major annual stop on the poker tournament "tour". This poker event is held at the Trump Taj Mahal. A series of poker tournaments culminates with a $10,000 no-limit Texas hold 'em poker championship tournament televised by ESPN.

The Ultimate Poker Challenge is a show produced for late night paid-programming time slots on WGN & other networks. It was originally hosted at the Plaza Hotel & Casino, but has since moved to Binion's. The current format has a $660 buy-in event on Saturdays, and a $340 on Sundays, with the final tables being taped the following day for broadcast. A recent $10,000 buy-in event attracted a rather small field and was won by 22-year-old poker professional Alex Jacob.

The main live poker tournament in Africa is the All Africa Poker Tournament hosted by the Piggs Peak Casino in Piggs Peak, Swaziland.

The Australian Poker Championship, commonly known as Aussie Millions is a poker tournament held at the Crown Casino, in Melbourne, Australia. It is the Southern Hemisphere's richest poker tournament with a prize pool in excess of AU$7 Million.