Normally we wouldn’t necessarily report on a comparatively small tournament in Washington, but the MGM National Harbor has come up with a neat idea as part of the Potomac Winter Poker Open that might be of interest to many poker players.

The casino is offering a special side event as part of a tournament series with a $500k main event. This side event has a buy-in of $200 and is only open to players who have less than $25,000 in tournament winnings according to the Hendon Mob tournament database.

This rookie tournament is supposed to be only for players who are either just playing for fun or haven’t been in the business too long. On Twitter, the announcement of this one small event was received with enthusiasm:

Love this idea! Best way to get new people into poker IMO 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/0MyuI3pIcU

— Ashley Sleeth 🤸🏻‍♀️ (@_AshleySleeth_) December 15, 2021

The MGM National Harbor is not the first casino to come up with the idea of such a beginners’ tournament. The Pearl River Resort in Philadelphia has also held side events where players whose winnings (via Hendon Mob) exceeded a certain amount were not allowed to participate.

Three-time bracelet winner Kristen Bricknell welcomed the idea of such an event and said it was a better idea than ladies events where men were not allowed to play.

How to create beginner-friendly poker tournaments?

This side event of the Potomac Winter Poker Open is certainly to be understood with a little wink. A $200 event in a tournament series with a total guarantee of one million dollars doesn’t matter much and won’t change the poker world. However, the fact that events that exclude players with excessive winnings are even offered and that these events are used as advertising for a tournament series sheds an interesting light on the state of the poker tournament scene.

The organisers want to make sure that amateur players feel comfortable at the tables and don’t have to fear being felted by professional grinders. Offering tournaments where professionals are kept away from the tables by decree is one way to try and attract amateur players.

However, such a side event looks a little lost when it takes place alongside a main event and numerous side events, all of which allow multiple re-entries. Tournaments with re-entries automatically create an uneven playing field, as professional players can buy into the tournament several times during the first day of play and thus have far better chances of making a deep run than an amateur who only wants to buy in once (or who has qualified for the tournament via a satellite). A tournament for non-professionals is certainly a fun idea, but it won’t make the tournament scene in general more beginner-friendly – not as long as the big main events are re-entry-festivals.

By the way, the small $200 side event of the Potomac Winter Open is not the only tournament that strives for beginner friendliness. This one, however, has a much higher buy-in, namely one million dollars. This is a tournament that will take place next spring as part of a Bitcoin conference in Miami. More than a dozen super high rollers (each with more than 10 million dollars in career winnings) showed interest in the tournament. However, several of the players – including Tony G. – made their participation in the tournament conditional on it not being a professional tournament.

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