In the fall of 2008, I started playing World Tavern Poker at Main Street Bar & Grill in North Stafford. Over the years, I played in a few other bars in Fredericksburg and Northern Virginia. Main Street dropped out of WTP and, for a while, hosted unassociated tournaments.
All the tournaments were no-limit hold ’em with no buy-in. Some had cash prizes and end-of-season trophies. I won many tavern championships, placed well in regionals, and played in a few nationals. The games kept my analytical mind active.
In the spring of 2020, COVID shut down all the bars in the area and halted live poker play. At that time, World Tavern Poker developed eight online leagues. They were an ongoing business that wanted to survive the pandemic. Each league has quarterly standings and a championship tournament. Top players in each league qualify for a quarterly combined (nationals) online championship tournament.
Most league games are no-limit hold ’em. However, a few of them, especially the 5:30 pm league, have Stud, Razz, and Omaha options.
At that time, I did not join a World Tavern Poker Online league; instead, I renewed my membership in the Club WPT site in April 2020.
Both sites charged a monthly fee of around $25 for almost unlimited play. Some of the Club WPT daily tournaments had cash prizes. The daily tournaments on World Tavern Poker Online do not have cash prizes. Club WPT has a premium membership that allows playing in higher payout tournaments,
In both leagues, placing well in tournaments earn points. Club WPT points can be used for buy-ins to higher payout tournaments but not at the level of their premium membership. World Tavern Poker points are used to qualify for monthly and quarterly tournaments. These World Tavern Poker Online tournaments have significantly higher payouts than any Club WPT standard tournament.
Club WPT has a worldwide membership. Their players are erratic, pushing the free buy-in envelope, and are unknown from game to game. World Tavern Poker Online members are typically from the United States and Canada. You will usually see the same players from day to day. And most play reasonable strategies.
World Tavern Poker Online has at least seven tournaments per day. Club WPT has at least six tournaments per hour. Because of the higher volume of play, I joined Club WPT and continued to play through January 2023.
I like playing one tournament daily while eating lunch around noon Eastern Time.
Club WPT uses 6-minute blind levels and 9-handed tables. When players are not present at the table, they eat time and are automatically placed on sitting out status at the end of the hand. A player sitting out and all-in stays in the hand and can win.
I don’t think Club WPT uses a random shuffle. With a random shuffle, there are 52 factorial possible sequences of cards in the deck or 80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000 possibilities. Of course, for a 9-handed table, only the first 23 cards are used, so the sequence of those cards would have 268,306,166,962,345,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 possibilities. Heads up, only the first nine cards are used, so the sequence of those cards has 1,335,062,881,152,000 possibilities. With suit swapping creating similar hands, fewer relevant possibilities would be available.
However, with Club WPT, there are too many action hands.
A made hand is a straight or better. A set is a marginally made hand.
I define action hands as multiple players with strong hold cards and weaker opening hands hitting a made hand. Action hands have flops, turns, and rivers that promote betting by numerous players.
The players with weaker opening hands see too many “if only I had played” opportunities.
There seem to be more suck-outs on the river than the reasonable odds.
I think Club WPT has predefined card shuffles that produce action hands. Rather than having the 52 factorial card sequences, they may have 1,000,000 sequences that generate action. Which of the 1,000,000 sequences is used is still random.
The shorter blind levels also produce more action.
The randomness of deals does not favor any one player. However, I would get at least one winner in each circuit of the table. The key was to recognize the pre-flop cards that were the winner.
Club WPT only played Hold ’em and Omaha. There were no stud options.
COVID has passed, almost. World Tavern Poker started live games again in 2021. You can see their schedule at https://www.worldtavernpoker.com/. With my lung and heart conditions, I’m alcohol restricted and still need to avoid live games.
In February 2023, I left Club WPT and started playing World Tavern Poker Online. The initial reason was the option to play stud games.
I’ve regularly played the noon tournament and the Tuesday Razz game.
World Tavern Poker Online uses 15-minute blind levels and 8-seat tables. The number of players per tournament is less than Club WPT. In most cases, players stay at the table and act quickly. A player not taking a hand in the first 30 minutes is removed from a tournament. A timed-out player’s status is changed to “Sitting Out.” Sitting out, players are auto-mucked and can not win a hand, even when all in.
The number of action hands and suck outs feels similar to live games. The deck feels randomly shuffled. The number of pre-flop folded hands that hit are in sync with standard odds.
World Tavern Poker Online has two fee options. $25 per month provides unlimited access to their eight league games and 20,000 bankroll dollars. Their free option provided access to the 3 pm league and 1000 bankroll dollars,
Each tournament requires a bankroll dollar buy-in, and the top 20 finishers earn bankroll dollars. The typical buy-in is 100 bankroll dollars. When someone runs out of bankroll dollars, they can not play until the beginning of the following month. Players’ bankrolls are reset to 20,000 or 1000 at the beginning of each month. With reasonable play, it would be difficult to exhaust bankroll dollars.
In addition to bankroll dollars, the top 30 finishers in each tournament earn league-standing points. Each league has its quarterly standings. Points vary from around 500 for 30th place to 11,000 for first place. A player’s best 15 scores in a quarter are used for their league standing. A person playing in multiple leagues would be included in multiple standings.
There are no monetary rewards from daily league tournaments.
World Tavern Poker Online has two monthly free roll tournaments with monetary rewards and a $500 first prize. To qualify for one, you must place in the top three in any game in the previous month. The other is based on the bankroll dollars earned in the previous month. Qualifying for these free rolls is not difficult with reasonable, consistent play in the daily tournaments.
There are two quarterly free roll tournaments. Each league has its quarterly championship with no monetary rewards, and the combined championship pays out the top 16 finishers from $25 to $1000. Once again, with reasonable, consistent play in the daily tournaments, qualifying for these free rolls is not difficult.
I found that the final tables of the free rolls are more luck than skill. Players are a little tighter in the early blind levels. By the final table, there may only be 5 to 10 big blinds per player remaining. Aggression and math become essential, and bad cards will hurt.
In my first year, I’ve done well in the free rolls, winning more prize money than my monthly fees; I typically only play the noon game with lunch, about 20 games per month, finishing well in each quarter’s standings. The suck outs are within typical card distribution.
In the summer of 2023, a few World Tavern Poker Online tournaments were held to qualify for a live event in November in Las Vegas. I qualified. During that trip, I caught COVID from either the travel or the tables, though I was mostly masked. I’m still impacted by health issues caused by the COVID stresses. I may not fly or play in a live game again.
The online site is https://www.worldtavernpoker.online/