There are millions of poker players around the world playing poker in online poker rooms who want to play in a grand tournament of the stature of the World Series of Poker at Las Vegas, but cannot.

And it is not only the huge buy ins ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 (not to mention the whopping $50,000 for the H.O.R.S.E. event) that is daunting.

The cost of traveling there and of lodging during this peak time is beyond the dreams of most online poker players.

Full Tilt Poker is one of the biggest and most reputed online poker rooms. A recent survey from MarketPulse reported that Full tilt Poker is among the top three US online poker sites in terms of traffic. Full Tilt Poker has decided that online poker players deserve to experience the thrill of playing in a tournament like the World Series of Poker. Therefore they have come up with the Mini Series of Poker or MSOP for short. The Mini Series of Poker mirrors the World Series, event for event. The Mini Series is already underway, having commenced on May 30, 2008, the same day the World Series began. It will host 54 events, the same number as the World Series (if one leaves out the final event at the WSOP that is meant for casino employees only).

There are some differences between the two tournaments, some minor some major. The Mini Series of Poker will end on July 5, 2008, with the No Limit Hold’em event having a grand prize of $250,000. The World Series of Poker would normally have ended at the same time. This year however the final table of the Main Event (which is the final one) is being played in November in order to accommodate the TV broadcasters. Another difference is that the “ladies” and “seniors” events at the WSOP have been converted to “open” events at the MSOP. The major difference is in the buy ins. The online Full Tilt Mini Series of Poker has buy ins of 1/100^th of the buy ins of the corresponding events at the World Series of Poker. There for the H.O.R.S.E event at the MSOP has a buy in of only $500 as compared to the $50,000 buy in at WSOP. The Main Event at the MSOP has a buy in of only $100 as compared to $10,000 at the WSOP. This is a great relief to online poker players. Most of them, not counting the brand ambassadors for the online poker rooms, have neither the incomes nor the life styles of their live casino counterparts.

The events at the Mini Series of Poker have guaranteed prizes. In addition the winners of the 54 events will be presented with custom-designed Full Tilt Poker champions watches, the equivalent of bracelets of the World Series. The only connection between the two tournaments is that the leader in the MSOP will be given a free seat in the $10,000 Main Event of WSOP 2009. Players at the MSOP will accumulate points depending on the position in each event, which will be aggregated to determine the leader.