The Red Hot Poker Tour hosts poker tournaments with no entry fees in Canadian bars and pubs. Every night of the week, players can compete to accumulate points which they use to qualify for the end-of-season Tournament of Champions. Past champions have been rewarded with great prizes including trips to Las Vegas, buy-ins to the World Series of Poker, and seats at Daniel Negreanu's Protégé final table.[1]
At the completion of its sixth season, the Tour expanded outside of Ontario for the first time, holding qualifying tournaments in British Columbia. With the inclusion of online-based Red Club Room tournaments, players are now able to compete via the internet through events hosted on PartyPoker.
The Season 7 Tournament of Champions winner was the first champion to be rewarded with a buy-in to a $10,000 tournament: a seat at the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. The Season 8 prize was a buy-in to the $10,000 Main Event at the second annual World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship at Fallsview Casino. For Season 10, the winner was given a choice of one of three World Poker Tour tournaments, and wound up playing at the LA Poker Classic.
To start Season 11, Red Hot announced they would be sponsored by the World Poker Tour, and all of its online games would be played at WorldPokerTour.com.
From Season 12 onwards, the Red Hot Poker Tour has featured its sponsor: PartyPoker. With PartyPoker's support, Red Hot has helped send numerous players to the World Series of Poker.
Tournaments are played at 8-player tables. Each player is given 8000 chips to start: 12 red chips (worth 25 each), 7 blues (worth 100 each), 6 greens (worth 500 each). and 4 black chips (worth 1000 each). Yellow chips (worth 5000), and purple/pink chips (worth 10,000) are used later in the tournament.
Blinds start at 25-50 and increase in value every 20 minutes.
Players receive 25 points for each tournament that they participate in. Additionally, all players who make the final table receive bonus points depending on their finish position:
1st place: 1000
2nd place: 700
3rd place: 500
4th place: 400
5th place: 300
6th place: 200
7th place: 125
8th place: 75
| Season | Date | Location | Champion | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | April 2, 2005 | Peel Pub | Jim Graham | |
| 2 | June 22, 2005 | Peel Pub | Leslie Kassa | |
| 3 | December 11, 2005 | Bert & Ernie's | Adam Domenchini | |
| 4 | April 1, 2006 | Elephant & Castle | Jimmy Herrera | |
| 5 | July 15, 2006 | Molly Bloom's | Sharmarke Osman | |
| 6 | November 25, 2006 | Keating Channel Pub | Richard Hebert | |
| 7 | March 31, 2007 | Montana's | James Reinhart | |
| 8 | July 21, 2007 | Montana's | Fred Tierney | |
| 9 | December 1, 2007 | Montana's | Jennifer Garlicki | |
| 10 | March 29, 2008 | Brick Yard BBQ | Osman Soubra | |
| 11 | July 26, 2008 | Brick Yard BBQ | Gary Biggar | |
| 12 | December 6, 2008 | Brick Yard BBQ | John Lawson | |
| 13 | April 4, 2009 | Brick Yard BBQ | Brian Hurley | |
| 14 | August 8, 2009 | Norma Jeane's | Chris Palmer | |
| 15 | November 28, 2009 | Norma Jeane's | Jenna Mischuk | |
| 16 | February 13, 2010 | Norma Jeane's | Dwayne Collins | |
| 17 | May 28, 2010 | Norma Jeane's | Chris Jensen | |
| 18 | August 28, 2010 | Norma Jeane's | Jason Acton | |
| 19 | January 15, 2011 | Norma Jeane's | Shaun Goddard | |
| 20 | May 14, 2011 | Norma Jeane's | Dwayne Collins | |
| 21 | September 21, 2011 | Norma Jeane's | Charlene Butler | |
| 22 | January 14, 2012 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Scott Harris | |
| 23 | May 12, 2012 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Jeff Vandenberg | |
| 24 | September 15, 2012 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Charles Chan | |
| 25 | January 12, 2013 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Scott Harris | |
| 26 | May 11, 2013 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Morris Delorme | |
| 27 | September 14, 2013 | Fox & Fiddle Dundas | Johnny Hlozan |