For your chance to win the big prizes, you can play in the big tournaments through qualifier satellites. This way you can join the really high stakes tournaments for just a few dollars.

In the qualifier tournament, instead of cash prizes, the winner is awarded tickets to another tournament. The ticket is valid as a buy-in, so you will not have to pay any additional fee.

There are different qualifier tournaments with different buy-ins. The number of tickets awarded depends on the buy-in and the cost of the ticket for the final. E.g. in the $11+$1 Grand Prix Qualifier, there will be a ticket for every 10 participants. (Ticket prize of $100+$10)

Aside from the pure qualifiers, where all the prize pool goes to qualifying tickets, some of the other tournaments also award tickets beside the cash prizes.

To play a tournament you need a ticket. These are either transparently bought when registering or can be awarded as a prize in a previous tournament or some kind of promotion. This way a chain of qualification tournaments can be created, leaving a very healthily accumulated prize pool at the end.

All tickets will have an expiry period. This will vary and will be displayed in the information regarding the tournaments. To start with, the tournament will have a long expiration time to let players find the correct tournaments.

In the tournament schedule and in the client, a tournament to which you have a ticket is denoted with an arrow in the tournament list.