The ever-changing poker promotion industry has taken another new turn recently. The announcement of Virgin Games’ plans for a crossover tournament in a live casino has gained a lot of attention.

Virgin is the first online company to hold a live event for its players, which will be held at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham, U.K. on November 24th and 25th. With so many online sites only concentrating on the high-roller player in their promotions, Virgin has created something for the average guy or gal to have the opportunity to play in a big-league event for a low price.

The structure of the event has the lower-limit players in mind, and the buy-in is only 105 British pounds. There is no direct buy-in and all participants must qualify their way to the event online. The two-day event will have $5000 added to the event by Virgin, and they are adding bounties that include wine, Virgin vouchers, Experience Days and player points. The event will have a party atmosphere with the hosts throwing around freebies all day.

The professionals have created the Professional Poker Tour that requires all participants to earn their way on the tour by placing in the money and participating in enough events throughout the year. This keeps the lower-limit players out of the picture of those events. This is the first tournament that will require that everyone win their way into the event. The professionals will not be able to just buy in, and the event has the potential to have more amateurs in a big event than ever before, thus increasing the average guy’s chances of placing well.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of online sites recognizing the value in the huge number of low-limit players that are out there learning the game. Providing an experience that can show an average player what it’s like to play in a big event is priceless, especially since the number of professionals will be much lower than the average big tournament. If it’s successful we will get to see more of this sort of thing, and we may see online sites hosting more land poker tournaments to promote their brand.