BY TOM SOMACH

Until now, poker players who wanted to play in a major poker tournament had two ways to go about it:

They could either pay the costly entrance fee, or they could make it in by beating a bunch of other players in a qualifying tourney.

But what if they lack the funds to cover the entrance fee, and aren’t good enough to beat out multiple players in a qualifier?

Now there’s a third option, courtesy of something called the American Amateur Poker League (AAPL).

Alex Bungener of Boston, Mass., founder of the AAPL, says he was frustrated by the immense difficulty of having to beat hundreds or even thousands of online poker players in an online poker tournament in order to earn a seat into a major offline tourney, so he came up with an easy and inexpensive way for online players to get a free major tournament seat.

“The AAPL gives its members many opportunities to get a free tournament seat in a major event,” Bungener told PokerHelper.com.

“Members can do this by playing in AAPL’s private no-limit hold ‘em tournaments online,” he said. “We hope to be running the private tournaments daily and having numerous qualifying periods each year.

“Not only can a member qualify for a major tournament seat by finishing in the top of the rankings for that specific qualifying period, but, when we have enough members participating in our private tournaments, we will also have a wild card drawing and a lucky member will also get a free seat.”

According to Bungener, membership in the AAPL is free, and the private AAPL tournaments have a prize pool just like regular online tourneys elsewhere.

There is a fee to compete in the AAPL tournaments, however, and that fee pays for the major offline tourney seats, as well as for other expenses, he said.

That fee is $5 per private tournament, he said.

“Our goal is to place at least one member into every major tournament in America throughout the year and possibly a few major ones overseas,” Bungener said.

For more information about the organization and its activities, go to www.aapleague.com.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)