A cometishian is an event that is open to anyone. It has no buyins, and no cash prizes.
It is a technique applied by tournament directors to make a tournament take a direction which involves less gambling, a more
skill based tournament if you will.
Advocates of cometishian style tournaments say that the game becomes a
sport, with no cash prize but the winner takes the glory and perhaps some
token jewellery.
Jamie Gold wanted to enter the WSOP but he was
broke, luckily at the last minute the
TD (tournament director) decided that he wanted his cash tournament to be more
skill based with no buyins and no cash prizes, just glory. At the cage, Jamie Gold was told he could enter because the tournament had now taken the cometishian style format.