Tournament Types

Poker tournaments come in many different sizes and types. If you can play one type of poker tournament, you can easily learn how to play any other type, because there really isn’t that much difference between them all. Almost all tournaments have a buy-in and a fee you must pay to play. The buy-in is the money that goes into the pot, while the fee goes to the online casino or poker room hosting the tournament. Everyone begins a tournament with the same amount of chips. Once all your chips are gone, you are eliminated from the tournament, unless the tournament offers re-buys, which we’ll get into later. The number of players that get a portion of the pot is usually determined by the number of entries in a tournament. There are many different formulas used to determine the money split, so make sure you check that out before signing up for any tournament.

Your most basic tournament is a simple multi-table tournament. In this kind of event, the entrants are randomly placed at different tables. As more and more players are eliminated, tables are broken down and combined to keep player numbers even. The last player left standing wins the tournament and collects the largest piece of the prize pool.

A quick and very popular variety of tournament is a sit n’ go. A sit n’ go usually has no scheduled start time - it begins once all the seats available are full. Most sit n’ go tournaments consist of one table, but there are some that are played at multiple tables but with far fewer players than in a normal-sized event. Sit n’ go tournaments are extremely popular online because players can jump into an event and be finished in a couple hours or less. This allows players to get in quick games whenever they have a few spare hours, unlike normal-sized tournaments which can take many hours or even days to finish.

Both regular and sit n’ go tourneys can also be classified as re-buy and/or add-on tournaments. In a re-buy tournament, a player can buy back into the tournament after they’ve been eliminated. Some tournaments allow unlimited re-buys up to a certain level in the tournament, while others only allow one. Most re-buy tournaments also allow for an add-on. An add-on gives players the opportunity to buy more chips at a specific point in the tournament. This is usually right after the re-buy period has ended. Other types of online poker tournaments include satellites, shootouts, and speed.

A satellite tournament is not played for prize money, but for a free entry into another tournament or a very large prize. Most people are familiar with satellite tournaments because a number of players gain entry into the World Series of Poker by playing in satellites that might have only cost them a few dollars.

A shootout tournament is broken into rounds. In a shootout, you do not move to other tables, and empty seats at your table are not filled when others are eliminated. The last player standing at each table moves on to the next round. The rounds continue until only one player remains.