Poker Tournaments

Online poker tournaments offer great value for money entertainment offering poker games with a zero buy-in, a Freeroll, with prize pools of up to $1,500 up to buy-in's of over $1000, with a prize pool of over $1million, Pokerstars monthly Sunday Million. There are many different types of tournament here we explain what they are.

The basics of online poker tournaments are each player starts with a fixed number of chips and try's to win their opponents chips as the blinds and/or antes increase incrementally. As players are eliminated the remaining tables are combined to keep the tables full. This continues until there is one table left, the coveted "Final Table". The winner of the tournament is the last player remaining having won all of the chips.

Cash and/or other prizes are awarded to the highest finishing players on the basis of number of tournament entries. The actual number of players paid in a tournament depends on many parameters the main being the number of players who started the tournament, the buy-in and the tournament type.

A satellite tournament may only have one winner where as a Freeroll may have many winners as its main purpose is to keep players happy.

Sit & Go Tournament
Sit and Go's are a fast and furious tournament type where the number of players is restricted to a specific number of seats. Sit and Go's are usually Single Table Tournaments (STT's) where the number of players depends on the game being played, 10 player tables for Texas Holdem, 8 player tables for Seven Card Stud and so on. The game begins when all players have joined the tournament, this may take seconds on a Low-Limit Texas Holdem Sit and Go or hours if you are joining a lesser known game such as HORSE.

So if you have joined a Low-Limit Texas Holdem Sit and Go, say a $10+$1, and there are already 4 players sitting, making you the fifth player, the game will begin when another 5 players join. Another point to note is the pot, $10 + $1 means that $10 goes into the pot and $1 goes to the house, or poker room. For an STT the usual split is 50% pot for First, 30% for Second and 10% for Third.

Sit and Go's can also be Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs) where there is more than one table involved, again there is no set time for the tournament to start. For example on a two table Texas Holdem Sit and Go, with 20 players, the tournament will start when the 20th player joins. In this example the pot would be split 40% for First, 30% for Second, 20% for Third and 10% for fourth.

Sit and Go tournaments
Single Table Tournaments (STT) - usually 10 player table for Texas Holdem, 8 player table for stud games etc.
Multi Table Tournaments (MTT) - 2 table, 5 table, 10 table even 20 table Sit and Go's.
Heads Up - 2 player table, winner takes all.
Heads Up MTT - for example 4 players on 2 tables.

Scheduled Tournament
Scheduled tournaments have specific start times. There are usually a minimum number of players and a maximum number of players. As long as the minimum number of players has joined the tournament it will start when it is scheduled to.

Scheduled tournaments provide much bigger prizes than Sit and Go's with large numbers of players entering and many more who actually cash in.

Guaranteed Pot
A guaranteed tournament is one in which the prize pool is guaranteed by the poker room. So even if the advertised prize is not covered by player buy-ins then the poker room will "overlay" the discrepcy.

Freeroll
A freeroll tournament is one which has a $0 buy-in. These are usually aimed at new players or players who have recently deposited.

Freeze Out
A freezeout tournament is one where the player is out when they run out of chips. No re-buys, no add-ons you loose your chips you're out.

Shoot Out
A shootout tournament is one where each table plays down to one player before forming new tables with the players left, and so on.

Re-buy tournament (with add-on)
A re-buy tournament allows player to buy more chips when the run out. The re-buy period is an amount of time a player can re-buy into the tournament. Some tournaments restrict the number of re-buys. Once the re-buy period has ended the there usually the opportunity to purchase an add-on. Any player can purchase an add-on at this point irrespective of the number of chips they have.

Turbo and Speed
Turbo and Speed tournaments have there blinds increasing at a fast rate.

Deep Stack
A deep stack tournament is one where the starting stack of each player is larger than normal.

Qualifiers & Satellites
A satellite tournament is one where the prize is usually a ticket to a larger tournament.

Tournament Lobby
This is where you will be taken to when you join a scheduled tournament, and sometimes a Sit And Go. It tells you all of the tournament information you will ever need.

Players' position / who's still in the tournament
Current stack / Highest stack or "chipleader"
Average stack / lowest stack
Time to next break
Time to next blind increment
Time to Add on period