Poker tournaments have always been attracting lots of attention worldwide due to their fancy atmosphere and mouth-watering prizes reserved for the best players. It’s far from surprising to hear about professional poker players who have won thousands of hundreds and even millions of dollars on prestigious poker tournaments; thus, it’s even less surprising that people around the world are quite curious about tournaments and how they work.
Well, explaining them simply, poker tournaments are competitions with pre-determined rules and betting options that keep going on until a single winner remains in the game. Players that want to take part in a tournament must register and, if there is one, pay the buy-in; afterwards, they don’t have the freedom to enter and leave the games whenever they want, but they must follow the schedule and play as long as they have playing chips.
Tournaments come in various formats and offer different betting options to players. Therefore, before taking part in one, possible participants should get familiar with the rules and see whether they suit their expectations.
Just like it was mentioned before, the getting started process of poker tournaments involves registering for the game and paying the buy-in, only if there is one. Afterwards, the player receives a starting stack, which is always identical as the ones all other players have. Depending on the tournament, players then are randomly seated on tables or paired to play one against another.
The poker action on tournaments may be both fast-paced and quite slow; this depends on the number of players per table and on the poker variant played. However, regardless these two possibilities, players play as many sessions as necessary until only one winner per table is left. Depending on the number of players and round winners, the action moves on to the next round multiple times until all round winners face off each other and new round winners are determined. Finally, the several last players play the final round and the winner of the tournament is known.
Poker tournaments always have a single winner, which is given the largest main prize. These prizes may go up to million dollars on prestigious tournaments, but often aren’t that impressive. However, sometimes winning the second or the third place pays off too because many tournaments reward those players as well; actually, there are tournaments that decide to reward even the first 10 or 20 players, because that way more people are motivated to join the action.
In terms of betting, there are three most common formats that are used during tournaments: structured, semi-structured and unstructured. Namely, structured betting formats involve limits that restrict the amounts players can bet and raise. Semi-structured betting formats, just like the name suggests, have ranges rather than fixed limits; hence, for example, players aren’t allowed to raise less than the player that has raised before them. In this betting format, sometimes there may be minimum and maximum amounts that partially limit players’ freedom in terms of betting and raising. The unstructured format is called no limit betting format as well. Such tournaments usually have fixed blinds and antes, but the betting freedom of players isn’t restricted in any way.
Poker tournaments usually have either one game played or offer a mix of games. When it comes to single poker variants featured at tournaments, players will most often find various forms of stud like seven-card stud or high-low stud or community card poker games like Omaha or Texas Hold’Em. Tournaments that offer a mix of games are often called H.O.R.S.E. and combine Hold’Em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight.
Naturally, there are various types of poker tournaments that meet the need of different types of players. Thus, there is something for those wanting a guaranteed prize as well as for those that want a second chance once they spend their stack.
Tournaments in which the prize pool is guaranteed, regardless the number of attending players, are widely known as guarantee poker tournaments. This is excellent because the promised prize pool will be achieved either by players or by the poker room.
One characteristic that’s always related to poker tournaments is the fact that players get only one try to make it to the top. It’s widely known that once a player loses their stack they’re out of the tournament for good. Well, this isn’t true for rebuy tournaments that give players a second chance to rebuy chips and get back into the action. However, usually a single rebuy is offered and once it’s over players shouldn’t hope for a third chance.
Satellite poker tournaments are actually a chance for low budget players to enter prestigious poker tournaments. Namely, satellite tournaments offer prizes that are seats to other tournaments; thus, due to their generally lower buy-ins, they are the best way to enter high-profile tournaments without spending a fortune on their buy-ins.
Unlike rebuy tournaments, freezeout tournaments are the contrast everyone fears. Freezeout tournaments are the most commonly played format and it doesn’t let bust players to re-enter the tourney.
Knockout tournaments are also very popular, mainly thanks to the bounty placed on every player that participates in the action. Namely, whenever one player eliminates another player, they are given a cash prize. Therefore, even though these usually have higher buy-ins, they are more than worth it both in terms of rewards and thrill.
Possibly the closest tournament format to cash games, Sit’N’Go or SNG tournaments don’t involve a pre-assigned starting time. Whenever the seats are filled, the action starts. Generally, the majority of the SNG tourneys are single-table and involve nine or ten players. However, there may be found other formats as well. They are usually played and completed faster, but also offer lower prize pots because of the low number of participants.
Shootout tournaments are another popular format of poker tournaments that offer a long and rewarding poker experience. Shootouts are multi-table tourneys where nine or ten players are seated on a table and play until one winner is left. Then, all the table winners are taken to the next round until one last round is played among the last-standing players. The one to win this final round is considered the winner of the tournament.
Even though the majority of the prestigious poker tournaments are land based and take part in popular poker venues around the world, lately online poker tournaments have earned lots of fans as well. Namely, taking part in online poker tournaments is pretty much identical as playing offline; or, more precisely, is much easier and simpler since you can do it from the comfort of your home and pretty much at any time since the offer is huge.
However, before being allowed to buy-in as poker tournament participants, online players must first register with the poker operator by completing the sign-up process. Afterwards, they must use one of the accepted payment methods in order to top up their account and then use the cash to enter the tourney. From that moment on, the gameplay and the rules are identical to land-based tournaments.
Players are assigned a seat at a table and then they play until a single winner is determined. One interesting thing to note regarding online poker tournaments is that they tend to reward a large number of the participants, which isn’t that common in land-based tourneys.
