Ultimate Guide to Poker Tournaments For Beginners

The number of players affects the prize pool in a tournament. It’s hard to know how many players will join, so some players prefer guaranteed tournaments. In a guaranteed tournament, the poker room adds money to the prize pool if there aren’t enough players. This makes it easier to win since there are fewer players to beat. Guaranteed tournaments are popular in online poker because they offer a chance to win big.

A Multi-Table Tournament (MTT) is a type of tournament played with two or more tables. The games are played until there is a winner, and tables can be merged to combine multiple players.

A Freezeout Tournament is a straight knockout game. Each player is given a set amount of chips, and games continue until only one player remains. There are no rebuys or add-ons. As soon as a player runs out of chips, they are out of the tournament.

Turbo tournaments have a faster-paced blind structure than standard tournaments, and the levels increase at a quicker rate. For example, a standard tournament may have a blind increase at 10-minute intervals, while a turbo tournament may have increases between 3 and 5 minutes. These games are faster and more thrilling, especially for those who love action. Poker rooms offer various turbos, including hyper turbos, where blinds increase even faster.

In bounty tournaments, each player has a bounty on their head, which goes to the player who knocks them out. The bounty winnings do not make up the main prize pool. Players can win the prize pool regardless of whether they win the bounty money. For example, suppose each player has a $10 bounty, and you knock out ten players before being eliminated. In that case, you win $100 in bounty prizes, which is paid in addition to any prize money from the main part of the poker tournament. These tournaments are highly exciting, and players tend to act more aggressively as they try to eliminate their opponents.

In deep stack tournaments, the term “deep stack” refers to the number of chips and the blind structure. Standard tournaments usually start with around 100BB (Big Blinds) and 10-minute blinds, but deep stack tournaments can have a starting stack of over 500BB. Additionally, the blind structure is longer, which means the games take longer to finish. However, players can get more value for their money, and the larger stacks allow more creativity and more hands to play.

In a shootout tournament, players compete at a single table, and the winners progress to the next round until there are only enough players left for a final table. The payouts vary, and some tournaments only pay the final table winners or the winner of each winning round, while others have a larger prize pool on the final table.

A freeroll tournament is a multi-table tournament that costs nothing to enter. The winners get cash prizes or sometimes a ticket to a larger event. Freerolls are an excellent opportunity for new online players to get familiar with the game and the poker software. Most online poker sites have a series of freerolls that new players can enter as part of a welcome package. If you’re starting with a low bankroll, creating a larger bankroll with no financial risk is ideal.

A sit-and-go tournament is technically a tournament but played on a single table instead of multiple tables. The number of players is fixed at the start, and then it works down to the winner in a knockout format. The number of players that get paid will depend on how many entrants there are. In a 9-max game, the top 3 get paid, and in a 6-max game, only the top 2 might get paid.

Satellite tournaments are a great way to play prestigious events, like the WSOP Online series, without paying the massive entry fees. Instead of prize money, satellite tournaments offer the chance to win seats at higher buy-in tournaments. The number of seats you can win depends on the buy-in and the number of players. For example, if you pay $10 entry for your satellite game, you could win a $200 ticket to a larger game. The number of seats offered in the larger game will rely on the number of players, and generally, one seat will be offered for every 20 players.

The World Series of Poker started in 1970 and is the most prestigious poker tournament, with over 100 events yearly. Texas Hold’Em is the focus of more than half of the events. Every winner gets a bracelet and a cash prize. WSOP is held in Las Vegas at the Rio every June and July, with the $10,300 buy-in Main Event being the most popular. Notable events include the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players’ Championship and the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, which donates 11% to the One Drop Foundation.

The European Poker Tour started in 2004 with events worldwide, including the Bahamas. John Duthie founded it, and is now owned by PokerStars. The EPT aimed to attract more players with lower buy-ins, but it resulted in too many players for smaller European casinos. The Main Event buy-in was then raised to €8,000 in 2007. 2017, it was rebranded as PokerStars Championship, but the EPT relaunched in 2018.

The biggest poker tournament in the southern lands takes place every January at Melbourne’s Crown Casino and is known as Aussie Millions. It includes 15 events, such as the Main Event, High Roller Challenge, and Super High Roller. The Main Event starts with 8-handed players, switches to 6-handed tables when 36 players are left, and features 90-120 minute blind levels. The High Roller Challenge and Super High Roller are Texas Hold’Em events with buy-ins of $100,500 and $250,000, respectively.