Online Poker Tournament Types
Tournaments are available in many styles and formats for all major poker games. The popularity of tournaments has exploded due to the televising of many large scale live events.
Multi-Table Tournaments
Players start multi-table tournaments with a fixed number of chips and play until one player has them all. Blinds and antes increase as the tournament progresses. As players are eliminated, tables are consolidated together. The number of tables is eventually reduced to one final table, which is composed of the top table winners of the field. The total sum of all the entry fees is divided up and awarded to the top players, in accordance to the total amount of entries for the tournament.
Freerolls
A freeroll tournament is a multi-table tournament in which there is no entry fee. Many freerolls have prizes either in terms of money, player points, or entries to other tournaments. Freeroll listings can be found under the “Scheduled Tournament” tab in the Poker Software.
Qualifiers
Qualifiers, sometimes referred to as "Satellites," are tournaments designed to allow players to win seats in a bigger tournament at a fraction of the buy-in. Qualifying events for various multi-table tournaments can be found under the “Scheduled Tournament” tab. Qualifier tournaments will pay out in tournament tickets. These tickets can then be used to buy in to the next level of the tournament. Tournament tickets cannot be converted to real money, but can be used like cash to buy-in for the tournament indicated.
Multi-Table Sit and Go
A multi-table Sit and Go (MSG) is a mini-tournament that does not begin at a designated time, but rather when all of the seat are filled. We currently host multi-table Sit and Go tournaments that include anywhere from 18 to 45 players (two to five tables). Blind levels increase based on time depending on the type of tournament you decide to play in. Regular MSGs have blinds increase at 10 minute intervals, whereas turbo MSGs will have blinds increase at five minute intervals. To view the payout structure for any given tournament, a player simply needs to double-click on the tournament in question to open the Tournament Lobby.
Re-Buy Tournaments
A typical multi-table tournament has only one buy-in and once a player is out of chips they are eliminated from the tournament. Re-buy tournaments are different from traditional multi-table tournaments in that they allow players to purchase additional chips during the course of the tournament.
Players will be offered a re-buy option whenever they run out of chips, although they may choose to re-buy any time their chip stack falls below the designated amount.
Most re-buy tournaments have a set period of time in which re-buys may be purchased and there may be a limit to the number of re-buys a player may purchase during the course of a tournament.
Re-buy tournaments typically offer a last opportunity to purchase chips, known as the "add-on." The add-on is offered at the end of the re-buy period and is normally available to all players regardless of their stack size.
The prize pool and payouts will not be announced until after the re-buy and add-on period is finished, as the prize pool will be increased by the additional re-buys and add-ons.
Sit and Go
A Sit and Go is a mini-tournament that does not begin at a designated time, but rather when all the seats are filled. Blind levels go up based on time: with a standard 10-player Sit and Go, blinds go up every 10 minutes. Payouts for a 10-handed Sit and Go are generally to the top three, with first winning 50% of the prize pool, second winning 30% and third winning 20%. The payouts are displayed in the Main Lobby of the tournament that is highlighted.
Sit and Go Turbo and Super Turbo
A Sit and Go Turbo is a variation where blinds increase faster. Instead of blinds moving up every 10 minutes like a standard Sit and Go, in Turbo, blinds go up every five minutes. As for a "Super Turbo" Sit and Go, blinds go up every three minutes.
Sit and Go - Short Handed
Sit and Go Short-Handed tournaments can be played with two or six players. With these variations payouts are altered to pay out two players in a six-handed game, and one player in a two-player game. These tournaments are generally very fast paced and can provide some exciting action.
Shootout Tournaments
Shootout tournaments are applicable for Hold’ em & Omaha 6-Handed and 9-Handed table games, where the winner from each table advances to the next round. Shootouts can only be applied to scheduled multi-table tournaments.
Shootout tournaments can be a Double Shootout or a Triple Shootout, depending on the number of seats per table and max players allowed in the tournament. Double if the total round is 2, Triple if the total round is 3. Each of the games/tables progresses until there is a winner and the winners from each table would be seated randomly in the next round. Also note that if a shootout is not filled to capacity when it begins, some of the tables in Round 1 could have more players than others.
Double Shootout: If the number of seats per table is six and the maximum amount of players is 36, then there will be six tables of six players to start and each of the tables’ winner advances to the final table of six players.
Triple Shootout: If the number of seats per table is nine and the maximum amount of players is 729, then there will be 81 tables of nine players to start and each of the tables’ winners gets to round two. In round two, there will be nine tables of nine players and the winners of each table advances to the final table of nine players.
The un-registration time for shootout tournaments is 10 minutes before the tournament starts. Shootout tournaments also have late registration which will usually be set to 65 minutes for guaranteed shootout tournaments and 30 minutes for non-guaranteed shootout tournaments. The only exception to this rule is that if a player gets eliminated from the tournament, late registration will close on the very next hand.
The blinds intervals settings are synced with the blind level setting for each round. Each round will have its own blinds which are displayed in the tournament lobby by clicking on “Tourney Info”.
The starting chips for every player will change each round depending on the number of seats per table in the previous round.
Shootout tournaments do not have hand for hand feature and breaks will occur after every 60 minutes of play.
The rankings are determined by a system that groups the same ranks from each table, except the ranks are determined by the end time within the group.
Heads-Up Tournaments
Another form of a Shootout tournament is a Heads-Up tournament. This is a tournament where players are matched up against one another on a one-on-one basis, and play a bracket style tournament until there is only one player left.
Contrary to other Shootout tournaments, late registration is not allowed in Heads-Up tournaments.
The total of participants in a Heads-Up tournament may not always be a number divisible by the power of two, which is a must to fill a bracket. When this happens, not all players will play the first round and this will result in some players receiving a bye to the second round. First round byes will be randomly allocated.
The blinds intervals work exactly how they do for Shootout tournaments. Each round will have its own blinds which are displayed in the tournament lobby. The starting chips stacks will double each round that a player moves on to.
Quadruple Tournaments
In a Quadruple-Up tournament, one player for every four will receive a payout which will be equal to four times the buy-in.
Single Re-buy Tournaments
In a single re-buy tournament, players may only re-buy once before the break. Their stack must be equal or less than their original starting stack. No add-ons allowed.
Ante-Up Tournaments
In an Ante-Up tournament, the small blind in each level will be the amount of the level number, the big blinds will be double that amount and the ante will be five times the amount of the big blind every level.
Add-On Only Tournaments
In an Add-On Only tournament, players making it to the first break will have the opportunity to add-on chips to their stack. Generally, players will be able to add three times the starting stack for the same price as the buy-in
Knock-Out Tournaments
In a Knock-Out tournament, the same rules as standard tournaments apply, except that the buy-in will be split between contributing to the prize pool and creating a bounty on each player.