Online Poker » Types of Poker Tournaments

There are many different types of poker tournaments that can be found online and every site has their own variation. The most common online poker tournaments are head-to-head tournaments, satellite tournaments, re-buy or buy-in tournaments, elimination tournaments, and shootout tournaments.

Head-to-Head Tournaments

Head-to-Head tournaments are perfect for tournament beginners. During these tournaments, you play one other player head to head until one of you runs out of chips. Many sites allow winners to move on and face other winners in future tournaments. Head-to-Head tournaments are nice because you have fewer opponents to worry about at one time, allowing you to hone your skills and become comfortable with online tournament play.

Satellite Tournaments

Satellite tournaments are usually small, inexpensive buy-in tournaments. Usually (not always) there is only one winner in these types of tournaments. Instead of cash, the prize is free entry to another poker tournament of bigger proportions. For example, if you win a $5 buy-in satellite tournament, the prize may be a seat in a $50 buy-in tournament. Many poker sites offer satellite tournaments, giving players the opportunity to work their way up the tournament ladder. Satellite tournaments are a great way to break into online poker tournaments.

Re-buy / Buy-in Tournaments

Re-buy / Buy-in tournaments bend the rules of online poker, allowing players who have lost all of their chips to “rebuy” more and continue playing in the tournament. Prize pools in these tournaments are usually a little larger than the pools in standard online poker tournaments, and because players have the opportunity to buy more chips, re-buy / buy-in tournaments tend to last longer. You will also find that players are more aggressive throughout the game when they are not facing complete elimination.

Elimination Tournaments

Of all of the different types of online poker tournaments, elimination tournaments (sometimes called multi-table tournaments) are the most common. During elimination tournaments, players usually begin with the same amount of chips. When a player loses all of their chips, they are eliminated. As players are eliminated, the remaining players are re-seated at fewer tables. To win the tournament, you must accumulate all of the chips. Prizes are usually awarded in various increments to the players who were seated at the final table.

Shootout Tournaments

Shootout tournaments are very similar to elimination tournaments, except tables are not combined as the players get eliminated. Instead, each table plays until only a single players remains. Then, the winner for each table is reseated at a final table and play continues until one person holds all of the chips.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 1:37 pm and is filed under Poker Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.