Best Online Poker Tournaments for October 2024

Online poker tournaments come in different shapes and sizes. But, regardless of the format, they all represent a test of endurance, patience and skill.

Whether you’re looking for strategy tips, or simply want to know how to join poker tournaments online for real money, this guide has the answers. But first, let’s see the best sites at which to play poker tournaments online.

Where to Find the Best Online Poker Tournaments

Different poker rooms have vastly different types of online poker tournaments. Do you want to play for a major prize? Would you prefer something quick and straightforward? Or do you perhaps want to win a seat to a live event?

Whatever you’re after, there’s a poker room for you. Here’s where you’ll find some of the best poker tournaments online:

ACR Poker – Best for Huge Guarantees

Formerly known as Americas Cardroom, ACR Poker is one of the oldest online poker sites. Accepting US players since 2001, it’s part of the Winning Poker Network, which is responsible for some of the world’s biggest online poker tournaments.

The Venom Main Event in April 2024 boasted a frankly ridiculous guarantee of $12.5 million. However, other regular events, such as the Venom Mystery Bounty and PLO Venom, have also featured incredible seven-figure guarantees.

In addition, few mobile poker apps are as good for online tournaments as ACR Poker. It’s currently only on Android, but it looks fantastic and is very easy to use. It’s also possible to use cryptocurrency for ultra-fast withdrawals.

CoinPoker – Best for Satellites

Launched in 2016, CoinPoker is possibly the world’s leading cryptocurrency poker room. However, there’s no question that it’s among the best poker sites for rakeback, thanks to a generous 33% deal available to all players.

It’s also a leading choice for players looking to play their way into live and online Texas Hold’em tournaments. The site is affiliated with the Irish Poker Festival, for instance, and has previously hosted a variety of satellites to the €3,000 Main Event in Dublin.

And on the topic of online poker tournaments, CoinPoker offers some of the lowest entry fees around – even for their biggest events.

Ya Poker – Best for On-Demand SNG Tournaments

Since joining the Winning Poker Network in 2013, Ya Poker has become a leading brand. It runs smoothly on both desktop and mobile and has established itself as one of the best poker sites for tournaments – especially Sit & Gos.

You’ll find a whole host of on-demand events, whether you prefer single or multi-table tournaments. There’s also a variety of special jackpot SNGs with random prize pools of up to $1 million.

Like many reputable offshore poker sites, Ya Poker is licensed by Gaming Curaçao, meaning that you can deposit and bet with cryptocurrency. As such, you can expect to receive your tournament winnings in less than a day.

Difference Between Poker Tournaments Online and Cash Games

The main difference between online poker tournaments and cash games is that the former has a clear winner.

Cash games run for as long as there’s enough players willing to sit and play – forever, in theory. But a tournament has a finish line that all players are striving to reach.

Chips

In a cash game, whether online or in-person, the chips you purchase have a cash value. That’s real money sitting in front of. If you win more, you’re free to cash those chips out and walk away. Similarly, if you lose, you can simply buy more and keep playing.

However, when you buy into a tournament, the chips you receive are worthless in the real world. Everyone receives an equally-sized stack, and the aim is to play until one players has all of the chips in front of them. That person is crowned the winner.

You can’t cash out your chips halfway through a tournament. You’re in it until you’re out.

Structure

In classic online Texas Hold’em tournaments, the blinds increase after a fixed period of time. How quickly they rise depends on the structure of the event.

Many online poker tournaments are designed to be fast-paced, with blinds that increase sharply every five or 10 minutes. These “Turbo” events force players into action, making for a more exciting game.

On the other hand, some are deliberately set up to be slow, which allows skillful players to shine. They might have 30-minute levels, with smaller increases each time the blinds are raised. These are usually called “Deep Stack” tournaments.

However, in a cash game, the blinds remain fixed throughout. Even if the action runs for hours, they won’t increase unless all players agree to change them.

Payouts

Cash games don’t really have an ending. As long as there’s a free seat at the table, you’re able to sit down, purchase chips and join the action. When you’ve had enough, you can simply cash out and leave, regardless of whether you’re up or down.

But when you play tournament poker online,  it doesn’t work like that. All of the money paid to enter is pooled, before later being distributed to the best-performing players as prize money.

For example, a single-table tournament of ten players might share the funds between the top three finishers, like so:

• 1st place: 50%
• 2nd place: 30%
• 3rd place: 20%

However, some online poker tournaments are huge, with thousands of entrants, which creates massive prize pools. In this instance, the prizes may be split by among the top 15%-20% of players.

It’s not uncommon for some events to pay over a million dollars to the eventual winner. So, if you’re looking to win a lot playing poker, an online tournament is probably the best way to go about it.

Excitement

For many players, it’s more exciting to play live and online poker tournaments than cash games. After all, there’s a certain jeopardy involved.

If you bust out of a cash game, you can just reach for your wallet and buy more chips. Once the variance evens out, you may very well get your money back, or even make a profit. But you can’t do that in most tournaments. Once you’ve lost your chips, it’s game over.

In addition, tournaments allow you to see what you’re playing for. The prize pool is shown on-screen throughout, and you know exactly what’s in store for the winner. If it’s a very big event, there may even be a trophy, a bracelet or some other kind of prize up for grabs.

With a cash game, though, you never really know what’s at stake. You can only win what the other players bring to the table. If it’s a slow game, full of tight and disciplined players, that might not be very much at all.

How to Enter Poker Tournaments

Entering online poker tournaments is really easy. But if you’re new to it all, here’s a step-by-step guide explaining what you need to do.

Step 1 – Log into your account

If you haven’t already done so, create an account with your chosen poker site and log in.

Not sure where to play? We recommend one of the country’s leading crypto poker sites, CoinPoker.

Step 2 – Choose an event

All good poker sites use a straightforward and intuitive layout, with tabs along the top of the screen. Find the one marked “Tournaments” and tap it. Doing so will reveal every tournament on the site. You can easily sort them by start time and buy-in size, or use filters to thin out the options available.

If you’re a first-time player, it’s a good idea to look for free-to-play tournaments. These don’t cost anything to enter and are an easy way to learn the ropes and build your bankroll.

Step 3 – Register for a tournament

Once you’ve chosen an online poker tournament for real money that appeals to you, double click on it. This will cause a new window to open.

Here, you’ll see more detailed information about the event’s structure, as well as a list of registered players. Tap the “Register” button to join the party.

Step 4 – Confirm your entry

Once you’ve pressed “Register”, you’ll be asked to confirm your entry. This is an important step, to make sure you don’t accidentally join a $100 event instead of a $10 tournament, for instance.

After agreeing to join, the buy-in will be deducted from your balance. Your work is done until the tournament gets underway at the designated start time, or when enough people have joined.

Step 5 – Play some poker!

Most multi-table tournaments begin at a specified time. Some events, though, like Sit & Gos, are “on-demand”. They’ll start as soon as the required number of players are registered.

Once the competition gets underway, the table pops up automatically and all you need to do is play. Remember that big events usually have breaks built in – often every 60 minutes – so plan accordingly.

Types of Poker Tournaments Online

Online poker tournaments come in a variety of flavors. In the next section of our guide, we’ll explain a little more about how they all work.

Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)

The classic way to play poker tournaments is the MTT. Short for “multi-table tournament”, it’s exactly what it sounds like: an event that features more than one table. However, that could mean anything from 12 players sitting at two tables, to literally tens of thousands of players.

An obvious upside to playing in a large MTT is the potential for massive payouts. However, the chances of actually winning such an event are slim, even for the world’s best players.

The more players involved, the longer it runs, meaning you’ll need to get lucky in more than just a few hands.

Sit & Go Poker Tournaments (SNGs)

These on-demand events are some of the most popular online poker tournaments. They’re usually single-table tournaments (STTs) for two, six, nine or 10 players, but you’ll certainly find some Sit & Gos that feature multiple tables.

A popular alternative to cash games for low-stakes grinders, they’re much faster to play than MTTs. However, the same tournament strategies apply.

Jackpot Sit & Go

These put an interesting twist on the traditional Sit & Go concept. With regular online poker tournaments, you’ll understand exactly what the prize pool is going to be ahead of time. Everyone pays the same entry fee, so the payouts are predictable.

However, with a Jackpot Sit & Go, nobody knows what’s at stake until seconds before the game begins. As soon as enough players have bought into the event, the prize pool will be determined at random. It could be anything from 2x up to 200,000x the buy-in.

Bounty Tournaments

In these online poker tournaments, players carry a fixed bounty. If you manage to knock them out of the competition, you’ll receive their bounty as a cash prize.

Some tournaments feature mystery bounties. In that case, nobody knows what the reward will be for eliminating the player with the bounty on their head. As soon as the elimination occurs, the prize will be selected at random.

Bounty tournaments span different game formats. You’ll find a lot of Texas Hold’em tournaments online with bounties, but you’ll also see Omaha options and more. Keep an eye on online poker tournament schedules to see what’s available.

Progressive Knockout

This is also a type of bounty tournament, but everyone has a price on their head. When buying into the event, half of the fee goes toward the prize pool as usual, with the remainder allocated as bounties.

The action unfolds as usual. But if you eliminate an opponent, you take a percentage of their bounty – usually half – with the remainder added to your own. Imagine a $20 event, so everyone starts with a $10 bounty. If Player A busts Player B, they receive a payment of $5, while their own bounty increases to $15.

As your bounty continues to grow, you’ll find yourself targeted more by other players, adding an extra layer of strategy.

Turbo Tournaments

Some online poker tournaments are intentionally structured in a way that prioritizes speed over skill. The blind levels increase much more quickly than usual, perhaps every five minutes. And when the blinds do rise, they jump sharply.

The benefit of Turbo tournaments is that they don’t take nearly as long to complete. It’s a great way to take a shot at a big prize, without giving up an entire day.

The trade-off, however, is that you don’t have as much room to play. So, if you’re a skilled tournament player, you’d be much better off playing in a slow-paced event with larger stacks and smaller blind increases.

Other Online Poker Tournaments

Let’s quickly run through a few other popular online poker tournament formats.

The Biggest Online Poker Tournaments

Some of the best poker tournaments online offer unbelievable prize pools. Here are a few of the biggest you’ll find anywhere on the internet.

Venom Main Event

The Venom, hosted by ACR Poker, runs anywhere from twice to four times per year.

It launched in 2019, with an impressive $5 million guarantee in the Main Event. However, by April 2024, that amount had increased to an incredible $12.5 million, making it one of the best online poker tournaments for US players.

Venom Mystery Bounty

Another one of the world’s biggest online poker tournaments for real money. Think of this as Venom’s younger sibling. However, there’s nothing small and annoying about the massive $8 million guarantee.

The Venom Mystery Bounty is available at Black Chip Poker, as well as ACR.

Online Super Series Main Event

The Online Super Series is held several times a year, though the exact frequency varies. Available at Ya Poker, it’s normal for the $200 Main Event to boast a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million.

This runs alongside both the Bigger and Mini Online Super Series, which feature different buy-ins and prize pools.

Golden Spade Poker Open Main Event

Players at Bovada and Ignition can take part in the Golden Spade Poker Open series of online tournaments.

It typically hosts a $425 Main Event featuring a $500,000 guarantee, and the tournament is usually held annually.

Crypto Series of Online Poker Plus Main Event

In 2024, two versions of the CSOP+ took place – one in May, followed by another in September. Hosted by CoinPoker, there are four Main Events at a range of different stakes.

Although the High Roller tournament usually features a bigger prize pool, the smaller buy-in events draw bigger crowds. In May, the $1,000 Main Event carried a $400,000 guarantee.

Biggest Online Poker Tournaments Compared

Tournament	Guarantee	Buy-In	Fee	Poker Room	Rakeback
The Venom Main Event	$12.5 million	$2,500	$150	ACR Poker	Up to 65%
The Venom Mystery Bounty	$8 million	$2,500	$150	Black Chip Poker	Up to 65%
Online Super Series Main Event	$1 million	$200	$15	Ya Poker	Up to 65%
Golden Spade Poker Open Main Event	$500,000	$425	$25	Ignition	N/A
Crypto Series of Online Poker Plus Main Event	$400,000	$1,000	$40	CoinPoker	33%

How to Win Online Poker Tournaments

There’s no way to guarantee success when playing poker tournaments online. However, if you work the following tips into your game, you’ll certainly have a far better chance of success.

Focus On One Format

It’s tempting to play all of the many different games and tournament structures, but it’s better to try and master one specific type. The more you play a specific kind of event, the more experience you’ll gain, making it easier to refine your strategy.

So, whether you prefer playing multi-table Texas Hold’em tournaments online, or PLO Sit & Gos, pick one and stick to it.

Understand the Different Tournament Phases

Online tournament poker isn’t a uniform experience. The way you play at the very beginning should be completely different to when there are just three players remaining, for example.

Break each event into three parts: the early, middle and end game stages. To start with, follow the “tight is right” mantra. You can’t win a tournament in the first few blind levels, but you can definitely lose it.

In the middle stages, loosen up. Target shorter stacks with well-timed aggression to pick up additional chips. Towards the end of the game, relative hand values change and you’ll need to be more aggressive with a wider range.

Learn About ICM

The Independent Chip Model (ICM) shows that not all chips are equal and that their relative values change throughout a tournament. Learn this concept and understand it, as it will help to improve your overall online poker tournament strategy – especially when nearing the money bubble.

The gist of it is that you shouldn’t be making risky moves if there’s more value in preserving your current chip stack. ICM considerations help you to decide whether or not an all-in is worth it, particularly in the latter stages.

Target Players

Tournament success isn’t just about outlasting the others; you need to steal chips and steadily build a stack. Targeting weaker players makes this process easier.

If your chosen site allows it, invest in some poker software and a heads-up display. This will give you all the information you need to figure out the tendencies of the players at your table.

The stats allow you to see how often players enter pots, for instance. If you see that someone is limping in too often, punish them with raises and use them to execute squeeze plays.

Poker Tournament Online Withdrawal Methods

Okay, so you’ve entered some of the best online poker tournaments for real money and now you’ve managed to win. What happens next?

Well, there are many secure, reliable and fast ways to extract your tournament winnings. Let’s take a look at the best options.

Online Poker Tournaments for Real Money – Key Takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this guide to online poker tournaments. Here’s a recap of the most important points to take away.

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