Poker is one of the most popular card games in the world, with tournament poker its most popular format. Tournaments offer the prospect of winning large amounts in prize money, while allowing players to enter for a relatively small buy-in. This is why you need to know – how do poker tournaments work?
We’ll take you step-by-step through how to get started, and provide some tips on how to make your games more profitable.
What Are Online Poker Tournaments?
Online poker tournaments are poker games with anywhere from two to thousands of players all competing for one prize pool. In a multi-table tournament (MTT), there are two or more tables of players. As people get knocked out, players are shuffled around and the number of tables is gradually reduced.
The winner will take the biggest prize, but players who finish in the top 10-20% of the field also tend to earn some cash. Tournament style poker at lower stakes can be a great format for beginners.
How Online Poker Tournaments Work
Before you enter an online tournament, you need to fully understand the answer to “how do poker tournaments work?”. Part of that is realizing the difference between tournament style poker and cash games. Each tournament can have its own rules, but we’ll outline a general idea of what to expect as you’re learning how to play tournament poker.
Buy-ins
To play in a poker tournament, you must pay an entrance fee, known as a buy-in. After paying a buy-in, you’ll receive a certain amount of chips for that event. All players pay the same fee, and receive the same amount of chips.
Poker tournament chips have no cash value, meaning that $10,000 in a poker tournament is not transferable for real-life money.
Starting Stacks
After paying the buy-in, and as the tournament is beginning, you receive your starting stack. Your starting stack is the amount of chips you have at the start of the tournament. For example, a $50 buy-in for a poker tournament might assign each player with 5,000 starting chips.
All players start with the same amount of chips, and these can go up and down depending on how much you win or lose in each round. Once the tournament begins, these chips cannot be traded in for money.
Blinds
An essential part of recognizing how poker tournaments work is understanding blinds. A blind in poker is an amount of money that certain players are forced to put into the pot before the actual round of betting begins.
In general, there are two blinds (small and big). Once the cards are dealt by the dealer, the player sitting immediately to the left of the dealer has to pay the ‘small blind’. The player sitting to the left of the ‘small blind’ player is the ‘big blind’ player. This then rotates around the table so that each player has a turn as being both the big and small blind.
Blinds exist in poker tournaments to ensure that there is a cost for players to take part in the game. Without this cost, players could choose to literally play nothing except the best hand in Texas Hold’em – pocket aces – which would make for a very dull and pointless game.
Another thing to note is that the blinds indicate the minimum bet that can be made in a round (equal to the big blind’s value). As the game progresses, the blind level increases – meaning that the amount to be paid by the small and big blind goes up incrementally after equal time intervals.
Payouts
So, how do poker tournaments work when it comes to money?
In any tournament, you’ll always know the prize money available in advance. This helps to know whether the buy-in you’re paying is worth it.
The tournament prize money gets divided based on how many players are in the tournament and how much money is in the pot. Normally, the top 10-15% of the field finishes in the money, which means they win a cash prize. Some tourneys will pay the top 20%.
Types of Online Poker Tournaments
One of the most appealing aspects of online poker tournaments is the range of different games you can play. It’s not just the variations of poker games – Texas Hold ‘Em, Stud, Omaha and Razz being the most popular – but how each game type works while playing them. Below is an outline of the range of games you can play and how they differ.
Once you’ve decided what to play, you’ll find all of these options at the best offshore poker sites.
One of the most popular poker tournaments is Sit & Go – also known as Sit and Go or SnG. These tournaments don’t start at a scheduled time – they begin as soon as enough players have registered. This can vary from as little as one table with six or nine players, all the way up to 180 players, 200 players, and beyond.
An SnG has a fixed prize pool, but games can complete quickly as blinds often increase rapidly. This fast-paced game is wildly popular amongst the online poker community.
Because you can choose a low buy-in and small pool of players, these are a great way to learn how to play tournament poker.
If you’re not familiar with how poker tournaments work, your first image is probably of a multi-table tournament, or MTT. These are any tournaments that comprise two or more tables when it begins.
Games are played until enough players are eliminated so that tables can be combined, eventually concluding with one, final table. MTTs are another popular version of poker tournament as it often involves a greater amount of players: the greater the amount, the higher the prize pool.
In a Bounty, each player who enters has a bounty placed on their head. This means that whoever eliminates them from that tournament will immediately win that bounty. These winnings do not go into the main prize pool, and there is nothing stopping the overall winner of the tournament winning without receiving a bounty themselves (barring the final heads-up hand).
In contrast, players can receive bounties for eliminating other players but still not win the tournament outright – they still receive the bounty they earned regardless.
In Hyper tournaments, the blinds increase very quickly, and players often start with a smaller stack, meaning that the action comes thick and fast. Hypers offer players the opportunity to play fast-paced poker, where every move can lead to either building a big stack or potentially losing it all.
Jackpots usually refers to ultra-fast tournaments with three or four players playing for a randomly generated prize pool. These are popular with amateurs and players who love to gamble, as they only last a few minutes and the top prize is sometimes seven figures. But, most of the time, you’ll only play for a small prize.
How to Choose the Right Poker Tournament
Now that you know the answer to “how does a poker tournament work?” on a fundamental level, it’s time to make the right choice to suit you.
At any one time there are hundreds of games available, so it’s important to consider some vital factors before getting started. For one person, the best online poker tournaments will be those with the biggest guarantees, while others might look for cheap entry or a short time limit.
Here are the top things to contemplate when making this choice:
The Buy-In Level
Before paying a buy-in, you need to decide how much you’re willing to stake. Start with the stakes that you want to play, with the golden rule being not to play with money that you can’t afford to lose.
Tournaments with low buy-ins are attractive as they involve less pressure. However, this can also mean that players who enter these tournaments can be carefree in their play – making it harder for you to gauge an opponent’s skill level.
At the opposite end of the scale, a tournament with a high buy-in implies that the players may be more skilled and experienced at playing the game, as they are putting more at stake.
Blind Speed
How long does a poker game last? The answer largely depends on the blind speed.
A higher blind speed will mean that your stack will shrink more quickly, as you’ll be forced to put in more and more chips each round as the blinds increase rapidly. This is suitable for active players, who like to be involved in playing lots of rounds.
However, players who prefer to bide their time and not be forced into making a move due to their stack diminishing, might prefer a tournament with slower blinds.
Guarantee
A tournament with a guarantee is one where the prize pool is guaranteed, no matter how many players enter.
This is used to attract players to the tournament, as there is a minimum prize pool for the event. This can mean that there are occasions where less money is spent by the players for buy-ins than there is in the guaranteed prize pool.
For example, a guarantee might offer $100,000 in winnings, but the buy-ins have only reached $80,000 – the organizer of the event then makes up the difference. This is known as an “overlay”. Keep an eye out for such tournaments, as there may be less players playing for a relatively large prize pool.
The poker tournament payout structure differs for each event, but you can expect the top 15-20% to be paid. The best online poker sites in the US sometimes have seven- or eight-figure guarantees.
Freezeout vs Rebuy
In a freezeout poker tournament, each player begins with a specified amount of chips. When a player loses all of their chips, they are eliminated from the tournament.
Rebuy tournaments differ, in that when players lose all of their chips, they can rebuy into the tournament. This costs the same as the original buy-in, and assigns the player the same chips that they received as their starting stack.
There are benefits to both types of tournament: a freezeout means that once a player is out, they are out, and you are closer to the main prize. But, a rebuy in which they can re-enter, means that a tournament can last longer. More rebuys mean a bigger prize pool, though.
Game Type
If you don’t know how to play Razz poker, you probably shouldn’t jump straight into a Razz tournament. It’s best to stick to what you know.
So, if you know how to play Omaha poker, stick to Omaha tournaments. It’s best to learn Texas Hold’em and 5 Card Poker before you start playing mixed games, though.
Live Poker Vs Online Poker Tournaments
Although Texas Hold ‘Em and other variations of poker have the same rules and strategies both online and live, there are some vital differences which are important to know. It would be a stretch to say that they’re completely different experiences, but online players trying out a live game – and vice versa – could be in for a surprise.
Time
One big difference is that live games are much slower as opposed to their online counterparts. This is due to the amount of time it takes to shuffle and deal the cards and collect and distribute the pots, and the time spent by players when thinking over a move.
Live poker is a more social affair: many players like to talk, laugh, and have fun – much different to the fast-paced nature of the online game.
Live Reads and Tells
Another major difference is the ability to pick up on body language and physical ‘tells’ in the live version of the game.
Most players give away information about the strength of their hand – whether by slamming the chips down when bluffing, or being more chatty when having a good hand – these can be picked up on when studying an opponent closely.
Reading an opponent’s signals, often around big, high-pressured moments, is a skill which can provide a significant advantage – something which is much more difficult to do against online players.
Poker Software & Calculators
Poker is a game that can be studied, and skills honed over time. If you like, you can use poker software and calculator tools. These applications help you to analyze hands and suggest moves to ensure optimal play.
Using poker software like solvers mid-tournament is illegal. However, there’s no harm in using poker tools to go back and study your previous hands. It’s something nearly all top pros do.
Live poker tournament rules also prohibit the use of software, and sometimes even the presence of a laptop in general.
Differing Buy-ins
The online poker world has a vast amount of poker games available at any time of any day. These include games with low buy-ins. In live poker, it’s much more difficult to find tournaments that offer low buy-ins in order to enter. The more you know how to play poker and the more successful you’ve been, generally, the higher buy-in you’ll play
Online Poker Tournament Strategy
To give you the best chance at the tables, you need a solid poker tournament strategy. Below are three tips to get you started:
- Learn the lingo
To avoid feeling lost and confused, begin by learning the jargon that is commonly used in games. Read a poker dictionary, and observe some tournaments in action – online tournaments permit viewers. - Make sensible decisions
Don’t make the mistake of expecting to win every time you play. Focus more on studying the basics, playing good hands and learning from mistakes. The results will follow. - Avoid being on ‘tilt’
Being on ‘tilt’ is a poker term for making rash decisions, based on emotion. Inexperienced players often lose hands and let this affect the rest of their play. Don’t let this happen – take a break if necessary!