Best Tournament Poker Sites

What is a Poker Tournament?

A poker tournament is a game in which you compete for a portion of a prize pool, rather than directly gunning for your opponents’ money. In a poker tournament, you pay a fixed buy-in before the game begins. In return for your buy-in, you receive a stack of tournament chips. These chips don’t have any value outside of the tournament; they are basically monopoly money until the game ends, however it's still a real money tournament.

Your goal in a poker tournament is always the same: win all the tournament chips in play. When you win all of the chips in a tournament, you win first prize. First prize is always the biggest prize at a tournament poker site; hence why your goal is to win, not just to cash. A tournament’s prize pool consists of every player’s original buy-in. For example if 10 players buy-in to a $100 tournament, the prize pool will be $1000. This money is split among the winning players in accordance with the payout schedule.

Most tournaments are set up such that 10-15% of participants win a prize. Payouts are generally top-heavy; the first-, second-, and third-place players usually take home a collective 75% of the prize pool.

Different Types of Poker Tournaments

Games at tournament poker sites all share the basic features outlined above. But there’s more: tournament structures vary across different tournament poker sites. The most common structures are:

• Freezeout tournaments
• Shootout tournaments
• Rebuy tournaments
• Bounty tournaments
• Turbo tournaments
• Sit-and-go tournaments

Tournament Poker: Freezeouts

Most of the tournaments you see on television are standard freezeouts. The World Series of Poker Main Event is a freezeout; most World Poker Tour events are freezeouts; and most of the TV tournaments sponsored by poker sites are freezeouts. In a freezeout, you get a fixed number of chips for your buy-in. Once you’ve run out of chips, you’re eliminated from the tournament.

As players are eliminated in a freezeout, tables with empty seats are combined. So you’ll always be playing at a full 8-, 9-, or 10-man table in a freezeout; the only short-handed play occurs on the final table.

Tournament Poker: Shootouts

In a shootout tournament, you begin seated at a full table like in a freezeout. However rather than tables combining as players are eliminated, each table plays through until only one player remains. Once all tables in a shootout tournament have only 1 player left, tables are combined and the shootout cycle begins once more.

For example, imagine a shootout tournament that begins with 10 tables, 10 players seated at each. Every table plays until only one player remains seated. After each of the 10 tables has played through to a final player, 10 players remain in the tournament. These 10 players are moved to the final table, where the last round of the tournament goes ahead.

Tournament Poker: Rebuy Tournaments

In a rebuy tournament, you’re allowed to buy in multiple times. Once your stack has been depleted, you’ve got the option to simply pay for a new one. Generally there will be a rebuy period: a set time frame in which you’re allowed to rebuy. At most tournament poker sites, the rebuy period lasts for the first hour of a tournament. If you’re knocked out at any point within the first hour, no worries – just buy in again.

Rebuy tournaments will often allow add-ons. Generally add-ons are available at the first break, right after the re-buy period has ended. An add-on is essentially a rebuy, but you don’t have to be busto to take it. Every player can add-on during the add-on period regardless of how many chips he holds.

Tournament Poker: Bounty Tournaments

In a bounty tournament, you win extra money if you knock out certain players. For example many tournament poker sites run “pro bounty” tournaments. In these, you win a bonus if you knock out a member of the site’s pro team.

Tournament Poker: Turbo Tournaments

Tournaments of all kinds can be ‘turbo’; it simply means that tournament levels go by more quickly than in regular-speed games. You can have turbo freezeouts, turbo shootouts, turbo bounties, and so on.

The standard time per level at most tournament poker sites is 15 minutes. In a turbo tournament, this might be cut down to 12 or 10 minutes. And in super-turbo tournaments, levels might be as short as 5 minutes.

Tournament Poker: Sit-and-Go

Sit-and-go tournaments are games that run around the clock as they are filled. They aren’t scheduled like most other tournaments, which some players find offers a more flexible gaming experience.

You’ll find sit-and-go games at most tournament poker sites in many different varieties. The most popular are single table sit-and-gos, which are 10-player games that pay the top 3 players.180-player sit-and-gos are also popular, They’re great practise for bigger scheduled multi-table tournaments.