You can play poker at any time, online or with your friends, and enjoy a round or two of the game you adore. And while those everyday poker sessions are nice, they can't compete with poker tournaments.
Everygame poker tournaments are fast-paced, exciting, and highly lucrative. Since more people join these events, you get a chance to face off against a variety of poker players, learn from their individual playing styles, and possibly win the large prize pool by the end of the event.
There are many different types of poker tournaments out there, and you should know exactly what each of them entails before you place your money on the line. Now is your chance to find out what kind of tournaments you can join whenever you want to amp things up the next time you play poker!
Common Poker Tournament Types
- Rebuy vs freezeout tournaments – When you join a freezeout tournament, you get a fixed number of chips and are eliminated if you lose all your stack. However, rebuy tournaments allow you to purchase additional chips during the early stages of the event if you lose your initial stack or fall below a specific chip count.
Those two types of tournaments are very different in style, as the former requires a more careful and calculated approach, while the latter allows you to be more daring and try some risky moves without losing your spot at the table. - Satellite events – Instead of winning cash at the end of the event, if you win a satellite tournament, you get an entry into a larger and more expensive tournament. It is a way for players to qualify for high-stakes poker events without paying the full buy-in, making those events more accessible to the public.
- Guaranteed tournaments – In most cases, the prize pool of a poker tournament is determined by the number of participants who join the event. However, in some cases, live or online casinos will choose to offer a guaranteed prize pool regardless of how many people participate. That often helps to attract a bigger crowd, as people know exactly how much money is on the line.
- Bounty events – In some tournaments, players will have a bounty on their heads, which means that every time you eliminate a player, they get an additional reward. Usually, every player buys their own bounty chip at the beginning of the event, and the bounty amount doesn't change throughout the event.
However, there are also progressive knockout tournaments (PKO), in which the bounty increases the longer a player survives at the tables, making this feature even more lucrative. Having a chance of winning some extra cash by eliminating others adds another layer of strategy to the game, as people are more likely to play aggressively in order to win that bounty. Are you ready for that challenge? - Heads-up tournaments – If you are a fan of a more intimate game setting, this is the perfect event for you. Heads-up tournaments are basically a series of one-on-one matches, where the winner moves on to the next round, and the loser is eliminated.
The games tend to last up to an hour and a half, and the top players will get to play four or five rounds in one night. Heads-up games are more unpredictable, as they can end in a second or last for a long time, depending on the level of expertise of the participants.
Since the opponent is solely focused on you, you will need to bring your A-game to the table if you want to have a chance of winning. - Sit and Go (SNG) tournaments – While most tournaments begin at a set time, SNG tournaments begin as soon as the necessary number of participants register for the event. SNGs can have a single table or multiple tables, depending on the number of players the organizers choose to invite.
Those events usually go much faster than other tournaments, which is especially attractive to those who can't commit to a long event. The prize pool is typically distributed among the top finishers, with the winner getting the largest share.
Join a Tournament & Have Some Fun!
There are so many fun and unique poker tournaments you can join, you only need to pick the one that suits you best and set out on a wild adventure!