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To a certain extent, and with the odd exception, poker tournaments are quite similar to the typical online poker room experience that most of us have become accustomed to. On a deeper level however, it becomes clear that poker tournaments involve a completely different set of intricacies and variables as compared to regular games. If you want to familiarize yourself with the particularities and subtleties of popular poker tournament formats, have a look at the information provided below.

Facts on common poker tournaments

- In poker tournaments, the main goal is to win everyone’s chips and the competition doesn’t stop until someone manages to do so.
- Due to their progressive, multistage format, such competitions give poker enthusiasts the chance to win lots of money starting out from a small original buy-in.
- On the downside, to earn money by participating in a tournament challenge, you need to win a given number of games in a row and finish near the top of the leader board. The number of consecutive wins you need to tie together and the minimum leader board placement you need to reach to claim a prize depend on the type of tournament and the total number of participants.
- Each player begins the tournament with the same amount of chips, which means the chances of winning are all square for everybody.
- In poker tournaments, the blinds change. Unlike casual games played in the typical online room, where the blinds remain constant no matter what, in tournaments the blinds are raised gradually to accelerate the pace of the game and to encourage playing action.
- Most poker tournaments involve both a buy-in and an entry fee. In short, while the buy-in is the tournament prize pool, the entry fee is the commission deducted by the house when you sign up for a competition of the kind. The average fee the host perceives usually revolves around 10% of the prize pool fee.
- The action in a tournament can take place at multiple tables simultaneously. Of course, you will only play poker on one table at a time, but if there are more than 10 players in the tournament, it means other people will be competing on other tables at the same time as you.
- The bigger the player entry list, the more movement there will be at the tables. As you progress through the game, you may be moved around randomly at several different tables and thus get the chance to take on different opponents.

Next, let’s have a look at the most common types of tournaments, starting with the simplest variations and working our way up to the ones that are more complicated.

• Sit-n-Go Tournaments – They denote a type of poker tournaments that are held at a single table with a reduced number of players and involve only one eliminatory round.
• Freeroll Tournaments – These offer a genuine tournament experience, but with the advantage of being completely free.
• Guaranteed Tournaments – Such formats refer to multi table, progressive competitions with a minimum guaranteed prize pool.
• Freezeout Tournaments – These exclude the re-buy or add-on option, which means that once you are out of chips, there is no way for you to get back at the poker table.
• Re-Buy/ Add-On Tournaments – The re-buy option allows you to purchase additional chips during the competition, as long as you do not exceed the amount you started out with originally.
• Satellite Tournaments – These variations don’t pay any actual money, and typically serve as preliminary qualifying rounds for larger poker tournaments.