Poker Tournament Tips
The world of poker play is divided into two main areas, ring games and tournaments. Today, we are going to dive into the world of poker tournament play. If you have watched any poker on TV, then you are most likely familiar with tournaments to some degree. There are different types of tournaments and we will go over these. We will also talk about some beginning playing advice for tournaments. Poker play in tournaments is different than in ring games. So without further delay, let's get started into the world of Poker tournaments.
As the name implies, a poker tournament is where more than one player plays in a collective poker game with the goal to win his or her share of a prize pool. Every tournament has an entry fee, with the exception of freerolls. A freeroll is a special promotional type tournament that has a main prize and free entry. These types of tournaments, since they are free, are generally loaded to the hilt with players.
In regular tournaments, you pay a seat fee. Most of the money collected from seat fees it then thrown into a pot and divided up into the money spots. The tournament host will usually keep a very small percentage for their services. The division of the money spots varies from tournament to tournament. For example, a tournament might have four paying spots and divide their share as: 50%, 25%, 15% and 10%. Let's say the tournament cost $6 to enter, with $5 going to the prize pool and ten people entered. There would be $50 in the prize pool, thus the money breakdown would be:
First Place: $25
Second Place: $12.50
Third Place: $7.50
Fourth Place: $5
So, for you to at least recover most of your seat fee, you would need to place fourth. However, if 100 people entered, you would end up receiving $50 for your fourth place. While the number of people added creates additional difficulty in winning, it also boosts the payout amounts.
The main two styles of tournaments that you will encounter in online poker play are SnG and MTT. SnG means Sit and Go. MTT means multi-table tournament. Let's take a look at each one more in detail.
SnG
The sit and go tournament is a favorite among many tournament players, especially newer ones. The SnG is a one-table tournament of ten players. Unlike MTT tournaments that can go on for many hours or even days, the SnG is generally quick. Many times the typical SnG tournament can be completed within an hour.
The SnG tournament is a great way to get familiar with tournament poker and learn how to play. By paying your seat fee, you receive a stack of chips and can keep playing poker until that stack is gone or you win it all. Because the SnG has only ten players, the probability of finishing in the money is higher. Many online poker SnG's pay out for the top three finishers-with third place usually receiving his or her seat fee back.
When you go to play a SnG (or any online tournament), you will normally see the seat fee expressed like this: $5+$1. This means that the seat fee is $6. $5 of that fee goes to the prize pool and the other $1 goes to the house for running the tournament. Most poker rooms offer SnG's from $5 all the way up.
MTT
A multi-table tournament can be as small as two tables or table up hundreds of tables. Are you familiar with the World Series of Poker? That's a multi-table tournament. Multi-table tournaments usually have a good deal of entrants and large paydays. The number of money spots is also larger. For example, a multi-table tournament might have forty money spots.
All of the largest poker tournaments in the world are multi-table tournaments. If you are going to play in a multi-table tournament, you need to really love the game of Poker. Think of regular poker games and SnGs as sprints. The multi-table poker tournament is a marathon. The tournament will normally span multiple days. Therefore, you don't want to enter one-especially a major one-unless you have the time to dedicate to it.
Many good multi-table tournaments are pretty expensive to play in for the casual poker player. For example, a seat in good tournament with one main 25k prize might run $700. A seat in a major tournament can run $10,000. These numbers are well out of reach for the lower end players especially when you take into account the amount of opposition. However, there's a way to sneak into these big money tournaments for not much at all. How so? It's our next topic.
Satellite Tournaments
Ok, you really want to get into this juicy multi-table tournament with tens of thousands of dollars in prize money, but you can justify fronting the $1,000 for a seat. What do you do? Why, enter a satellite tournament of course. By winning a satellite tournament, you can win that seat into the main event for a fraction of the cost. I will give you a great example.
In Las Vegas, there's a tournament with great prizes that runs $1,000 per seat to enter. If you're a lower limit player, there's no way you can justify spending this type of capital for a seat. However, for only $100 (10% of the seat cost), you can enter a satellite tournament, which is a winner takes all event consisting of ten players at one table. If you end up holding all the chips, you win your seat at the main event-all for only $100.
There's another great thing at work here. If you look around online, you will find tons of satellite tournaments for main events. Furthermore, many are held for real life tournaments. Want to be the next superstar on the World Poker Tour? Go online and look for satellites.
Sub-Satellite Tournaments
Sub-satellite tournaments are a growing trend in online poker. While they can be a little difficult to find, expect this trend to blossom over the coming years. Sub-satellites are a way that low limit players can have a chance at the big time without sacrificing too much money. It puts tournaments that would normally be impossible for the lower limit player into their reach.
It works the same way as a satellite, except in the sub-satellite you are working on an entry into the satellite. So it's basically a three level approach. Let's look at an example. There's this great tournament you want to enter, but it's $1,000 per seat and you can afford that. They are offering a satellite for the tournament, but the $100 seat fee is still too much. Finally, you learn about a sub-satellite being offered with just a $10 seat fee. Since that's within your budget, you enter the sub-satellite. Just like the satellite, the sub-satellite is a tournament with ten players at one table. If you finish first, you win the seat at the $100 satellite. Finish first there and you are sitting at the main event. The end result would be a $1,000 seat for $10 (1% of the cost).
As you can see, the sub-satellite is very appetizing to discount hunters as well as players on the lower end of the monetary scale. That's why these tournaments will most likely become very prominent in time.
Re-Buy Tournaments
Some tournaments will have a re-buy option in effect for the first part of the tournament. This means you can buy a new set of chips should you get knocked out before the re-buy option is over. These tournaments are pretty interesting and have their own playing style. Normally you will find a fair number of players letting the chips fly during the re-buy period, because they can just buy back in. The end result is usual an overflowing number of chips floating around.
An example of a re-buy tournament would be a multi-table tournament that has a seat fee of $10,000 and a re-buy of $1,000. During the re-buy tournament, you can get a reload for just $1,000. Each tournament has its own rules and these rules are told to players beforehand so don't worry it too much.
Conclusion
Now that you know a little more about poker tournaments and their setup, it's time to get out there and start playing. Poker tournaments continue to grow and many players have found them to be extremely lucrative. Turn on the TV to watch any poker tournament and you are bound to see some regular guy playing for a series amount of cash. Are you in?
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