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Quick guide to Poker tournaments.

Poker tournaments generally operate with each player paying a buy-in fee and, in return, receiving an equal amount of chips. Play goes on until all but one player has been eliminated. Tournaments have payouts for the top finishing players, with the winner getting the most and then prize money decreasing with each position after that. The number of positions that get paid will be in proportion to the number of players entering the tournament. In all tournaments survival and avoiding unnecessary confrontations are the keys to success.

Sit-and-go tournaments are generally single-table tournaments, where play starts once the table has been filled. These typically run throughout the day and you don’t have to wait for a designated time. The only requirement is that you find an empty seat and pay the buy-in fee. You are able to leave the table before play starts without penalty, but there are no breaks during the tournament and you forfeit your buy-in fee if you leave once play commences. Although normally single-table, some sit-and-go’s involve multiple (normally few) tables, which tend to be speedy and competitive, delivering larger payouts.

The traditional multi-table tournament, which can involve hundreds of tables simultaneously, is scheduled to begin at a specific time and you can only participate if you have registered beforehand. The time period for registrations often ends a few minutes before the tournament actually starts. In a multi-table format players will be re-seated randomly at another table when eliminations mean that a table has become short-handed. This makes it tougher to be consistent, as you could end up facing completely different opponents in an instant. In this form, there are 5 minutes breaks after every 55 minutes of play.

In some tournaments you can only buy-in once (often called freeze-out tournaments), whereas others allow re-buys. Freeze-out tournaments only give you one chance and when you lose all your chips, you’re eliminated. These tournaments have to be played with caution at the beginning – it’s better not to get into major confrontations unless your hand is a solid winner. Re-buy tournaments allow a player to buy another set of chips (equal to what they started with) for an equal buy-in fee if they have less than they started with. Re-buy can be limited or unlimited, but are only available for a certain time period of time at the beginning of the tournament. You can be much more aggressive and take more risks in re-buys, as you can always buy yourself another chance (if you have the funds).

Freeroll tournaments differ from usual tournaments in that they have no buy-in fee and are therefore free to play. These can be played quite loosely as the risk factor is much lower than the paid tournaments. They are also great for novices to learn about tournament play without risking any cash. All tournaments can either be played under a limit or a no-limit rule. In limit tournaments players are unable to raise above the specified limit amount. In no-limit tournament this restriction is lifted and the amount a player can raise is only limited by the amount they currently have. It is therefore common to see larger pots in a no-limit tournament, meaning it is possible to accumulate chips faster.