Features of poker tournaments
Poker tournaments are a popular form of gambling. In order to participate, players are required to make an entry fee. One player becomes the winner. It is worth studying the features of poker tournaments in advance before participating in them.
Principles of prize distribution in poker tournaments
Some types of competitions have special features in the distribution of prizes. But in most cases, the rule is that the prize money goes to those who took the top places. Often, participants do not receive any winnings. In multi-table tournaments, 10-30% of players receive prize money, but only 2% of players receive the main substantial money. The most profitable places are from 5th to 1st place. In single-table competitions, this percentage is higher than 33% of players.
What are the rules for re-seating players in a poker tournament?
In a tournament, it is common for there to be 7 players left at the table instead of 9. The main task of the poker room is to ensure an equal number of players at the tables. To ensure this, players are often moved.
They try to follow the rule: move players while maintaining their position. For example, a player is in the SB position. If a move occurs on the next hand, he will be at the table in the BB position. This type of move is considered correct.
Blind levels
In a poker tournament, the blind level increases after a certain amount of time. This fact affects the reduction of stacks at the tournament tables, which requires the player to increase their chips. The interval for increasing the blinds is different for each competition: 3 minutes to 2 hours. The number of hands determines the speed.
In offline tournaments, blind levels increase at the following rates:
in slow tournaments — more than an hour per level;
in medium tournaments — 30-45 minutes;
in fast tournaments — 25 minutes;
in turbo tournaments — 15 minutes;
in hyper turbo tournaments — up to 15 minutes.
In online poker, it works differently:
in slow tournaments — 30 minutes;
in medium tournaments — 15 minutes;
in turbo tournaments — 5 minutes;
in hyper turbo tournaments — 3 minutes.
The speed of growth in online tournaments is due to the fact that playing 70-90 hands per hour is considered the norm.
Popular poker tournament formats
There is a wide variety of poker tournaments. The most popular are:
Bounty. In addition to the main prizes, players receive rewards for knocking out other players.
Shutouts. Players are eliminated gradually. At the beginning of the competition, the number of players specified in the rules are at the tables. At the end of the first round, there will be no winners at the tables. In the new round, the game starts from the beginning. The final table will be the last one.
Satellites. Instead of cash prizes, tickets to other competitions are awarded.
Double or Nothing. These end when half of all participants remain at the tables. Winners receive double the buy-in.
Spin & Go. The prize pool is formed randomly. The prize amount can be impressive and exceed the amount of contributions by tens of thousands of times. The prize goes to the winner. The distinctive feature of this type of competition is its speed.
Each poker room tries to introduce new tournament options, which often attract the interest of poker enthusiasts.