Tournament Types

Tournaments are an increasingly popular way to play poker mainly due to the fact that participating in a tournament allows you to play for hours for modest sums of money or even for free (such as in Freeroll tournaments).The fact that the prize pool is also divided amongst a certain number of players means that you don’t even need to win to make money.

In a poker tournament, all players start with an equal amount of chips, and the game goes on until all players have lost all their chips except one – the winner.

Cost of playing

The cost of entering a tournament consists of a buy-in amount that contributes to the prize pool and a registration fee. The fee is typically 10 percent of the buy-in.

(E.g. A $10+$1 tournament has a buy-in of $10 and a fee of $1 for a total cost of $11).

Types of Tournaments

Poker tournaments come in many different varieties. Often, ten people sit down around a table to play a tournament. Other tournaments gather hundreds or even thousands of players. But you may also play a tournament against just one opponent so chose your tournaments carefully.

Guaranteed tournaments

A guaranteed tournament is one that has stated before the start of the tournament that there is a minimum prize pool guaranteed by MANSION regardless of the number of participants. The prize pool can increase above the guaranteed amount depending on the number of entries.

Sit and Go tournaments

A sit-and-go tournament (S&G) begins as soon as enough players have joined in. Usually, a S&G consists of nine or ten players around a single table, but there are also Sit N Go’s for two or three tables.

Multi-table tournaments

A multi-table tournament (MTT) starts at a preset point of time. It may be open to hundreds or even thousands of players.

Scheduled tournaments

Scheduled tournaments are very popular and provide players with the opportunity to invest a small amount of money to win a large cash prize. These tournaments start at a scheduled time, which is visible in the lobby. Players are able to register once the tournament is visible in the lobby. Play takes place on as many tables as necessary to accommodate all players that register for the tournament. During the tournament, as players are knocked out, remaining players are moved until play reaches the final table.

Satellites

A Satellite is a tournament where the first prize is not a cash payout, but a seat to another tournament with a prize pool. The idea is that you can enter an expensive tournament by winning a tournament that is not as expensive. For example, if ten players sit down and play a $10 tournament, the winner could win a seat to a $100 tournament. In large satellites, there may be several seats up for grabs.

Turbo tournaments

Faster than a speeding card! The blinds increase every 3 minutes so you have to be very quick in making your decisions.

Short-handed tournaments

Five players on a table instead of ten; the button comes round quicker, but then so does big blind.

Heads-up tournaments

One-On-One, Head-To-Head - call it what you want, it just two of you playing off for the pot. In a heads-up tournament, both players sit down with an equal amount of chips and play until one of them has all the chips. The blinds or antes are increased during the tournament.

Freezeout tournaments

A tournament with no rebuys or add-ons is called a freezeout. You can buy-in only once. When your chips are gone, that’s it, you’re out.

Freeroll tournaments

Freerolls are tournaments where the prize pool has been entirely funded by MANSION. They cost nothing to enter, but still have prizes for the top finishers.

Added prize money tournaments

When extra prize money is added to the prize pool.

Your ranking in the tournament

Your finishing place in the tournament is decided by the number of players that are left when you lose your last chip. If five players remain, you finish sixth, and so on.

Division of the prize pool

Usually in poker tournaments, the winner does not take all. Instead, the prize pool is divided among a certain number of best placed players.

But the winner gets a large piece of the cake, often 50%, so winning a tournament can be very lucrative.

Increasing blinds and antes

To make sure that the tournament reaches its end within a reasonable time, the blinds or antes are increased in fixed intervals. This way, if you do not manage to make your chip stack grow, you will find the blinds or antes very costly after a while.

Rebuys and add-ons

In some tournaments, you cannot simply reach into your account and buy more chips, as in a normal cash game. When you are out of chips, you are out of the tournament.

However, some tournaments actually allow you to buy more chips – or make a rebuy – but only during the so called rebuy period at the beginning of the tournament. Depending on the rules of the specific tournament, you may make a limited or unlimited number of rebuys. When the rebuy period ends, you may make a last rebuy, called an add-on.

After the rebuy period, the tournament will go on as a normal tournament, with players busting out as they lose their last chips. The rebuys and add-ons are added to the prize pool.

Variations

Within the basic tournament structure there is considerable room for variation and betting structures. Complete details of the type and variation to the game will be given for each tournament in the tournament lobby.