A Few Popular Poker Buy-In Tournaments Articles | Poker

By: Richard Bleuze

A Few Popular Poker Buy-In Tournaments

Online poker is a world wide phenomenon - everyone seems to play poker.  Many poker fans have become interested in the game thanks to tournaments.  This is because TV networks started broadcasting popular poker tournaments like the WSOP.  When this happened, poker started to become very popular.
 
The allure of paying a small buy-in to potentially win thousands of dollars is hard to resist for most players.  If you want to win big money by playing cash games you have to play with high stakes.  And if you play with high stakes you need a sizable bankroll.  The variance in cash games is huge and players who want to avoid that stress can play numerous smaller stakes tournaments.  If you do not want to risk a fortune, poker tournaments are a good starting point.
 
It is possible to even win a small satellite tournament online and go on to win the World Series of Poker Main Event.  

Below is a guide to some of the most popular types of poker tournaments you will find online.
 
Multi-Table Tournaments (MTTs)
Multi-table tournaments are the standard in online poker.  As with all tournaments, you pay a buy-in fee and you get a stack of chips.  When those chips are gone you are out of the tournament (unless of course it is a rebuy tournament, in which case you can buy another stack of chips if you bust within a certain time period from the beginning).  MTTs, as you might assume, take place over multiple tables with a specified number of players per table and have a designated starting time.  When players start to bust out from the tournament and the number of players at a table becomes uneven to the rest of the field, that table is "broken" and players are randomly distributed to other tables with empty seats.
 
Sit & Go's (SNGs)
Sit & Go's were essentially pioneered online and are still incredibly popular.  A Sit & Go is usually only one or two tables and begins as soon as every seat is filled.  
Payouts typically go to the top three players, depending on the number of tables.
 
Shootout Tournaments
Shootouts are a combination of MTTs and Sit & Go's. The overall poker tournament will have a huge field, but you will only play at one table at a time until there is just one person left at each table.  The winner of each table will move on to the next round and the action will repeat until there is a winner.  The number of rounds depends on the field size but if you just keep winning each Sit & Go-style table, you will win the poker tournament.
 
Turbo Tournaments
Online poker already moves faster than live poker, but if you really want to crank up the action you might want to try a turbo poker tournament.  Turbo poker tournaments are just standard MTT or Sit & Go's where the blind levels increase quickly, making fast play and quick decisions a necessity.
 
Bounty Tournaments
Bounty poker tournaments are simply MTTs where there is a prize for knocking out a player.  Sometimes there are bounties placed on certain players, like celebrities and poker pros while in other poker bounty tournaments you get a bounty every time you bust a player.
 
Satellite Tournaments
Satellite tournaments are just poker tournaments where the prize you are playing for is the buy-in to another bigger prize pool poker tournament.
 
Weekly Guaranteed Tournaments
Almost every online poker site has a massive weekly poker tournament with a huge guaranteed prizepool.
 
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