All poker tournaments follow their own rules. Before you join online or offline competitions for poker players, you need to understand how they work. We have listed the most popular types of poker tournaments along with their differences and peculiarities.
There are numerous types of poker tournaments to play at online casinos and in land-based establishments. We have made an ultimate guide to the nine most popular types of tournaments offered for professional and amateur players. Each and every tournament follows its rules and has peculiarities that differentiate it from other competitions. So, what are the main types of tournaments for poker players?
9 main types of poker tournaments
Below you will find our list of the nine main types of tournaments for poker players. Their rules and brief explanations are also available. If you have never played any tourney, you can also read how to play poker tournaments for real money.
Sit & Go tournament
Sit & Go poker tournaments are express tournaments that take place within an hour and feature a reduced number of players. Usually, there are no more than 10-12 players in one tourney who get eliminated once they lose their chips. Sit & Go’s are popular at online casinos because they are played daily.
Heads-up tournament
Heads-up tourneys are one of the most popular types of poker tournaments. They mean that two poker players compete against each other at the table. In other words, these tournaments are held one-on-one. Winners of each table proceed to the next one-on-one round until there is only one winner.
Freezeout tournament
Freezeouts are one of the easiest and most popular types of poker tournaments. To join a freezeout tournament, players pay their buy-ins and receive chips to play until they are gone. So, when the player runs out of chips, he cannot rebuy them to continue. The most prestigious tournament World Series of Poker is a perfect example of a freezeout.
Freeroll tournament
Unlike freezeouts, freeroll tournaments don’t ask players to pay buy-ins. In other words, players enter the tournament for free but compete for a real prize pool. Sounds too good to be true? Well, prize pools are quite small in freerolls, so they would be a great choice for beginner players who want to compete in real poker tournaments.
Rebuy tournament
To enter rebuy tournaments, players pay buy-ins just like in freezeouts. However, players have a chance to keep competing in case of losing all their chips. They can purchase more chips and re-enter the tournament during the first rounds of it. When the rebuy period is finished, rebuys continue as typical freezeouts.
Knockout tournament
A typical knockout tournament is a poker tournament where players knock out their opponents and share half of the prize pool. It has multiple variations available at online casinos with the latest online poker bonuses. The most popular variations include turbo and super/hyper turbo knockouts.
Multi-buy tournament
Multi-buy poker tournaments allow participants to register themselves for the same tournament with more than one stack. Before the start of the tournament, players must place multiple stacks and receive more chips in return. Tournaments like multi-buys let players stay in the game for a longer time.
Guaranteed tournament
A guaranteed tournament is one of the best types of poker tournaments. Also known as GTD, it always has a prize pool regardless of the number of players and the number of their stakes. For example, if a casino runs a guaranteed tournament with a $5000 prize pool, the winner will receive it no matter what.
Satellite tournament
Satellites are mostly known as qualifying tournaments for bigger events. Winners of satellite tournaments proceed to such events as WSOP, WPT, EPT, and other top poker competitions. The rules of satellite tournaments vary depending on the rules of major poker events. Also, satellites are usually played online.
