Tournament Formats
Texas Hold ‘Em online poker seems like a simple game, yet there are many variants of it played. The online poker tournament format was created for the World Series of Poker in the early 1970s. Since then, different types of tournament formats have also been developed. The most basic Texas Hold ‘Em poker tournament is the traditional contest where everyone starts with equal chip stacks and play to a last winner, who gets the biggest prize, with smaller prizes going to second place and other close finishers. Some other variations on the tournament format include: * Re-buy and add-on tournaments: In these formats, the players pay a small entry fee for a short chip stack, and then can buy more chips up to a certain amount. These tournaments are not level playing fields and can turn into an arena of dueling wallets. * Turbos - These have fewer players than a traditional tournament, often just six players, and the blind intervals are very short. To win these, you need to be able to steal blinds and get a little lucky. Patience does not pay in a turbo contest. * Satellites - These tournaments offer a less expensive way to get into bigger contests with higher entry fees. You enter a satellite for a small investment with the goal to win an expensive seat in a main event tournament with big prizes. * Shootouts - In these tournaments, there are multiple tables starting but rather than playing down to the last few players, the contest is timed and the top finishers (usually three) at each table advance to the next level and the others are eliminated.
