An Introduction to Tournaments

Do you need help with poker tournaments? Never played a poker tournament before and want to find out how they work, or looking for advice and information? Look no further for poker tournament help!


Contents
1. How do tournaments work?
2. Why would I want to play tournaments?
3. What types of tournaments are there?
4. Where can I play tournaments?
5. What bankroll management should I use?
6. Some advice for new players



1. How do tournaments work?

Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs) are a very popular game type both in online and live poker. Everyone who enters (and pays the buy in if necessary) gets the same amount of chips (the starting stack), which varies between tournaments. The blinds start low and increase every x minutes. Most tournaments will also introduce antes after the initial stages, costing 10% of the big blind a hand. A player is eliminated when they lose all their chips. A certain percentage of the field is paid, with the first of these to go out getting the least amount of money and the winner (the person who wins all the chips at the end) getting the most. As players are eliminated, tables are 'broken' and consolidated to ensure there are always as many people on each table as possible. This leads to the final players getting to the "final table", such as the November Nine at the WSOP Main Event.

Example: 300 people pay the $10 buy in and get 3000 chips each. The top 10% are paid = 30 people. The player who finishes 30th gets $15 and 1st gets $600.

Tournaments can be short (~2 hours or even less) or long (~10 hours!). The longest ever poker tournament was run in 2011 and lasted 31 hours and 58 minutes at Delware Park Casino! :o Don't worry though, most poker sites nowadays have breaks from :55 past the hour to :00, allowing you to go to the toilet or make some food without missing any of the action!



2. Why would I want to play tournaments?

Tournaments offer the best chance of turning a little money into a lot of money. Poker sites set 'guarantees', which means they guarantee that the prize pool will be at least that big by putting in extra money (overlay) if necessary!

To give an example, every Sunday Pokerstars runs the Sunday Million - it costs $215 to buy in, and there is a guaranteed $1million prize pool and has a first prize of over $170,000! If you want to spend less money, the Big $11 on Pokerstars which runs every day regularly pays out over $12,000!



3. What types of tournaments are there?

Each tournament will have a set maximum number of players per table. These are the normal options:

• 10 max - 10 players per table - used on some sites
• 9 max - 9 players per table - this is the most common and popular, used on Pokerstars
• 8 max - 8 players per table
• 6 max - 6 players per table
• 4 max - 4 players per table
• Heads up - 2 players per table, normally in the form of a football knockout tournament where the field is halved each round

These are the most common tournament types:

• Normal - Normal tournaments tend to start with 1,500 chips or 3,000 chips, and have blind levels around 10 minutes long.

• Turbo - The blinds increase relatively quickly (~5 minutes a level), meaning the average number of chips per person (average stack) will be short (10-20bb) towards the end of the tournament. These tournaments will finish quicker than normal tournaments.
• Super turbos aka hyperturbos, X-turbos, etc - These MTTs have even quicker blind levels (~3 minutes per level) and normally shorter starting stacks. They will finish very fast but no one will have many chips so expect a lot of all ins!
• Deepstack - These tournaments have much slower blind levels (~15 minutes+) and every player starts with larger stacks. These tournaments can take a very long time, but the average chip stack will be a lot higher!
• Rebuy - If a player loses all their chips, they can buy another starting stack for the same amount of money if the tournament is still in the 'rebuy period' (for example, within the first hour of play). There is normally also an 'addon' - at the end of the rebuy period, every player can buy more chips (usually slightly more than a stacking stack) for the same buyin again. This may be indicated by "+R" after the buyin.
• Knockout/Bounty - Part of each player's buyin goes as a 'bounty'. Each time you eliminate another player, you receive their bounty as cash!
• Shootout - Each player is assigned to a table (normally 9 or 10 players). This table plays until someone has won all these chips, and this person moves onto the next round. If there is the number in front, this identifies the number of rounds: e.g. "5xShootout" means you must win 5 tables to win the tournament.
• Re-entry - Found increasingly often in live tournaments, these tournaments have 're-entry periods' where you can buy in again as if you have never played the tournament with a new starting stack and new table. For example, in a tournament with 2 starting days, if you bust during the first day you may be able to re-enter on the second day to try again.


These are other types of tournaments which are seen less often, sometimes only on a specific poker site:

• Ante Up - An increasingly popular event, blinds stay tiny (often 5/5) while antes increase to force the action. A unique type of tournament!
• 2x and 3x turbos - Found on Pokerstars, these have faster blind levels but bigger addons, meaning rebuys will only give one or two big blinds towards the end of the rebuy period but the addon may be worth 10 or 15 big blinds for the same buyin.
• Big Antes - Again found on Pokerstars. Antes are normally 10% of the big blind, but in these tournaments they are 20%.
• 1R1A and 2R1A - aka 'Cubed' and 'Quad'. In these tournaments, R stands for "Rebuy" and A for "Addon". You may take the rebuy or rebuys at any point in the rebuy period. Many players take one or two at the start, meaning stacks can be very deep initially.
• Cashout - Found on Full Tilt Poker, a player in these tournaments can 'cash out' either some or all of their tournament chips for cash while the tournament is still running.
• Multi entry - Found on Full Tilt Poker, these tournaments allow for one player to enter the same tournament up to 6 times. Each entry is separate and plays on different tables. If two entries reach the final table, the chip stacks are merged and one entry awarded 9th place finishing money.
• Cap - This is the maximum number of players who can enter the tournament.
• 2x Chance - Found at Pokerstars. Like a re-entry; if you bust your first entry, you can rebuy for the same amount again.




4. Where can I play tournaments?

Pretty much every online poker site, and many live casinos, offer poker tournaments. The biggest sites will have the biggest range of tournaments with the biggest prize pools. For non-US players, the best places to play are Pokerstars and Party Poker for big tournaments, or networks such as Ongame and iPoker for smaller field tournaments.



5. What bankroll management should I use?

Tournaments are much higher variance than cash games (you'll have bigger losing stretches basically!) as payouts give so many buyins to first and you won't get first very often, but when you do it will be a big boost to your bankroll.

Check out FTR's Bankroll Management calculator - simply input your current bankroll and it'll advise you on different bankroll options! I'd advise always sticking with the conservative option if you are playing fields with lots of players ('runners') in them or if you generally want to take poker seriously. This doesn't mean you can't take shots - the figure displayed by the bankroll calculator is your average buyin. So, if you play 1 tournament for $15 and 1 for $5, your average buyin is $10 and you should have 100 buyins x 10 = $1000.



6. Some advice for new players

Tournaments are very different to cash games, so here are a few basic things to keep in mind:

• As the blinds and antes increase, they can quickly eat away at your stack leaving you with no fold equity - keep an eye on this!
• Don't be afraid to play weaker hands when there are only a couple of people left to act behind you; don't forget, they probably have a weak hand too
• Make sure you have enough time to play the tournament! It sounds simple but I've been in many tournaments where when it starts getting to the prizes worth lot of buy ins someone announces they have to leave!
• Raise smaller than you would in cash games. When people have less chips in their stack, a smaller raise still puts a lot of pressure on them. Most good players will only raise the minimum (2 times the big blind) deep in tournaments.
• On the flip size, don't assume all players who minimum raise are weak. Also, don't be tempted to see a flop from the big blind with rubbish because "it's only 1 big blind more" - you'll end up getting in trouble a lot!
• Don't raise and fold when you don't have many chips. It would take a much longer discussion to talk about how many chips you should have to do this, but take not less than 10 big blinds as a starting rule.
• If you don't raise and fold with less than 10 big blinds, then go all in instead to steal chips. Similarly, you should normally go all in with your strong hands too, otherwise it will be obvious when you have a good hand.