Different Poker Tournament Types

During the years of its existence the poker industry has developed a variety of poker tournaments. The different tournaments boast their own rules and playing strategies. Most of the tournaments are offered by traditional card rooms and online poker destinations alike. Some of them are more exciting and challenging and some of them are less, it all depends on their level of difficulty and on a player's personal preferences.

The typical structure of a tournament is set as follows: participating players receive a standard amount of chips, as the tournament progresses the blinds increase and losing players leave the table. Most of the money collected in the pot usually goes to players finishing in top places. Such regular tournaments are commonly referred to as freezeouts, because once a player looses his chip stack he can not join the same tournament once again. Other types of tournaments, however, allow re-buys, meaning a player can buy additional chips and come back to the same tournament.

We have gathered a list of the most commonly-played poker tournaments with examples of matching gaming strategies:

1. Re-buy tournaments. Such tournaments allow players to come back even after their initial chip stack is gone. All a player is required to do is re-buy the initial amount of chips once more. It is important to emphasize the fact that re-buy events typically allow players to re-purchase chips for a limited time after which the regular freezeout tournament restrictions kick in. When the re-buy time is over, players can choose to add-on. For a predetermined price (which is usually equal to the buy-in amount), players can purchase additional chips. The amount of chips allowed for add-on is normally contingent on the specific tournament rules. People who play in a re-buy tournament or in an add-on tournament can afford to play less aggressively than on other occasions, mainly at the beginning of the event.

2. Satellite tournaments. These are tournaments typically held by online poker rooms with seats to major live events as first place prizes. The most coveted satellite prizes are seats to the WSOP and WPT. All we can say about recommended strategic moves when playing in a satellite tournament is that you should adopt an aggressive strategy at the beginning of the event and reconsider whether or not to stay aggressive towards the end. Since the first place finisher collects the same prize as the player who makes it to the last winning place, there is no need to chase the chips too aggressively.

3. Turbo tournaments. These are tournaments in which the blinds are escalating on a very frequent basis, as often as every five minutes. Naturally, luck has a huge role in turbo tournament player's success. The game pace is really crazy and, because players either go all-in or quit preflop there is actually very little play after the flop. It is of paramount importance to play aggressively in turbo tournaments, because if you don't, you would lose your chip stack in no time!

4. Steps tournaments. A steps tournament typically has five steps. First step winners are offered an entry into the second step and then fight for an entry into the third step and so on. Although interested players can buy into the tournament at any of the steps, not many people tend to do so because the buy-in to the more advanced steps of the tournament is quite expensive. Just as expected, the really attractive prizes are awarded only at the final step of the tournament.

As you can see there is quite a selection of different offline and online poker tournaments hosted by today's virtual and land-based gaming facilities. It is up to a player to choose the tournament variant that is his cup of tea. What you need to consider is your skill level in relation to the strategy each poker variant requires. Some players are good in aggressive games and others just not. Good Luck!