Online poker tournaments
Perhaps the best publicity for online poker tournaments was when Chris Moneymaker, then an amateur player, went from a $39 online satellite tournament to win the World Series of Poker at the Binion Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. Chris proved that poker is a world of possibilities and players looked at the online tournaments with new interest.
Many online poker sites offer tournaments and players will tell you that a tournament is where skill comes into play over luck. Any player can sit down at a table, hit a lucky hand and take the pot. But tournaments require you to prove your skill over and over again if you want to keep advancing through the games. Different types of tournaments are available to online players, including sit-and-go, multi-table, free roll and satellite tournaments. You’ll need to decide which is best for you based on your skill, the competition and the games being played.
Sit-and-go tournaments seat about ten players at a table. The action begins as soon as all players are seated (hence they sit and go). The objective is to be the last man standing. Hands are played and bets placed until all but one player is out of chips and eliminated. Since these tournaments are popular and take a limited number of players at a table, you can expect to spend a little time waiting to enter a game. Poker strategists recommend making sure your starting bankroll is about twenty times the buy in. Remember the strategy with this game is to always keep some of your chips. Sites often award prize money to the top three players, so even if you hit the top three with only a handful of chips to your name, you may make some money off the game.
Multi-table tournaments may have thousands of players. These usually start a specific time and if you win at one table, you move up to the next table. These tournaments can be as much about endurance as they are about poker since you could be playing five hours or more. The advantage to playing a tournament online is that you have all the comforts of home. If you’re planning to enter an online tournament, make sure you start out well-rested and it doesn’t hurt o set up your playing environment to help you stay comfortable and focused on the game.
A freeroll poker tournament won’t charge you an entry fee to play, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t win real money. These tournaments offer you a chance to build your bankroll without risking your hard-earned (or hard won) money. But keep in mind that some sites may require you to pay an entry fee in points which you’ll accumulate by playing on their site. This helps them ensure that loyal players have a good chance at the prize money.
A satellite tournament is actually a min-tournament that can lead to a seat in a larger tournament. This is the type of tournament that led to Chris Moneymaker winning the World Series of Poker. Satellite tournaments can attract top players because the buy-in for the satellite is usually much lower than the buy-in for the main tournament. These tournaments can mean playing for a hours at a time, so if you enter, be prepared to spend some quality time with the computer.