Jiří Filip Commercial message: Poker has been a popular game since the last century. Even then, poker tournaments were held, but of course the organization was not at the same level as today, when we have modern technology at our disposal. Thanks to the fact that today they can be organized online, everyone really has something for themselves, at any time of the day. For tournaments in brick-and-mortar casinos, one had to set aside time and come on the given day, but today, when one can play online 24/7, it is also easier to find a suitable tournament whenever the player feels like participating.
However, the question remains how exactly different tournaments work today, which we will look at in this article, and at the same time provide a small glossary of terms.
Hindsight and general assumptions
If we look at history, it is clear to everyone that poker tournaments have been with us for a very long time. However, online ones could only appear after the internet has developed enough to allow playing poker online. Once the connection was strong and stable enough, and people also had computers and then mobiles to play online, soon companies took to organization of online poker tournaments, which again contributed to the popularity of poker. The tournaments quickly found a following, provided lucrative prizes, and since one could join from anywhere, a real boom of the entire industry could occur.
Linked to the above is the fact that it only matters if the player wants to participate or not, or if they are at the level of their abilities (if it is not an invite-only tournament). However, it is up to everyone to evaluate whether they are up to this level, while the level of opponents can be estimated, for example, by how high is the amount that needs to be paid to enter the tournament.
The basic prerequisites also include the player's ability to choose a suitable poker variant, which is common for pro any esport. Also, with Fortnite, for example, there are more types of games, more tournaments, and the player can profile himself in the activity that suits him best. Of course, those who prefer the most popular Hold'em have it easy, as these tournaments are the most common. However, you can easily find tournaments for specialists in Omaha, Razz or Stud, and for particularly adventurous individuals, tournaments are organized that include several poker variants, which the player must be able to alternate adequately.
The course of the tournament
At the beginning of the tournament, a person pays the so-called deposit to the game, with which he has the whole time, but as soon as he loses all the chips, the tournament is over in most cases. Once a player registers, they are assigned to a table, with the distribution of participants being random, and the number of players at each table gradually changing as participants leave. In order for the game to be exciting and pay off nicely, the players have to make regular bets, i.e. the blinds, which gradually increase, and thus the pressure on the players themselves is also increased.
When a predetermined number of players remain, such as six, they meet at the final table to decide the winner of the entire tournament. But he may not be the only one who takes away some amount from the tournament, because as a rule the rewards are also next in line, but again it depends on what rules the organizer has set.
At the same time, we also recommend that you find out what the tournament organizer says about the situation when a person's internet accidentally goes down or is connection too slow. Because sometimes the player, even if he is absent, has to make a bet, which is thus executed automatically. Sometimes a player is simply left out.
Types of tournaments
As said before, in online tournaments it is not customary for a person to be able to buy more after losing all their chips. So it's Freezout Tournaments. However, there are tournaments where this is possible, either unlimited or with certain limitations. These tournaments are called Rebuy Tournaments and Add-on Tournaments. The latter allows players to buy an additional number of chips to the basic ones, if they are interested in it, and thus they will have an advantage over others.
In all circumstances, however, one should pay attention to internet security principles, as far as payment is concerned, and even if they really trust the casino, they always prefer to make sure that the transactions are taking place as they should.
While above we talked more about MTT tournaments, i.e. Multi-Table, where one moves from one table to another, sometimes the structure of the tournament is such that only two players play against each other, and the next one advances. Such a tournament is called Head-Ups, or there are also Sit-And-Go tournaments, where the player sits down at a table, and as soon as he defeats all opponents, he is the winner of that table and does not move anywhere.
Another type of tournament is Deep Stack, where players have a large number of basic chips and the blinds rise very slowly. Turbo is its opposite and the blinds increase quickly.
A special type is the Satellite Tournament, where one does not play for a monetary prize, but for a place in a larger tournament. For beginners, there are for example Freeroll tournaments, which you can enter for free.
Finally, let's mention the Bounty tournaments, in which each participant is given a reward for being eliminated from the tournament. The one who knocks out the given person gets a reward or bounty.
