Poker players will find various types of poker tournaments in live poker settings and in online poker rooms. If you’re a novice player, it’s beneficial to be familiar with the various tournament structures, as well as the formats that they may take. This makes it easier to adjust strategies and goals when the setup and structure aren’t a surprise.
Tournament structure and format are sometimes intertwined, so here’s a breakdown for a clearer understanding.
Poker Tournament Formats
The format of a tournament is its general makeup or pattern. Setting the format of an event is necessary before determining its structure. The most basic formats are single-table, commonly known as the Sit and Go poker, or SNGs, and multi-table tournaments, or MTT poker tournaments. Most large poker tournaments are MTTs; very few in major series are set up as Sit and Go tournaments.
Freezeout Tournament
A freezeout tournament is one in which only one entry is allowed per player. It means that a player can buy in once, and when he or she runs out of chips and is eliminated, they’re out of the tournament. In other words, they’re frozen out. This is how most tournaments were played prior to the turn of the century and through most of the 2000s, though they weren’t necessarily called freezeout poker tournaments at the time.
Rebuy Tournament
A rebuy tournament has a specific rebuy period at the beginning of a tournament. A player who busts from this type of tournament can rebuy to obtain another stack of chips for the price of another entry. In some cases, though, players can rebuy before they run out of chips. In either situation, the player can retain their seat in the event.
Most rebuy tournaments limit the rebuys to one per player, though they can sometimes obtain even more chips with an add-on. Tournaments denoting this are R+A (rebuy plus add-on), a chance for a player to top off their stack before the rebuy period ends.
These tournaments are no longer common, especially in live poker, as reentries have taken their place.
Reentry Tournaments
What started as a unique idea turned into something so popular that most tournament series have adopted this format in a majority of events. Their popularity is so well established that experts have written entire books on the live and online poker tournament strategy options for reentry tournaments for Texas Hold’em and Omaha poker variants.
Reentries are rebuys, but the player must lose all of their chips before reentering, and there are no rake exemptions or seat reservations. Players who reenter a tournament must start the process of entering the tournament again.
Reentries can be structured in numerous ways. Some tournaments offer a single reentry per player, and other organizers go so far as to open a tournament to unlimited reentries. Multiple starting days can also play a role, as players can be allowed one entry or one reentry per flight. For example, one entry on Day 1A, another on Day 1B, and so on.
Short-Handed Play
Most tournaments begin with nine or ten players at a table, though it’s becoming more common to offer eight-handed play to keep players from being too tightly seated at the tables. Short-handed play, however, usually refers to six-handed or four-handed tables. Full ring vs shorthanded poker each require unique strategies, as short-handed play offers more hands, and your approach to position and aggression must be adjusted.
Many people place heads-up poker in the short-handed category as well, though it’s a unique type of tournament. Heads-up play requires specific strategies and skills, even a deeper understanding of the blinds, antes, and button play.
Poker Tournament Structures
The structure of a poker tournament doesn’t change overall poker tournament rules; it’s most closely associated with the blinds, antes, and levels. A fast structure will escalate the blinds and antes more rapidly and play out over shorter levels. Longer levels and a more gradual increase of blinds and antes give them more time to make moves, read opponents, and use chips wisely.
The chip stacks for each player at the start of the tournament are also a part of the structure, as are the scheduled color-ups (a factor in live tournaments) when lower denominations of chips are removed from play.
Structures across the live and online tournament world are as varied as might be expected. But there are some standard structure designations that are fairly standard, at least in the most general sense.
Turbo and Hyper-Turbo Tournaments
A turbo structure is the most common in fast-paced poker tournaments, simply an escalated increase of blinds and antes played within shorter levels than normal. Sometimes, a structure can start as a standard one but decrease level duration as the tournament moves forward. These poker tournaments play more quickly than standard tournaments.
A hyper-turbo tournament is even faster than a turbo. Most often, hyper-turbos take place online and serve as the finale of a series or the last tournament of the night, or they’re satellites to win seats into larger qualifiers or tournaments. This type of tournament moves very quickly and requires a particular level of skill to navigate.
Tournament Guarantees
A guaranteed prize pool is a part of the overall tournament structure. It’s a promise by the live or online poker room to offer a certain amount of prize money, no matter the number of players or entries.
Originally, tournament guarantees were somewhat rare, but most events in a series now offer guarantees. If a tournament organizer or operator falls short by way of poor poker tournament planning, the guarantee is a promise that the poker tour or room will add to the prize pool to bring it to the bar they set. If this happens, it’s called an overlay, a positive for players, as there’s extra money in the prize pool without extra players.
Get Started With BetMGM Poker Tournaments
The best way to get better acquainted with various tournament formats and structures is to play them. Online poker presents the opportunity to do just that in online poker tournaments at BetMGM with a wide range of buy-ins.
With any bankroll, you can play poker with real money and begin to develop your unique strategies for the kinds of events you most enjoy playing. BetMGM Poker is a legitimate, legal, and trusted online site that operates in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. There’s a large variety of tournaments to choose from, so be sure to register at BetMGM Poker to explore every game. And be sure to use the exclusive online poker welcome bonus to boost your initial bankroll.
