Poker Tournament Information and Definitions
- Entry Fee
- Is a fee paid by every player to the house for hosting the tournament. The fee is generally 8-10% of the buy-in.
- Buy-In
- Is the amount of money paid to enter a poker tournament over and above the entry fee. The buy-in is added directly to the prize pool.
- Re-buy
- Is the option to buy additional chips. Rules vary a lot in re-buy tournaments. Some tournaments allow unlimited re-buy for the first hour, while others allow re-buy if you are below a certain amount in chips.
- Add-on
- Is the option to buy additional chips at a certain time during the tournament irrespective of the amount of chips in a player’s possession. This is usually offered when the re-buy period expires.
- Prize Pool
- Is the total amount of prize and money paid by players and added by poker rooms. The prize pool includes all the players’ buy-ins, add-ons and re-buys.
- Round
- Also referred to as a ‘level’, which is the amount of time specified in a tournament for each betting limit.
- Tournament Structure
- Tournaments are differently structured not only in relation to freezouts, re-buy tournaments, game type, and add-on tournaments but also Blinds, Ante and prize distribution. You need to find out about the tournament structure before you enrol in a poker tournament.
- Speed Tournament
- A form of Poker tournament on the Internet where the blinds increase rapidly. This type of tournaments can be located on Party Poker.
- Freeroll Tournament
- A freeroll tournament is a sponsored poker tournament with nil buy-in. The prizes are usually offered by online poker rooms to attract new customers.
- Re-buy Tournament
- A tournament where players are allowed to buy additional chips within a given time frame. The rules regarding re-buy and how many chips a player must process in order to buy more differs from one tournament to another. Some tournaments only allow one re-buy while others have multiple or unlimited re-buys. When the re-buy period ends the tournament becomes a Freezeout.
- Guaranteed Tournament
- In this type of a tournament the prize pool amount is guaranteed regardless of the number of players. If the prize pool is less than the guaranteed amount due to fewer players the poker room pays in the balance amount.
- Satellite Tournament
- Generally this type of tournament is a stepping-stone to larger tournament. The most popular online satellite poker tournaments wins are entrance tickets to the major live poker events such as the European Poker Tour (EPT), World Series of Poker (WSOP), World Poker Tour (WPT) and Party Poker’s European World Series of Poker (EWSOP).
- Qualifiers
- A qualifier is similar to a satellite tournament. The winner gets to enter either online or offline poker events and the winner of a qualifier also qualifies to a larger poker tournament.
- Shootout
- Each table must get one table-winner before the tournament can advance to the next round. The table-winners then collect together on a final table to win the prize pool.
- Freezeout
- The most frequent tournament form. No re-buys or add-ons are allowed in a Freezeout tournament. Once a player runs out of chips he or she is eliminated and players are moved around as seats open up.
This game is played on a variety of poker levels. Always examine the rules and tournament structure before you join an online poker tournament.