Poker tournaments provide you with the perfect stage for you to show off your poker skills and strategy to win some big cash and prizes. With so many poker tournaments available, here’s a quick guide to some of the most popular types of tournaments offered by Maverick Poker.
Guaranteed Tournament
A guaranteed tournament is as it sounds. It’s the amount of money that participants have the chance to play for if the prize pool does not exceed the amount Maverick Poker has assigned to that tournament.
For example:
Maverick Poker is offering a $10 buy-in with $1,000 as a guaranteed prize pool. That tournament would need 100 players to enter to reach the $1,000 (10*100 = 1,000.) If only 90 players enter the tournament during the late registration period the remaining $100 would be covered by Maverick Poker also known as $100 overlay.
The majority of poker tournaments will be distributed amongst the top percentage of players that would have a predetermined payout structure.
For example
Maverick Poker has offered a $1,000 Guaranteed tournament with a 15% payout structure. If it reaches 100 players then only 15 of those 100 players would reach the minimum payout and then as you get closer to winning the prizes goes up in increments with first place usually receiving the largest payout.
Knockout/Progressive Knockout Tournaments (AKA PKO)
Nowadays it is much more common to have a Progressive Knockout tournament over a regular knockout tournament. A regular knockout tournament is played as any other poker tournament other than part of the buy-in would go towards a players bounty. All you have to do is knock out a player to receive his bounty award.
An example of a Regular Knockout Tournament is:
The tournament is a $10 buy-in with the predetermined bounty amount being $2.50. $7.50 goes towards the prize pool and $2.50 is the bounty award. If player A has 5000 chips and player B has 2500 chips. Both players are all in pre-flop or any other stage of that particular hand. Player A wins all player B’s chips and player A will receive instantly the $2.50 knockout bounty which goes into Player A’s account. If player A goes on to win that tournament he wins first place prize and will receive his original $2.50 knockout bounty to his account.
A progressive knockout tournament is slightly more complicated but generally a lot more fun for players.
An example of a Progressive Knockout Tournament is:
We will use the same example with a tournament with a $10 buy-in as above. However, $5 of that buy-in goes towards the overall prize pool and $5 will go towards a players bounty amount. Again, if player A wins all of player B’s chips in a hand, this time he will instantly receive $2.50 straight into their account. The remaining $2.50 will get added to their current bounty amount, which the remaining players left in the tournament will have a chance of winning. Player A’s bounty will go up to $7.50.
If Player C goes on to eliminate Player A then their bounty will go from $5 up to $8.75, Player C instantly receives $3.75 and the remaining $3.75 goes onto Player C’s bounty amount. If player C goes on to win that tournament they receive the first-place payout and keep their own bounty which will generally increase throughout the tournament. Be careful though, when your bounty is getting bigger and bigger the further you go the more enticing knocking you out becomes. Players will generally call with softer hands if you are all in as they like the idea of winning a big knockout bounty.
Rebuys and Add On’s (AKA R&A)
Once a very popular format of tournaments, the rebuy and add-on format is slowly fading away. However, in this format, you are given a specified time where you can buy more chips once you have lost all of yours. You can purchase an unlimited amount of times throughout the rebuy period. Generally, at the end of the designated time frame you are given, you will also be allowed to purchase an add-on. It doesn’t matter how many chips you have, you will always be allowed to purchase an add-on if desired.
Freezeout
A freezeout tournament is the most simple of formats. You pay your entry fee and once you lose all your chips in a freezeout, the tournament is over with no option to buy back in.
Freerolls
A freeroll tournament is exactly how it sounds. It’s FREE. Usually, freerolls are great for players looking to learn the game with zero risk or there to have some fun at no cost. We will have freerolls on a daily basis with the chance to win real money prizes.
Satellite Tournaments
A satellite tournament is the most popular way of winning your way into a big buy-in tournament for a smaller fee. There have been many historic stories of players winning a satellite for a big tournament to go on and make life-changing money.
For example:
Player A plays a $10 satellite where winners – instead of receiving cash – will win an entry into a $100 buy-in tournament. This could be in the form of a tournament ticket or a direct registration into the target tournament. Player A then has the chance for a huge score for just $10.
What is a Sit and Go Tournament (AKA S&G)
With the same concept as a Multi Table Tournament (MTT) it is slightly different as Sit and Go’s (S&G’s) usually won’t have a late registration period. They are pre-determined to start when the required number of players register to play. The most common S&G’s are two players (AKA Heads up), six and nine-player tournaments. These tournaments can be in many different formats of the players choice. A few examples can be regular speed, turbo and hyper turbo S&G’s. Most players have a preferred format thinking about the amount of time they want to play for. A regular speed S&G would be roughly 45 minutes to an hour with the hyper turbo roughly 15 minutes or less.
Register to play online
It’s easy to register for an account at Maverick Poker. Just click the ‘JOIN US’ button at the top of the page, and enter the personal information requested on our registration page. Then click to confirm, add your deposit, and you’re ready to play your first hand.
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