Tournament
A poker tournament is a form of game where each player pays a buy-in to get a chance at winning the pooled buy-ins. Each player gets the same number of chips in the beginning and is eliminated if he loses all his chips. Rebuy tournaments allow players to buy in again in the early phases of the tournaments.
The distribution of the prize money follows the placement of the players according to the order of their elimination. The particular payout structure determines which place gets how much. Obviously, non-monetary prizes can be used as well, like goods or placement in a further tournament.
Tournaments
Freeze Out
A classical tournament form, a player is eliminated for good when he loses all his chips. Tournaments where only the first place player wins the entire pool are also called freeze outs.
Buying in again in the early phase of a tournament after losing all one's chips. Usually, every player is given the chance to increase his stack at the end of the re-buy phase, called and add-on.
A multi-table tournament is one in which up to thousands of players can participate at once, so that it requires more tables in the beginning. Over the course of time, tables are closed as players are eliminated and remaining players are redistributed to tables with free places. This goes until there is one, final table left.
A tournament with just a single table, which restricts the number of players and length of the tournament.
An Sit and Go is a tournament that starts when a certain number of players have registered for the tournament. It does not start at a particular time like MTT's, rather, it could happen at any time as soon as enough players are present.
A satellite is a qualifying tournament where players play for a seat in a later, larger tournament. Often, the top placing player(s) get a seat in the later tournament. The buy-ins for a satellite are much smaller than the main tournament, meaning that there is the chance to play over a lot of money for a relatively small investment. Chris Moneymaker is a prime example, having bought in to a satellite for $40 and going on to win the main event of the WSOP, winning two million dollars that would normally have cost a $10000 buy in.
A freeroll is a sponsored tournament without buy-in. It is free to enter for all players.
Related Topics:
Cash Game, Entry Fee, Buy-In, Payout Structure