Best Sites for Real Money Online Poker Tournaments

Still the gold standard of online poker tournaments, a multi-table tournament begins with a bunch of players and ends when one has collected all the chips. Like World Series events, multi-table tournaments can have set blind levels designed to whittle players down and force action. Payouts will vary by number of the players and the size of the buy-in. Make sure to pay attention to the details of who gets paid and how much.

Designed specifically for online poker play, a Sit & Go starts as soon as every seat and one or two tables is filled. Larger poker sites can have SNGs starting every few moments and typically only the top three players will get paid. A SNG is usually meant to focus on quick gameplay without the time-commitment of a larger MTT. Therefore, playing a few SNGs can be a good way for beginners to dip their toes into tournament play.

Whether a MTT or SNG, a turbo tournament is designed to go extremely fast. Players looking to play a bunch of tournaments in a short period or time love turbo tourneys. They are also good for card players that cannot commit a lot of time to play.

A shootout tournament is an MTT where, instead of moving players from table to table as the field shrinks, no tables are condensed until one player is left at a table. In this way, the MTT can play like repeated SNGs until one player takes down the entire field.

This is how Chris Moneymaker got his seat at the $10,000 buy-in Main Event. First, he won a satellite tournament that he paid $86 to enter. By winning the satellite, he received a chair at the Main Event. Some satellite prizes will also include all-expenses paid trips to the bigger tournament along with a seat.

A bounty tourney puts a slight variation on MTTs. Because tournament play is focused on going all-in, a bounty tournament awards a bonus every time you knock out an opponent. These bonuses can change the strategy of the game and push players towards riskier betting.