The thrill of online poker tournaments
Recent increase in popularity of all poker games including Texas Holdem Poker, Omaha Holdem, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud, etc., had been caused by televised poker tournaments with pocket card cameras, knowledgebase experts and commentators, on-screen odds calculation and lots of related information led to a terrific poker explosion that we witness during the last ten years. From casino and home games, poker became a kind of national and even worldwide sports. Today, poker tournaments attract thousands of players and millions of spectators.
Variety of online poker tournaments
Among all imaginable poker variants that were invented during the last years, poker tournaments had definitely exploded more than any other types of poker game available in land-based casinos and online poker rooms. Ring games are very popular, but poker tournaments are incredibly trendy. And among all variants of poker tournaments (home, online casino guide and online casinos), online poker tournaments have become amazingly popular attracting more than 50 thousands players to play at WPT and WSOP. Such popularity of online poker tournaments is caused by simplicity and accessibility of play you can join the hottest event playing at home and during a vacation. The most frequent tournaments held by all online poker rooms are well-known sit-and-go tournaments, which start as soon as all seats are occupied.
The largest poker tournaments
Besides of small sit-and-go tournaments and satellite tournaments, top online poker rooms run MTTs (Multi Table Tournaments) that involve more players (up to several thousand each). These poker tournaments always start at a scheduled point in time. However, multi-table sit-and-goes are also available. This kind of tournaments is some sort of compromise between single-table sit-and-goes and scheduled MTTs. Multi-table sit-and-goes usually involve from 18 and up to 180 players. Usually, online poker tournaments are played as freeze-outs, where a player is eliminated as soon as he loses all of his chips. However, some tournaments have a re-buy structure, which means that a player, who lost all of his chips may re-buy more chips at a predefined stages of play. In this kind of tournaments, when a re-buy period ends, the tournament proceeds like a regular freeze-out.
Reason for popularity
While in ring games you usually have to win a lot of hands to earn an average bankroll, in poker tournaments you risk little and get chances to win a lot. Huge MTTs involving several thousand players promise outstanding prizes to the winner.