The best poker tournaments sites are comprised of many different characteristics. A few of these characteristics include a site’s tournament schedule, guaranteed and satellite tournaments. Most poker sites will not excel in every area, but in a few specific areas. So at the end of the day, players will need to determine the characteristics that mean the most to them and find the site that best suits those needs.
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Poker Tournament Schedule
A site’s poker tournament schedule is an important characteristic to consider because not all sites have tournaments running around the clock. Some sites might have tournaments starting only at certain times. This is because they want to have these tournaments start during peak hours so that as many players as possible can sign up. So you’ll want to find a site that has tournaments running while you’re able to play. Or else you won’t be able to.
Something worth keeping in the back of your mind is the major schedules too. The majors are basically the site’s flagship tournaments. PokerStars, for example, has the Sunday Million which runs every Sunday. Most sites have at least one tournament like this, but they’re not always on the weekends. Sometimes they’re on a day in the middle of the week or during some other weird time. These tournaments are usually very profitable, so you’ll want to know when they run so you can play them. Alternatively, you can have a backup site so that you have a way to get in on a major tournament on a regular basis.
Guaranteed Poker Tournaments
Something I look for when choosing a tournament to play is whether there is a guaranteed prize pool or not. A guaranteed prize pool means that no matter how many players sign up, the prize pool will at least be as big as the guarantee. If the prize pool is a guaranteed $5k with a buy-in of $100 and only 40 people ($4k) buy-in, the tournament will still have a $5k prize pool. The poker site will cover the difference.
I prefer guaranteed tournaments over non-guaranteed because I’ve noticed that non-guarantees don’t fill up. This results in a smaller prize pool since it’s only going to be as big as the number of buy-ins.
Another good thing about guaranteed tournaments is that the larger ones tend to have satellites running to them. Satellites often mean softer competition.
Satellite Tournaments
Satellites are worth looking into when choosing the best tournament site for you. A satellite is a tournament that will send you to another (bigger) tournament if you meet the criteria. Sometimes you need to win or need to place in the top xx or xxx. Satellites are a great way to get into higher buy-in tournaments without directly buying in which in turn increases how much you can ultimately make.
The best example of a satellite would be Chris Moneymaker. He turned a $39 satellite into a $10k entry into the 2003 WSOP ME. He later won earning $2.5 million.
Step Tournament Satellites
Step tournaments are also satellites. But instead of playing only one tournament to try to advance to the biggest one, you play several. For example, most sites have step tournaments that consist of 6 or 7 steps. You can buy into each one individually, or you can start at the very bottom and work your way up. So say step number 1 was $3. If you won that, you’d than move on to step 2 which might be a $10 tournament. You’d keep going until you reached the highest step which would be like a $2,000 buy-in or something. If you won that, you’d win the ultimate prize. Participating in these step tournaments give you the opportunity to win big on a very, very small investment.
But that’s not the only great thing about satellites. Another benefit to playing them is that you can lose and still be in the game. Meaning, say you played a step 4 tournament and took 5th place. In many step tournaments, you’d be given the opportunity to retry the step 4 or you might be moved down a step to number 3. How many advance, retry, move down or are eliminated depend on the site and the step number you’re playing.
The last thing I wanted to point about satellites is that often times you can cash out the seats or trade them in for tournament dollars. For example, I’ve won several $11 shootout satellites to the Sunday Million. But instead of playing in the Million, I decided to use the $216 to play in other games. This is a great way to increase your ROI.
Poker Tournament Overlays
Overlays aren’t a specific type of tournament. They’re a byproduct of guaranteed tournaments. An overlay is the amount left over in guaranteed tournaments where the minimum hasn’t been met. In other words, if you sign up to a $1,000 guaranteed tournament with a $100 buy-in and only 7 people bought in, there would be an overlay of $300.
Many players like overlays because of how juicy the action is. After all, you have the potential to earn more money even though there are fewer players in the tournament.
Overlays can be a catch 22 though. They’re good for the obvious reasons like being able to earn more while playing through a smaller field. However, the downside to overlays is that often times the sites that have the most overlays tend to have the least traffic. There is an overlay because there aren’t enough players to make up the prize pool.
Another byproduct of sites with small traffic and frequent overlays is that sometimes the site won’t stay true to their word and will cancel the tournament if too few players register — or they may not pay the overlay. This doesn’t happen too often, but it does happen.
Poker Tournaments & Rakeback
This will vary from site to site, but assuming you’re happy with the other aspects of the site, you’ll want to look at the rakeback offer of the site if they have one. What you’ll want to check for is whether rakeback is paid on tournaments and SNGs or not. Depending on the volume you put out, this might not be too big a deal. But the rakeback payments can add up, so I feel that it’s worth checking into.