Formats
Poker is played in three formats:
- Ring Games
- Tournaments (Multi table Tournaments)
- Sit N Go’s (Single table tournaments)
RING GAMES
In a poker ring game you can play as many hands as you like or as per your bankroll. Consider them like Cricket Test match of Poker where you can score, attack or defend as per your strategy. Declare when you want, score a century, a double century or just keep scoring till your heart is filled.
Features:
- You can join the game at any point in the game, if the seat is available on the table and you can leave the game anytime
- The Buy In (Amount of chips you need to sit on the table), has a range. The range can be in multiple of blinds (Stakes) for the table. Usually they range from 40 Big blinds to 100 Big Blinds. For eg: For a 5/10 blind table, the buy in range can be 400-1000. A player decides his/her Buy In amount within this range
- The blinds remain the same throughout the duration of the game
- While playing ring games, if you lose some or all of your chips, you can top-up more chips to continue playing
- The size of the table can be 2 players, 6 players, 9 players, known as heads up, 6 max and 9 max respectively
MULTI TABLE TOURNAMENTS
Multi table tournaments can offer you a big prize pool, with a short amount of Buy In. The objective of a tournament is to eliminate the players by winning their chips and moving up in the ranks until 1 player takes all the chips and wins the top prize. MTTs are like One day cricket match, where you are playing against the run rate as the blinds keep increasing and you have to score quickly while keeping your wickets (your stack) intact
- In tournament format, every player needs to pay a specific amount as a buy-in to enter the tournament. They receive an equal number of chips to play the game
- In tournaments, the 1st prize winner gets the largest part of the total prize pool while other “In the Money” players receive a portion of the prize pool as per their finishing rank
- A tournament begins on a set scheduled time and the player needs to register themselves first to enter the tournament
- In tournaments, the blinds increase steadily (For ex. – in every 10 minutes) to speed up the action on the tables. In addition to blinds, players need to also put antes which increases the value of the pot
- Duration of the game depends on the number of participants and how long they manage to survive
SOME POPULAR TOURNAMENT TYPES
- Freeze Out: The traditional form of tournaments where if you as the player lose your stack, you are out of the tournament. Think of it like a single wicket batting innings!
- Re-Entry/Re-buy : These are currently the most popular types of tournaments where in case of elimination, you can re-enter the tournament by paying the relevant entry amount. Watch out for the number of re-entries allowed in each tournament when registering, some give you unlimited chances to re-enter and get into the top ranks! A slightly different variant are the Re-buy tournaments which allow players to buy a set number of chips during the tournament to stack up!
- Knock out (Bounty): Knockout poker is an MTT (multi-table tournament) variant where a percentage of the prize pool is dedicated to a bounty on each player’s head. Upon “knocking out” an opponent from the tournament, you will be guaranteed a cash prize or “bounty” before the tournament is even over. Think of it like batting where you get extra bonus runs for scoring boundaries!
- Progressive knockout poker tournaments are similar to the knockout format but carry an exciting twist - part of the bounty we win for eliminating another player is added to our own bounty! This means it is possible to end up with huge bounties on our heads after knocking out many opponents.
- Regular, Turbo, and Hyper Turbo: These represent the speed of the tournaments. For Eg: In a hyper turbo tournaments, the blind level increases every 3 minutes
- Deepstack: In Deepstack tournaments players start with a much higher number of chips than usual, and the blinds go up much slower than normal (15+ minutes). This allows for slower, more deep stack play during the game
- Time Tounney : If ever there was a game of survival in Poker this is it! A Time Tourney tournament lasts for a defined period and all surviving players receive a share of the prize pool in proportion to their chip count!
- Satellite: These types of tourneys have small buy-ins that give out entries (instead of cash) to bigger, higher buy-in events. In some instances, there can be several “steps” of satellites to get entry into the target tournament
- Freeroll (Free Entry): Free tournaments are a type of poker tournament that’s free to enter. But, get this; these tournaments still give out real money and/or other prizes to the top-place finishers. This makes them a great way to start a bankroll online, without having to risk one Rupee!
SIT N GO’S
A Sit & Go (SNG) is a type of poker tournament that is made up of a preset number of entrants and only commences once this number has been met. SNGs typically range anywhere from 2 to 10 players. However, the most common types are single-table tournaments of either 6 players (6-Max) or 9 players (9-Max). Consider them like T20 of Poker, its short, its quick, its fun and full of action.
In SNGs you get to feel the thrill of the tournament final table without the grind of getting there. Many players use SNGs to refine their tournament game. But it’s not just a side kick to the tournament, SNGs on their own are rewarding and fun way to enjoy Poker. Unlike multi-table tournaments (MTTs), there's no late registration. You're either in or you'll have to wait for the next one to fill up. They start as soon as all seats are filled and play until a winner is crowned
