Online Casino Tournaments
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Online tournaments have become integral to online casino gambling. In online tournaments players do not wager against the house. They play the same game under the same conditions and the player who performs best wins. Most online tournaments are offered in slot games, but there are tournaments available in other games as well. Online tournaments are classified in many different ways. Hence new players get confused. This article discusses the various classifications of online tournaments.
One way of classifying online tournaments is as ‘sit and go’ and ‘scheduled’. In sit and go tournaments players can simply occupy a place and as soon as the minimum specified places are filled the tournament commences. This is more popular in online poker. The dates of scheduled tournaments are announced in advance and players may be required to register before hand. Some scheduled tournaments may limit the total entries on a first come basis.
Another way of classifying online tournaments is as single table and multi table. Single table tournaments are decided in one round itself. Multi table tournaments are multi level tournaments. A specified number of winners from the first round move to the second round. Again the winners of the second round move to the third round and so on to the final round. Usually multi table tournaments have two or three rounds. Many multi table online casino tournaments have smaller prizes for the intermediate rounds, especially in mega promotional events.
Freeroll tournaments are tournaments for which players do not have to pay entry fees. Online casinos offer freeroll tournaments to attract clientele and to reward loyal players. Often new players are offered freeroll tournaments so that they can understand the procedures and acquire a comfort level without having to make an investment. Tournaments in which players have to pay an entry fee are referred to as buy in tournaments. Usually the buy in is taken as cash. For some tournaments players pay buy ins through loyalty points earned.
Tournaments are also classified according to the nature of prizes offered. Usually the prizes do not go to a single winner but are shared by a specified number of winners. The amount of such a prize is referred to as a prize pool. There are two types of prize pools. The first is the guaranteed prize pools. Here the online casino announces the prize pool in advance and it does not depend on the entry fees collected. If the casino collects less then it has to make good the difference from its own resources. The other type of prize pool is the pot prize. In this case the pool is not of a declared amount but a total of the buy ins.
Prizes can be classified in another way as well. Some online casino tournaments have cash prizes. These are awarded to winners without any strings attached. They may be issued by check or if deposited in the players’ accounts they can be immediately withdrawn. Other tournaments have prizes as bonuses. Here the funds are transferred to the players’ accounts but the players need to meet wagering requirements before withdrawing them. Yet another form of prizes is in loyalty points. These loyalty points get added to the players’ balances and are treated in the same way as other loyalty points.
The final type of online casino tournament is the rebuy tournament. Usually players can play in a tournament only once and the score obtained counts for the purpose of deciding the winners. However, in rebuy tournaments players can pay the rebuy amount and take another go. If they perform better the second time that performance is taken into account. Rebuy online tournaments usually have an unlimited number of rebuys, but each rebuy costs the player. |
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