Poker tournaments are structured competitions where players compete against each other to accumulate all the chips in play. One of the most popular ways to play poker today is the poker tournaments. A free online poker tournament is a poker game where the players all play until one has all the chips and is declared the winner. Unless the tournament is winner take all, the top 10 percent receive some kind of prize, with the winner receiving the largest share and each player after receiving successively less. Online poker tournaments have the same structure, but are played over the Internet rather than in a live casino. There are lots of sites offering online poker in the form of tournaments. One of the oldest, the online poker site pokerroom.com is well known for good and exiting tournaments.

In "normal" casino games, each hand is unrelated to any other. Players can quit whenever they want. In tournaments, players can not quit and cash out their chips. Play continues until there is a winner.

Tournaments are available in many styles and formats for all major poker games. The popularity of tournaments has exploded due to the televising of many large scale live events, and many players are choosing to become tournament specialists.

Online poker tournaments are also nice because you can keep constant track of your standing in the tournament. While live poker tournaments do the best they can, it is impossible for them to provide a running total of who has how many chips and how many players remain at all stages of play. During online poker tournaments, all of this information is easily accessible with the click of a mouse and you can factor this information into your decision making during the game.

Multi-Table Tournaments
Players start multi-table tournaments with a fixed number of chips and play until one player has all the chips. Blinds and antes increase as the tournament progresses, and as players are eliminated tables are consolidated together. The number of tables is eventually reduced to one final table which is composed of the top table winners of the field. The total sum of all the entry fees is divided up and awarded to the top players in accordance to the total amount of entries for the tournament.

Freerolls
A Freeroll tournament is a multi-table tournament in which there is no entry fee. Many freerolls have prizes either in terms of money, player points, or entries to other tournaments. Freeroll listings can be found under the Tournament tab. Keep in mind, Freeroll tournaments usually have a restricted number of entries, so early registration is suggested.

Bodog Poker Point Tournaments
As you play in the Bodog Poker Room you earn Bodog Poker Points. These points can then be used to buy into special tournaments that pay cash and/or prizes to the top finishers. You will be able to find these tournaments in the Main Lobby under the tournaments tab. When looking through the available tournament listings you will see a buy in amount followed by 'PTS' - this denotes that it is a 'Points' buy in tournament and the value before the 'PTS' will be the number of points required to buy in.
For some Points buy in tournaments you may be able to buy in using real money if you do not have sufficient points. These 'real money OR points' buy in tournaments will be indicated in the tournament listings with a dollar value and a point value separated by an 'or'. For these tournaments, the real money buy in will be added to the prize pool.

Qualifiers
Qualifiers, sometimes referred to as 'Satellites', are tournaments designed to allow players to win seats in a bigger tournament at a fraction of the buy-in. A multi-table tournament can have several Qualifiers that players may enter to win a seat at the bigger event. A player can enter a $10 Qualifier and win a $100 seat in a multi-table tournament. Qualifying events for various multi-table tournaments can be found under the Tournaments tab.

Qualifier tournaments will payout in Tournament Credits (displayed as 'T$'). These credits can then be used to buy into the next level of the tournament. When you win a Qualifier Tournament you have the option of selecting which event you would like to play in based on the Tournaments offered at Bodog Poker and your personal schedule. Unlike many other online poker sites, we do not pre-register you for any tournaments when you win a buy in - we give you the choice. Tournament Credits cannot be converted to real money, though if you do not use them for the tournament series they were paid out for, they may be used for any future Qualifier Series that Bodog Poker offers.

Shootouts
Shootouts are a form of multi-table tournament in which players do not move seats as tables are not consolidated together. Players play at the same table until only one player remains and is declared the winner. In Shootouts, players may be required to win a number of stages in order to be declared the overall winner. Single, double, and triple shootouts are common and indicate how many tables a player must place first in to be the overall winner.

Re-Buy Tournaments
A typical multi-table tournament has only one buy-in and once a player is out of chips they are eliminated from the tournament. Re-Buy tournaments are different from traditional multi-table tournaments in that they allow players to purchase additional chips during the course of the tournament.

Players will be offered a Re-Buy option whenever they run out of chips, although they may choose to Re-Buy at anytime their chip stack falls below the designated amount.

Most Re-Buy tournaments have a set period of time in which re-buys may be purchased and there may be a limit to the number of re-buys a player may purchase during the course of a tournament.

Re-Buy tournaments typically offer a last opportunity to purchase chips known as the 'Add-On'. The Add-On is offered at the end of the re-buy period and is normally available to all players regardless of their stack size. The amount of a re-buy or Add-On is usually the same as the original buy-in.

The prize pool and payouts will not be announced until after the Re-Buy and Add-On period is finished, as the prize pool will be increased by the additional Re-buys and Add-ons.

Sit and Go
A Sit and Go is a mini-tournament that does not begin at a designated time, but rather when all the seats are filled. Blind levels go up based on the number of hands played; with a standard 10-player Sit and Go, blinds go up every 10 hands. Payouts for a 10-handed Sit and Go are generally to the top 3, with first winning 50% of the prize pool, 2nd winning 30% and 3rd winning 20%. The payouts are displayed in the Main lobby of the tournament that is highlighted.

Sit and Go Turbo
A Sit and Go Turbo is a variation where blinds increase faster. Instead of blinds moving up every 10 hands like a standard Sit and Go, in Turbo, blinds go up every 5 hands.

Sit and Go - Short Handed
Sit and Go Short Handed Tournaments can be played with 2 or 6 players. With these variations payouts are altered to payout 2 players in a 6 handed game, and 1 player in a 2 player game. These tournaments are generally very fast paced and can provide some exciting action.