Picking a Good Poker Game

Okay, you’ve decided you’re going to play some online poker. There are a lot of options of what game to play. Let’s stick to Texas Holdem and look at the variety of choices you have.

First there is the very popular multi table tournament. Here, you sit down with a group of players, maybe even thousands, and play until you lose all your chips or eliminate all other players. These can take hours to complete. The tournament lobby will tell you when tournaments will start.

A different version of the multi table event is the re buy-add on style. This tournament allows you to buy more chips any time you have equal, or less than, the original amount. This is allowed for a set time period, usually the first hour, after which you will have the option to add on one final amount of chips. Then, you continue play as in a typical multi table tournament.

The free roll is one of the ways online poker rooms try to keep their players happy. These are normally just multi table tournaments with one big difference. They have prizes, but are free to enter!

Players often would like to play in big events but can’t afford to risk the entry fee. This is where the satellite tournament comes in. We can suppose you want to play in a $1,000 tournament. You might find a satellite for this bigger event. Perhaps one costing $50 would be affordable for you. If one hundred players were in this satellite, five players would win the $1,000 entry for the big one you wanted to play.

The Sit and Go style of tournaments are enjoyed by many players. The main reason I think is that they don’t take so long to play. Depending on the type, they can last between fifteen minutes and an hour and one half. There is no designated starting time, when the last entry fills the table you start.

A combination, of sorts, is the multi table sit and go. Here, at least two tables, could be many more, are used. The tournament will have an exact number of players and start when the entries fill. After that, this will be just like a multi table event.

The poker we all play at home is the ring game. This is where you put your cash on the table and play for it. The three main formats are, no limit, pot limit, and limit.

A more unique event that has shown on TV recently, is the heads up tournament. The idea is simple, you have a draw, like a tennis tournament, with let’s say 64 players. Opponents play heads up matches with the winners advancing. This continues, cutting the field in half each round, until you have a champion.

If texas holdem isn’t your game here are a few of the other games offered. Omaha, Omaha hi-lo, stud and five card draw.

As you can see there’s a lot of choices. Learn the game before you play. Losing, because you didn’t know the particulars of the game you’re in, will be very irritating.