Explode Your Poker Tournament Skills....

For a poker player, there is surely no greater thrill than battling your way through to the latter stages of a high prize poker tournament. Ultimately winning one is likely to be one of the most memorable highlights of their time in the game for many players. Poker tournament play is a vast subject, and warrants a dedicated hub section of our site.

Poker tournaments are just one of the reasons behind the increasing popularity of the game, with a huge range on offer from all of the online poker rooms. Opportunities to taste the excitement generated by tournaments are almost endless, with an incredible range of options for game and tournament types available - pretty much on demand at any hour of night and day - including Freerolls and Guaranteed tournaments for a wide range of prizes.

Playing in a poker tournament is a great way to enjoy the game, learn, and potentially win big, often for a small initial outlay. It's worth noting here that Texas Holem poker tournament strategy is different from standard cash game strategy in some key areas, and to be successful you'll need to be aware of the differences. Remember that because of the ease of playing online, you're likely to encounter a huge number of unskilled players - especially in the early stages of any tournament - and your strategies can be honed to take advantage.

We move on to cover the different types of tournaments below, but it's worth reading through these 5 overview facts on poker tournaments to pick up some quick background info first.

* In a poker tournament all players enter the tournament with the same stake amount.

* The Casino collects an entry fee from each player entering the tournament.

* All the players start out with the same amount of chips

* The amount of chips, the stakes played for and the time periods of the game determine whether it is a fast or slow tournament

* As players lose they are eliminated and players reshuffled as tables are removed

*The tournament ends when one player has all the chips and is declared the winner

Tournament Stages

Early Stage
You usually have a lot of chips in this stage of the poker tournament and are best advised to wait for good hands before getting deeply involved in any pot. The recommendation here is always to play a patient game. The early stages are all about survival.

Middle Stage

You cannot afford to sit back and keep waiting for good hands as the blinds are continually rising. You have to open up your game, so do so aggressively, take risks and start attacking the pot without being reckless. Keep in mind that your ultimate goal is to progress as one of the big stacks into the late stage.

Late Stage

If you have reached this stage with a big stack then you have a huge advantage and you should capitalize. It is now recommended that you play the aggressor and not the caller. Avoid battles with the big stacks, going after the little ones instead to avoid busting out at this stage.

The Final Table

At this stage of the poker tournament, if you have arrived with a big or medium stack then play basic strategy and pick on the small stacks, avoiding the big stacks. The goal here is to be in the final top three spots.

Tournament Types

You can read more on tournament types at Poker Tournament Schedule.org, but here's a basic outline of the most popular.

Freeroll Poker Tournaments

Your first experience of online poker tournaments is likely to be in a Freeroll - a free to enter tournament often offered to new depositors at one of the major online rooms. The poker rooms are constantly looking for new new players. Freeroll tournaments are just one of the incentives on offer - others include generous poker bonus offers and promotions such as major poker tournament entries, loyalty programmes, and other prizes.

For poker beginners, playing in Freeroll tournaments is a great way to gain experience - many poker rooms run freeroll tournaments for new players after signing up. With some freeroll experience behind you, it's not a big step to move up to cash tournaments with entry fees costing from a few dollars upwards.

Sit N Go - Single Table Tournaments

Sit and Go's are small poker tournaments - sometimes known as single table tournaments (STTs). As the name suggests they're played on single tables of up to ten players.

STTs are a good way to get some tournament play for fairly low stakes. They give any reasonably skilled player a good chance to enjoy a good game and make some money. Many sit and go tournaments are played at around the $5 or $10 buy in level, with prize pools usually shared between the top 3 finishers. STTs are available at most of the popular online poker rooms, with games beginning as soon as enough players are seated at a table.

Sit N Gos are often exciting right from the first flop and are completed fairly quickly compared to the larger multitable tournaments. Calm and knowledgeable players can enjoy good advantages, as the low buy in levels can sometimes attract opponents who play with a reckless Freeroll style. Hence following good basic tournament strategy can earn good rewards.

Multitable Tournaments - MTTs

The most popular format of all poker tournaments is the MTT, or multitable tournament. This is the type you'll probably be most familiar with. They can have up to thousands of entrants.

Multitable poker tournaments are scheduled events, you register in advance to play at a specific time and date. You can normally register right up to around a minute before the start. Buy-ins can start at $1 and go up into thousands of dollars, and all players start with the same number of chips.

The tournament takes place on multiple tables at the same time, and as players are eliminated the remaining players are gradually moved around to fill the gaps and keep tables fully occupied. Eventually the field is reduced to enough players for one table only - the final table. This continues until eventually there are only enough players for one table.

The prizes vary depending on the number of original entrants, with normally the top 20 players receiving cash prizes relevant to their finishing position. The overall tournament winner is the player ending up with the biggest number of chips.

If I haven't covered all you want to know about poker tournaments here, as always you can find extra valuable info by searching on the popular search engines - Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing.