If you are an online poker player, you have probably seen the world poker championships on television, especially the World Series of Poker or World Poker Tour. These championships are played in a multi-table format, known as “Multi-Table Tournaments”.
The main feature of these poker tournaments is the participation of several players at several tables, which usually have 10 per table (but in some cases there are games with 6 to 8 per table). Each player starts with the same number of chips, which are their “life” in the tournament, that is, if they run out of chips, they are eliminated. As players leave, there is usually a reshuffling between the tables, so that there is no major discrepancy between them.
Example: In a poker tournament with 5 tables of 10 players each, three players from table A and one from table B are eliminated. One player from table C and one from table D will be moved to table A. In this case, tables A, B, C and D will have nine players, while table E will remain with 10 players.
Tournament progress
As stated above, each player starts with the same amount of chips. As time goes on, the blinds increase, usually every 10-30 minutes. The pace and percentage of blind increases varies from tournament to tournament, so it is wise to check this information in advance.
Awards
The prize pool for an MTT poker tournament is made up of the entry fees, minus the administration fees. For example, in a $20/$2 tournament, the player pays $22 to enter, and of that amount, $20 goes towards the final amount, known as the “prize pool”, which is divided among the winners. In most cases, 10 to 20% of the participants are awarded prizes, with decreasing percentages. In general, first place receives 40%, and the following places receive progressively smaller percentages.
Satellites
Satellite tournaments are those that offer seats to other tournaments. In these cases, there is usually no cash prize. A certain number of participants win seats, according to their position in the tournament.
Example: a tournament costs $10 and the prize pool is one entry into a $100 tournament for every ten participants. In this case, if we have 80 participants, the top eight will earn a spot in the $100 tournament.
We will continue this article shortly to talk more about the types of multi-table tournaments.
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