What are Guaranteed Tournaments?
by Jason Green of Predictem.com
When you play online poker you may come across information about guaranteed tournaments. But you may ask yourself, what the hell is a guaranteed tournament? A guaranteed online poker tournament is a tournament where the prize pool, money, is guaranteed by the online poker room where the tournament is being held. For example, if there is a $5,000 guaranteed poker tournament there will always be at least $5,000 in the prize pool.
If it turns out that there are not enough poker players in order to cover the prize pool for the tournament, then the poker room will end up paying the remainder of the guaranteed amount. If there are more than enough poker players that join the tournament, the player's buy-in will then be added to the guaranteed amount. So if there is $1,000 more than the guaranteed $5,000 than the prize pool for that tournament will then be $6,000. The $5,000 that is guaranteed for the poker tournament simply means that there is the minimum amount of $5,000 that will be split between the players. However, if the guaranteed tournament is a very popular one, with a lot of players signing up to play, then there will be more money to split between the players.
Sometimes overlays happen. O.K. so what's an overlay? An overlay is when the online poker room covers a part of the guaranteed amount of money for the tournament. Simply put, there is more money in the prize pool for the tournament than the players buy into. This makes online poker tournaments even more attractive for players as the more money that's in the prize pool, the more money the players can win.
When you check out online guaranteed poker tournaments, try to find out what the real prize pool is and how many players are entered into the tournament. Often times though, you won't know until the very end of registration as many come in at the last moment.
The more players that are in the tournament, the more money there will be, but it will make it that much harder to be in the money, as you will have more opponents and your odds become lesser.
Online poker tournaments can be life altering events. Each week, many of the biggest card rooms around the net offer up everything from 100K tourneys to Poker Stars famous "Sunday Million". Sure, many enter and the odds are thin, but SOMEBODY has to win and why can't that somebody be you? Check out our list of GOOD tourneys below and take your shot at something huge, like winning enough loot to buy a Ferrari or pay your house off!
Poker Stars Sunday Million - Starts each Sunday at 1:30PM EST. Entry fee is $215 U.S. The million in prizes are GUARANTEED and 1st place is always over $100K! Winning this tourney would be life altering! What are you waiting for? Take your shot THIS WEEK!
Absolute Poker $150K Weekly - Plays every Saturday at 16:30PM EST (1:30PM EST). Cost to enter: $500+$30.
Ultimatebet Poker - Take your shot at their 200K tourney which plays every Sunday at 5:30PM EST. Buy-in is $200 + $15.
Full Tilt Fifty-Fifty Tournament - Plays each evening at 21:20 ET with 1st place always being worth AT LEAST $9500!
Cheap Online Poker Tournaments - Tourneys with low buy-ins but good enough payouts to make it worth your while!
Introduction to Tournament Poker - Loki covers everything from the buy in to prize payouts!
Cash Games vs. Tournaments - Hank Cashman talks about the difference between the two and notes that just because you're good at one doesn't mean that you'll win at the other.
Poker Tournament Tips - Find out the secrets and requirements of playing in tournaments.