A poker tournament is a game with a fixed format. Everything is predetermined – the blinds, buy-in, stack sizes, antes, structure, and time limit.
- Formats of Tournaments:
Guaranteed Tournaments: In poker, a "guaranteed prize pool" is when the tournament organizers guarantee that a tournament will have a minimum prize pool of a certain amount. Guaranteeing a prize pool is done to increase attendance as players will know that they will be playing for a minimum amount of money. - Free Entry Tournaments: A Free Entry tournament is a poker tournament with no entry fee. Some freerolls (eg: Depositors FreeRoll) require payment at some point to gain entry to the tournament."
- Satellite Tournament - A satellite poker tournament is a qualifying event to another event (that usually has a larger buy-in). In non-dictionary terms, this means that it is a smaller buy-in event through which the winner gets a ticket or entry into a larger buy-in event.
- Step Satellite Tournament- A step satellite tournament is a qualifying event for satellite tournaments.