One of the most fun ways to enjoy online poker is through the online poker tournament. Like a brick and mortar tournament, an online poker tournament is a poker game with a fixed buy-in, where if you lose you are out and players play until one player holds all the chips, with prize money awarded according to how late you survive in the tournament.

Many players enjoy tournaments because the amount you can lose is fixed; it is simply whatever the entry fee is for the tournament, whereas the potential rewards can be quite large. Also, players who have difficulty managing the time of their sessions enjoy tournaments because they know exactly when to quit: When they get knocked out.

Some players do not play tournaments too frequently because they don’t have the endurance to sit at a poker table for the five hours or more they might need to play to win money. Also, the tournament may not fit into their schedule, as most live card rooms only offer one or two tournaments a day at most, which start at a prescribed time.

Online tournaments circumvent these problems. Since you are playing from home and can get up and move around at your leisure, endurance is much less of a problem. In addition, online poker rooms offer tournaments nearly around the clock, including the Sit and Go tournament, which starts whenever the table or tables are filled, so scheduling is not an issue.

One drawback some people find with online tournaments is the huge fields that some tournaments, especially the cheaper ones and free rolls, tend to have. A low buy in tournament online can have literally thousands of players, whereas a live tournament rarely gets more than 300. However, the more entrants, the greater the prize pool usually is, and since many players get knocked out almost simultaneously, a giant field is not quite as intimidating as it appears, although it will still be quite challenging. Finally, you can always play a single table or multi table tournament where the amount of entrants are limited. You can play a tournament against 50 people, nine people, or even a heads up tournament against a single opponent.

Be sure to check what type of tournament you are playing in before you sit down. Not all tournaments are no limit Texas Holdem, and you don’t want to discover you are playing a limit hold’em or seven card stud tournament after you have already registered and paid your money. In addition, some tournaments are rebuy tournaments, where you can buy more chips after you bust out for a limited amount of time. These tournaments tend to be more costly than the entry fee suggests.