How does poker tournaments work?

Airburn

Airburn

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After winning 60$ from freerolls, I want to go into the 2-5$ range entry fees tournaments
For example Full Tilt has 5k cashout - 2.2$ buy-in tournament
(In theory if you get top TOP 20 its well worth your money as you guys know)

my question is this if only lets say 20 player start at this tournament will they even start it?
I mean the odds are amazing with only 20 players in, Iv seen some tournaments on carbon poker for good amounts of money and not alot of players registered,
How does this work from the Sites/Software perspective? and what do they do about it?
Are they okay with small amount of players starting a tournament?

have you played a nice cashout tournament with small amount of players?
thanks alot Im new to poker.
 
zEric7x

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The prize pool is based of the amount of people that entered. If there is less people then the prize would be smaller. If there is more players it would be bigger. The exception I can think of are those MTTs that have guaranteed prize pools. Some MTTs wont start with out a specific number of players but then that varies.
 
NvrBlufn

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I have seen some tournaments get cancelled for not having enough players. If the prize is a tournament ticket and there are not enough buy-ins to cover the cost they will just give you the cash.

I played a qualifier for a Bovada freeroll that was ridiculous. Top 15 players qualified for the $7,500 freeroll they were having. When the thing started there were only 10 players! There was a late registration period so once in awhile another player would join. We didn't know what was going on so we just kept playing. The thing is a couple of players got knocked out on all-in hands but they did not receive anything.

Eventually there were 16 players playing on 2 tables. As soon as the 16th place person got knocked out the tournament ended and the 15 finalists got a ticket to play the larger freeroll.
 
Aleksei

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Regular tournaments pay out based on the number of players in. Guaranteed tournaments pay out a guaranteed prize pool, and if they can't get enough players to meet the guarantee the site has to pay the remainder. Those are always the best to play.

Also with $60 I advise against playing $2-5 MTTs. You need like 50 buy-ins minimum to play single-table SnGs (more like 75 if they're turbos), 100 to play 45-mans, and 200 to play MTTs. The variance is really brutal.
 
WeenieSVK

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I think almost every tournament is set for minimum number of players.. If there is not enough players, then tournament is cancelled. And ofcourse payout sttructure isnt still same. More players = more places paid, less players = less players paid. It usually is from 10% up to 20% places paid..
 
ckingriches

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Regular tournaments pay out based on the number of players in. Guaranteed tournaments pay out a guaranteed prize pool, and if they can't get enough players to meet the guarantee the site has to pay the remainder. Those are always the best to play.

Also with $60 I advise against playing $2-5 MTTs. You need like 50 buy-ins minimum to play single-table SnGs (more like 75 if they're turbos), 100 to play 45-mans, and 200 to play MTTs. The variance is really brutal.

Just to clarify, you are suggesting that proper bankroll management wouldn't support playing $2-5 MTTs in this case. My guess is that the OP may not yet have any exposure to that concept.

If interested, there are plenty of threads/posts on the subject here that he can search for.
 
Airburn

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Regular tournaments pay out based on the number of players in. Guaranteed tournaments pay out a guaranteed prize pool, and if they can't get enough players to meet the guarantee the site has to pay the remainder. Those are always the best to play.

Also with $60 I advise against playing $2-5 MTTs. You need like 50 buy-ins minimum to play single-table SnGs (more like 75 if they're turbos), 100 to play 45-mans, and 200 to play MTTs. The variance is really brutal.

Your right Im gonna keep going on the freerolls for a while until I get to 200$ Then I'll start with the <2$ MTTs - 5 is a little too much.
And ill be on the lookout for those guaranteed money tournaments.
 
Shempstir

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I am about to fund my account and now I have a better how much and what to play.
Thanks.
 
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