Video Poker Tournaments

Video Poker tournaments aren’t nearly as common as tournaments for other online casino games, but they do exist and if you are fortunate enough to come across one it could be well worth taking part in. Since video poker is a player-versus-machine endeavour, video poker tournaments tend to be structured in much the same way as online slots tournaments, which means that winners are usually determined either by their wagering activity or by how much profit they can make from an initial chip stack within a certain period of time.

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Wagering Tournaments
Video poker tournaments that are structured as wagering competitions do not normally require any buy-in fee, though it is sometimes necessary to make a deposit to your online casino account to qualify for participation. This isn’t usually a problem, as wagering tournaments also require you to play with your own money.

In most cases you will be awarded points according to how much you wager on video poker games during the hours of the tournament. A prize pool will be reserved for the players who manage to collect the most points during the tournament, so your goal is to wager as much as you can (whilst of course continuing to be responsible about your gambling) and thereby get as many points as you can.

The online casino will have said at the outset how many prizes will be paid out, and a leaderboard is often displayed so that you can see exactly how you are doing compared with others. If, at the end of the tournament, you have managed to get a position in the winning section of the leaderboard then you will be paid the prize associated with that position. Invariably, the higher you get on the leaderboard, the more prize money you can expect to receive.

The advantage of wagering tournaments is that they cost nothing to enter and if you win cash playing the video poker games (perhaps even a jackpot by hitting a Royal Flush) then you get to keep it. The disadvantage is that you can also lose money, which is why it is essential to play sensibly and avoid allowing your excitement about wagering to overrule your self-discipline.

Profit Tournaments
Video poker tournaments that are structured as profit tournaments usually require you to pay a buy-in fee before you can take part, most of which goes into the prize pool for the tournament. In exchange for your buy-in you are given a stack of tournament chips (for example $1,000 of chips) which you will use to play video poker games for a specified length of time – often half an hour or an hour. Your goal in this case is to make as much profit as you can by the end of your time limit.

Again, a leaderboard system is used to keep track of player performance, and if you want to win a prize you will need to finish in a good position on the leaderboard. The biggest prize of all will obviously go to the player who has the biggest stack of tournament chips at the end of the tournament.

It is important to note that the biggest stack wins the tournament even if the biggest stack holder has made an overall loss. For example, if every participant starts with $1,000 and at the end of the tournament the biggest stack is worth $800, that player with $800 would win the tournament despite being $200 down. This being the case, don’t give up on a tournament just because you hit a losing run – if you have any chips at all left to play with then you are still in with a chance, however small, of finishing in the money.

The advantage of profit tournaments is that your maximum risk is known before you get involved – you can only lose your buy-in. The disadvantage is that if you hit a big win then you will only win tournament chips and you won’t see a penny of that profit go into your online casino account. Of course, a big win would increase your chances of winning a tournament prize, so that is some consolation.

There is no reason why video poker tournaments shouldn’t be more common than they are, but that will only happen if video poker players start asking for them. If you play at an online casino regularly and you would like to see more tournaments for video poker players then send an email to the customer service team and let them know. And in the meantime, whenever you do happen to come across a video poker tournament, it would make a lot of sense to get involved in it!

Michael Hastings

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