There are lots of different types of poker tournaments that you will be able to play in online poker rooms. If you have never played in an online poker room before then you probably haven’t even heard of most of the tournament structures you can play online. I find tournaments to be great for new poker players because you can play in them without spending much money and you’ll be able to gain a lot of experience. Let’s take a look at the different types of tournaments you can play at starpoker.com now.

* The most common type of tournament played online is the sit and go tournament which varies in the amount of people who play. You can play sit and go tournaments with 2 players, 6 players, 9 players, 10 players, 18 players and many other options. Most poker rooms have these tournaments starting with buy-ins as low as $1. Most online poker players play sit and go tournaments and they are actually more popular then ring table games throughout the online poker rooms.

* Most online poker rooms offer freeroll tournaments which is where you can play in the event for free without the need to pay a buy-in plus you have the chance to win money. The money added to the prize pool is added by the poker room so it’s like a little gift from them to the players. These types of tournaments are great for new poker players who don’t have their own bankroll yet and would like to earn it without depositing their own money.

* Guaranteed prize pool tournaments are available in every poker room and these are where the poker room guarantees the prize pool to reach a certain amount and if it doesn’t then the poker room needs to pay whatever the prize pool is short to make it equal the guaranteed amount.

* Bounty poker tournaments are a newer type of poker tournament offered by some poker rooms only and it’s where you need to knock out players in order to win. It doesn’t matter what place you finish in, since you make money by knocking people out of the tournament. Some poker rooms will offer bounty tournaments where 50% of the buy-in is used for the bounty and 50% is used for the prize pool so if it’s this style of bounty tournament then it will matter what place you finish in.

* Satellite tournaments are offered by practically every online poker room and what they are is you pay a small amount to play in an event and if you win the event you move onto a much bigger event. An example would be when Chris Moneymaker turned his $30 odd dollar Poker Stars satellite tournament buy-in into a WSOP Main Event bracelet and millions.

You can play in lots of different tournaments online at pockerstar, but in order to find a poker room with the best selection you need to do a bit of research. You can usually find the tournament schedule listed on poker rooms so look for the poker rooms with the best selection. Typically the bigger online poker rooms will have the bigger selection of tournaments to play in because they can fill them up easier then the smaller poker rooms.

As a sit and go tournament player on starpoker there is no better feeling then playing the tournament as the chip leader because nobody can knock you out with one hand and most players will be scared to play against you. There is a lot more you can get away with as the chip leader compared to if you were in any other position and you need to make sure you take advantage of this fact. Before you can execute the big stack strategy you need to first become the big stack and you should make sure you learn early sit and go strategy so you can become the big stack as much as possible. When you are the big stack I would recommend using the tips and strategy below to help you hold on for victory.

There are a couple strategies which will work in sit and go tournaments when you’re the chip leader and you can decide which strategy you’d prefer to use. The first strategy is really simple and we will quickly go through this one first so we can get it out of the way. Depending on your chip lead you may be able to just sit out of the tournament and wait until you’re in the money before playing any more hands. In a nine player sit and go tournament if you have 33% or more of the chips on the table then you’ll be able to sit out and wait until the final three. You may need to keep an eye on the tournament to make sure the blinds aren’t killing you, but while you’re waiting for the final three you should begin playing another tournament. Volume is important to make profit playing sit and go tournaments so you need to play as many as you can handle.

The second strategy is for those of you who don’t want to just sit out or play another pocker star tournament while waiting. This strategy involved playing through the tournament until it’s over. The one problem with this strategy is that it isn’t guaranteed like the first strategy is because of the fact you’ll be playing hands now. As the chip leader you need to be willing to put fear into your opponents by betting frequently and strongly. You don’t want to over bet at the pots because then you might see someone go all-in and put you in a tough spot, but you should generally raise every hand you play preflop by 3-4X the big blind. This will typically win the pot, but if it doesn’t then lead out after the flop, if you get called then you know you’re in trouble this hand and you should begin slowing down.

Basically your options are to sit out and wait until you’ve made the money positions or you can play the big stack and put fear into your opponents by being aggressive. Both strategies can work, but there is more risk in playing aggressively of course. Make sure when you’re playing aggressive you also know when to slow down or else the strategy is useless and you’ll lose the chip lead quicker then you got it.