Ten formats, one page

Poker tournaments come in more shapes than people expect, and half the confusion new players run into is just not knowing what a lobby label actually means before they click register. So here’s the whole list in one place — the short version first, the full explanation right below it.

N-Stack tournaments

In an N-Stack tournament, you get handed a set number of chip stacks on registration — that’s the “N.” Before you sit down, you pick how many of those stacks to start with and how many to keep in your back pocket. At least one stack has to be in play from the start. Whatever you’ve held in reserve can be called into action any time before late registration closes, and if you never use it, it gets added to your live stack automatically once that window shuts.

Progressive Bounty

Here every player’s carrying a bounty on their own head. Knock someone out, and their bounty gets tacked onto yours — so the deeper you run, the bigger a target you become, which honestly changes how people play against you late in these things. Whatever bounty money’s still floating around gets split among the players who make the money, and from there the winner gets decided the same way a normal freezeout would.

Turbo tournaments

Same structure as the regular version, just compressed — blind levels cut to a third or half their usual length, and less time to think through each decision. You’ll find turbo versions running everywhere from the satellites up to the daily guarantees, for whenever you want the action without the multi-hour time commitment.

Shootout tournaments

Tables don’t get rebalanced as players bust in a Shootout — each table just plays down to a single winner before that round’s considered over. Once every table’s produced its winner, those winners get reseated together, stacks and blinds reset back to the start, and the whole process repeats until there’s one player left standing. You’ll see Shootouts set up anywhere from heads-up all the way to full nine-handed tables.