Multi-Table Tournament Reviews

In these two previous Weekly Shuffles, we reviewed the multi-table tournaments (MTTs) at several various online poker rooms. This week, we are reviewing the MTTs at four more online poker rooms. These four sites were not reviewed in either of the two previously mentioned Weekly Shuffles. online poker 468x60 The two principal variables in which these rooms are reviewed are structure and tournament selection. In order to receive a good structure score, the site's tournaments must provide sufficient enough gameplay in order for good players to exact an edge over weaker players. The tournament selection score is determined by the diversity of the site's MTT offerings by assessing the following variables: frequency of scheduled tournaments, range of available buy-ins, quantity of tournament participants, and games played with unique poker variants. PKR Structure: 71 Tournament Selection: 76 Typical Starting Stack: 1,500-2,500 Typical Starting Blinds: 15-30 Typical Blind Intervals: 10-15 minutes This is a fairly new online poker room built around it's 3-D, video-game-like graphics. PKR's graphics consume a lot of CPU and time. For players who like to play several multi-table tournaments simultaneously, there are better sites to choose from. If you don't mind the slow-moving gameplay, this can be a pretty cool place to enjoy online poker tournaments. A typical MTT at PKR draws between 50 and 200 players, and has a buy-in priced between $3 and $20. Their biggest daily tournament has a $30+$3 buy-in and generally draws around 250 players. Occasionally they run a $40,000 guaranteed event with a $100+$9 buy-in. They offer several daily freerolls and micro buy-in tournaments. This is a potentially good site to build a bankroll from nothing. Most of PKR's tournaments have blind levels that increase every 15 minutes. Since each hand at this site takes considerably longer than hands at most other sites, even 15 minute blind levels can leave the tournaments feeling somewhat like a turbo tournament. Some of the tournaments of lesser importance have 10 minute blind levels. For these reasons, PKR did not receive a very good structure score. What we emphasized in the PKR Review also applies to their MTTs: this poker room is really only a good choice for casual players who place more emphasis on having fun than making money. Ladbrokes Poker Structure: 80 Tournament Selection: 84 Typical Starting Stack: 2,000 Typical Starting Blinds: 10-20 Typical Blind Intervals: Varies Ladbrokes Poker is a large British bookmaker, but has a fairly small online poker room. MTT players will enjoy their tournament filter, which is quite possibly the tops in the industry. As is typical with most online poker rooms now, Ladbrokes offers plenty of tournaments with buy-ins between $1-$10, but is fairly sparse in tournaments with buy-ins of $50 or more. Aside from their daily $100+$9 rebuy tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $30,000 (this usually draws around 150 players), high stakes players won't find much to their liking. High stakes players aside, there's something for everyone at Ladbrokes. Unfiltered, their tournament lobby is a nightmare to browse through. Extensive offerings are not always a good thing. If Ladbrokes spent less energy on making sure they spread every imaginable MTT combination and more effort on building larger field sizes in a smaller schedule of games, I think this would be a better place to play. InterPoker Structure: 86 Tournament Selection: 85 Typical Starting Stack: 2,000 Typical Starting Blinds: 10-20 Typical Blind Intervals: 10-12 minutes Many of InterPoker's tournaments are spread in pounds (£). In some pricier pound tournaments, the entry fee is usually overpriced. For example, their Sunday £110+£10 (with a £40,000 guaranteed prize pool) basically equates to a $220+$20 buy-in. Most sites would probably charge a $15 entry fee on a $220 tournament. InterPoker might win the award for having the highest frequency of scheduled MTTs. In a typical hour, they're likely to have a dozen cash-MTTs launch. This can be both good and bad. Like we mentioned in the Ladbrokes section, it lends itself to both offering something for everyone, but also spreading the user-base too thin. Put another way: they have tons of MTTs, most of them with small field sizes. Unlike the other rooms mentioned in this article, InterPoker is a good destination for higher buy-in players. On weekdays, they regularly run a $20,000 guaranteed with a $100+$9 buy-in. Occasionally this tournament has a small overlay. They also run "Lucky $13k" tournaments with a $50+$5 buy-in; these, too, are known to overlay. Bet365 Poker Structure: 64 Tournament Selection: 86 Typical Starting Stack: 1,000 Typical Starting Blinds: 10-20 Typical Blind Intervals: 10-12 minutes One of many skins on the Prima Poker Network, Bet365 Poker offers several good tournaments with guaranteed prize pools. On Sundays, they run two very popular tournaments. One is a $200+$15 freezeout with a $65,000 guarantee. The other is a $60+$5 rebuy event with a guaranteed prize pool of $175,000. Most people sink between $180 and $300 on this rebuy event. The fact that such a large tournament investment comes with a mere $5 entry fee is outstanding. Additionally, they have a $40,000 guaranteed $25 rebuy event. Per the norm, Bet365 offers an excessive amount of $1-$10 buy-in tournaments. However, since they are on a fairly large network, most tournaments draw at least 200 players. For some reason, their lobby seems to be void of a filter, making the MTTs a true nightmare to navigate. Most of Bet365 Poker's MTTs have 1,000 starting chips and 10-20 blinds with 10 or 12 minute levels. This is well below the industry standard with regards to tournament structure. For that reason, good players looking to earn money from MTTs should look elsewhere.