WHAT IS THE DURATION OF ONLINE POKER TOURNAMENTS?

Our estimations of how long online poker tournaments last, as well as the timing disparities between different types of tournaments.

The length of a poker tournament is determined mostly by the tournament structure and rules (e.g., rebuys, time structure, stacks), as well as the number of participants.

While tournaments offer the opportunity to win large sums of money for a low buy-in, they can be time-consuming to complete. If time is an issue for you, it's good to know how long the average online poker tournament lasts before you start playing, which is what this article will go over.

People who want to play in an online poker tournament pay an entry fee and compete for a piece of the prize pool. Each player is given a set number of chips to begin with, and if they lose all of their chips, they are eliminated from the tournament.

As the tournament goes on, the size of the blinds grows, and antes are frequently introduced after a few levels. The first awards are awarded when around 10% of the field remains, but this varies depending on the competition. When one player has all of the chips in play, the event is declared over. The winning player is then declared.

DURATION OF THE POKER TOURNAMENT

The length of an online poker tournament is greatly influenced by the number of players, tournament format, and event type.

Tournament of Sit-and-Go

Sit-and-go tournaments have the fewest players and hence take the shortest amount of time to complete. Depending on the construction, it will usually take between 20 and 80 minutes to complete.

For example, a 9-player sit-and-go poker game with 8-minute blind levels will last an average of 60–70 minutes. A 6-handed sit-and-go with 3 minute blind levels will have a poker tournament duration of 20–25 minutes on average.

Sit-and-go tournaments are the best option if you want to play a tournament but don't want to spend all day doing it.

Tournaments with Many Tables

Multi-table tournaments, on the other hand, take much longer, typically lasting 4–8 hours. Some multi-table tournaments may even extend for many days. This is common for major tournament series like SCOOP and WCOOP.

Not only do those tournaments have a larger player pool, but they also typically feature a slower tournament structure, which means they can take anywhere from 12 to 20 hours in total.

The shorter the average poker tournament time, the more players there are in an online poker tournament. This means that if you play during peak hours, a tournament will last longer than if you participate early in the morning.

Tournament of Turbo Poker

The only difference between turbo online poker tournaments and regular online poker tournaments is that the blind levels are shorter in turbo tournaments. This means that turbo tournaments will finish 50–75% faster than standard tournaments, depending on how fast the blind levels are.

A normal tournament, for example, has 10 minute blind levels, whereas a turbo tournament has 5 minute blind levels and a hyper-turbo tournament has 3 minute blind levels. This indicates that if the average tournament has 1,000 runners and lasts 6 hours, the same tournament with a turbo blind structure will take only 3 hours to complete.

Poker Satellite Tournament

A satellite poker event operates slightly differently than other types of tournaments. The main reward in a satellite poker tournament is a ticket to a larger poker tournament, and there are frequently multiple tickets to be won. This means that instead of a winner, the tournament is played down to the number of players equal to the number of available tickets.

You could believe that because the competition ends earlier, it will be completed sooner. Satellite tournaments, by definition, take longer than standard tournaments because players spend a long time on each hand around the bubble, hoping that other players are knocked out before they have to risk their own stack.

Tournament of Rebuys

In a rebuy tournament, even if a player loses all of their chips, they can buy more and try again. Rebuys are permitted for a set period of time, during which a player may rebuy as many times as they choose. At the end of the rebuy phase, players in rebuy tournaments often have the chance to add-on, which lets them buy more chips.

Because participants can buy back in and add-on chips, there are a lot more chips in play than in a traditional event. This means they will take longer to complete on average than an online poker tournament without rebuys.

POKER TOURNAMENT HOURLY RATE CALCULATION

If you play online poker tournaments to make money, you need to know how much you make every hour to determine if it's a financially sustainable endeavor.

Using a poker tracker like PockerTracker4 or Hold'em Manager 3 is the simplest approach to compute your hourly rate as a tournament player. This software will keep track of your winnings as well as the amount of time you've spent at the tables. If you have this information, you may calculate your hourly rate by dividing the amount of money you've earned by the amount of time you've spent at the tables.

For example, if you won $3000 in the last month and played for a total of 100 hours, your hourly wage would be $30:

$3000 / 100 = $30

Thus, if the same player plays another 100 hours at the same level, their predicted hourly revenue will be roughly $30/hour.

Another method for predicting your hourly rate in tournament poker is to divide your ROI for a specific tournament buy-in by your average event length.

For example, if you have a 10% ROI in a $100 online poker tournament and play for an average of 4 hours per tournament, your hourly wage would be $2.50:

$100 * 0.1 = $10 $10 / 4 = $2.50

However, tournament poker has incredibly high variance, and just because you're a winning player doesn't mean you'll profit every week/month/year. Even with a large data set, tournament poker is so hard to predict that it is hard to make accurate predictions about how it will go in the future.

WHY DO PROFESSIONAL POKER TOURNAMENT DURATIONS MATTER?

Tournament duration is crucial to professionals because they want to maximize their hourly pay, and if a tournament takes too long to complete, it may not be worth it for a professional to play.

Let's take a look at two tournaments that a professional player might participate in and decide which one is better based on how much money they can make per day:

The initial tournament has a $200 buy-in and a professional player with a 15% ROI and a 5-hour average playing duration.

$200 * 0.15 = $30 $30 / 5 = $6

Based on our calculations, the professional would earn $6 per hour while competing in this competition. If they can play 5 tables at once for 10 hours a day, they can expect to play in 10 of these tournaments.

This suggests that their daily win rate is predicted to be $6 * 10 = $60.

The second tournament has a $200 buy-in and a professional player with a 10% ROI and an average playing time of two hours.

$200 * 0.1 = $20 $20 / 2 = $10.

We can see that a professional would be paid $10 per hour to play in this event. If they can play 5 tables at once for 10 hours a day, they can anticipate playing 25 of these tournaments on average.

This translates to a daily win rate of $10 * 25 = $250.

Even with a lower ROI, being able to play more tournaments at a faster rate can result in a greater hourly/daily win rate. Some professional poker players can make more money per hour by playing in multiple tournaments or cash games at the same time. This is called "multi-tabling."

DURATION OF THE POKER TOURNAMENT: FAQ

We've compiled and answered the most frequently asked questions concerning the typical poker tournament length:

What distinguishes poker tournaments from cash games?

A poker tournament is an event where a group of players pay a set amount to compete for a share of the prize pool. The tournament ends when there is only one player left. A cash game, on the other hand, is a poker game in which each chip has a cash value and the game can go on indefinitely.

How long is the average poker tournament?

Several things, like the number of players, the type of competition, and how the tournament is set up, affect this. A sit-and-go can last anywhere from 15 to 70 minutes, whereas a multi-table tournament can last anywhere from 4 to 8 hours on average.

Why do satellite tournaments last so long?

Because of how the prize pool is set up, satellite tournaments last longer than regular tournaments. When a player is close to earning a ticket, the game slows down as players with a short stack aim to outlast other short-stacked players by taking the most time per hand.

In a sit-and-go tournament, how many hands are played every hour?

This will be determined by the number of participants in the competition. A 9-handed sit-and-go can be expected to play 50-60 hands each hour, a 6-handed sit-and-go can get closer to 80 hands per hour, and heads-up sit-and-gos can get 100 hands per hour.

Poker tournaments are they profitable?

Poker tournaments can be lucrative, and some professional players only participate in tournaments. The opportunity to win a significant sum of money from a little buy-in makes tournament poker appealing to players. Yet, there is a high level of variance in tournament poker, which can make it difficult to win in the long run.

The number of entries, tournament type, and tournament structure all have an impact on how long an online poker tournament lasts, and after reading this article, you should be able to utilize this information to help evaluate if a tournament is suited for you to participate in.