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There are essentially two ways to play online poker, cash games or tournaments. In a cash game, each hand leads to a pot of real money that is awarded to the player that wins the hand. Tournaments are played differently; at the start of the tournament each entrant is given a certain amount of chips - known as the starting stack - and players are eliminated as they lose all their chips. The last player who wins all the chips wins the tournament.

Online poker tournaments come in two basic formats - Sit and Gos (SNGs) or scheduled tournaments. SNGs are usually one table tournaments that start as soon as the required number of players have entered. Most online poker sites will have hundreds of SNGs available to enter at any one time. Scheduled tournaments will have a fixed starting time and players can enter at any point between the tournament being announced and when it starts. Scheduled tournaments tend to be multi table tournaments with larger fields and often with guaranteed prize pools.

One of the most popular and common ways to get started with online poker is by playing online freerolls. These free to enter tournaments usually offer a small prize pool but provide a great learning experience and the opportunity to practice and hone your skills. There is also the chance to win real money without risking any of your own.

At FundooPoker we keep track of all the freerolls taking place at our recommended online poker sites. You can view the full list here. If you are new to online poker, we strongly suggest entering a few freeroll tournaments to get started and learn more about the game.

Guaranteed poker tournaments are also very common at online poker sites. Usually, a prize pool is made of all the entrants buy ins - however in a guaranteed tournament the poker site will put up a sum of money for the prize pool. Often, the guaranteed sum will be covered by the number of entrants anyway, but if not then there is what is called an "overlay" and there is effectively extra value in entering the tournament. It is well worth keeping an eye out for guaranteed tournaments that have an overlay.

At FundooPoker, we often run restricted tournaments for our members. These tournaments can only be entered by Club Fundoo members. Some are freerolls and some have added value, so make sure you join Club Fundoo to take advantage of our exclusive tournaments.

The strategy for tournaments varies depending on the type of tournament you are playing in, and requires a very different approach from cash game poker. To find out more about tournament poker strategy, visit our Poker School for specific articles on improving your tournament play.