Adjustments to Make for Different Casino Tournament Styles

Published: January 23, 2014

The casino tournament has become much more popular in recent times. Online casinos have figured out that one of the major advantages of playing in land-based establishments is the social factor since you get to meet other people and enjoy the games as a group. They've started adding in more elements that include interactions with other players to help eliminate this disadvantage, and casino tournaments are one way to do that. They can also add a skill element to games that are normally just based on chance. We want to show you the adjustments to make to maximize your chances of winning in different types of tournaments.

One of the most popular formats these days is the leaderboard competition. These tournaments offer players points for each bet that they make within certain bounds, and the players with the most points at the end of the promotional period are put on a leaderboard for prizes. If you want to boost your chances of winning, you'll need to place the smallest bets possible to still qualify. For example, if everyone who places bets worth between $0.45 and $2 are grouped together, then you'll be able to get in a lot more spins if you're betting $0.45 each than if you're betting $2 each. The smaller the better as long as you stay within the correct bounds.

The second most popular format these days is the elimination tournament. This type of tournament pits players against each other in the same game to see who can last the longest based on the number of bets placed or the amount of time bet. In this type of event, there's a subtle change in the focus of your strategy that most players miss. Instead of trying to maximize your wins as much as possible, you really just want to maximize your chance of getting a stack that's higher than everyone else's.

Consider a situation where you have a big lead in a roulette tournament with six players left. If only the top five players get paid, then you really don't want to be the next player to bust out. The key here is to minimize your risk as much as possible until you're guaranteed a prize. From there you'll want to play conservatively until someone starts to catch up to your stack. Roulette is a chance-based game, but playing in an elimination style tournament adds a definite skill element to the event.