In recent years poker tournaments have been getting a lot of media attention but many players are unaware that slot tournaments also take place on a regular basis. The prizes are never quite as big as the poker tournaments like the WSOP but you can still get some great wins by taking part in slots tournaments.
There are lots of different formats that tournaments can use. The most common is a fixed buy in and then a time limit for play. So for example you would have 30 players who pay $100 to enter a tournament. This gives a $3000 prize pool which will be spilt among the winners with a portion taken by the casino.
A common split would be a $1500 first prize, $500 second prize, $250 third prize and then five prizes of $100. While the buy in was $100 each player may get $1000 worth of actual credits on the machine. When the tournament starts all players start spinning and stop when the time runs out. There are several ways that winners can be determined.
Most common is the highest amount of coins at the end of the time limit. Another popular format is the highest single win during the time limit. The key as a player is to get as many spins as possible into the time limit. It can be somewhat humorous to watch a casino slot tournament as all of the players are furiously pressing the max bet button.
As you can se from the example above you stand the chance of winning $1500 with a $100 buy in which is not a bad win. If there are more players the prize pool will be bigger. Some of the casinos in Las Vegas have offered prize pools as high as $1,000,000 for their big players. Usually these tournaments have a high buy in and are by invitation only.
Online slots tournaments are also now becoming popular. Several of the casinos listed here at Casino Checklist offer free tournaments which give you the chance at a big win without risking any money at all. If you are looking for free tournaments check out the following online casinos.
The tournaments online work in a very similar way to the land based tournaments with a few changes. Many of the tournaments online allow re-buys. This means you can get extra time by buying in again while the tournament is on. This requires some extra strategy especially if you are in position 2 or 3 and a few extra wins will move you into first place.
Popular games for online slots tournaments include Tomb Raider, Avalon and Hitman at Microgaming casinos and The Reel Deal at Vegas Technology casinos. If you have a small gambling budget tournaments can be a great way to get a lot of play for your money and have a chance at some big wins.
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