Many of the Australian online casinos recommended by us are powered by Microgaming and they offer pokies tournaments on a continuous basis. Pokies tournaments enable players to compete against each other and thus foster a sense of community at the online casino. There are different types of pokies tournaments, but the terms used in the rules are largely the same. This article explains the more important of the terms.
Prize pool is the total money that is distributed to the winners of the tournament. A guaranteed prize pool is a fixed amount put up by the online casino irrespective of the number of participants in the pokies tournament. If the participation is low for any reason and the online casino does not recover the prize money by way of entry fees then it bears the loss. In a pot prize pool the amount distributed to the winners is the total of the entry fees paid by the online casino players.
The rules specify two different time periods for online pokies tournaments. The duration of the tournament is the period in which the players can participate and record their scores. The play time is the actual time allotted to each player. For example the duration of a tournament could be from August 24 to August 31. The play time could be ten minutes. This means that between August 24 and August 31 you can access the tournament and play for ten minutes. The chip balance you have at the end of ten minutes will be your score.
Initially you pay the entry fee or the buy-in. You get a certain number of chips and are allotted a play time for the first cycle. Many Microgaming pokie tournaments allow you to play additional cycles for a fee. There are two different types of cycles. In the continue play option you pay the specified fee and get an additional cycle with a new set of coins and additional playing time. The coins won in the new cycle will be added to the score that you have already accumulated.
In rebuys options you also pay a rebuy fee to buy an additional cycle of coins and time. But your existing score is set to zero and you start playing the pokies tournament from scratch. If in the rebuy cycle you are able to register a higher score then the higher score will stand. However if your earlier score was higher, then the leader board will record your earlier score.