Shout-Outs (Multi-Table Tournaments)

In Europe, “rounders” are not the people who go from table to table, or even that cult movie with Matt Damon and Edward Norton (and if you don’t know what movie we’re talking about, you have no business saying that you love your poker!).

Rounders are step tourneys, or multi-table tournaments. They are similar to American shoot-outs, which are typically played online as live events.

Once in a while, the World Series of Poker holds a shoot-out event. Some websites also hold shoot-out satellites, or “independent rooms” that are extensions of other tournaments. These allow several players to participate in the game. However, because of the sheer number of people required for the shoot-out to be successful, shootouts are usually held by large websites that have a big enough membership base to support this kind of game.

This is how the typical shoot-out works. It’s a lot like several single-table tournaments. The average number of people per table is 10 and everyone starts with a certain number of chips, say 3,000. Then the game starts. It is usually no-limit Texas Holdem. The blinds are increased as the tournament progresses. One by one the players drop out, until the original 10 drops to three.

At shoot-outs, how much you have left by the end of the round doesn’t matter. You could have 100,000 worth of chips or be hanging by a single thread (or in this case, a single chip). As long as you have something left and are in the final three, you can proceed to the next round. However, unlike sit and go tournaments, you get to keep your final chip count. You may receive a bonus number of chips (it depends on the tournament organizers) just to give you a fighting chance just in case you don’t have enough to make a decent bet. But take note: if one player gets a bonus, so does everyone else. And you have to watch those blinds—they’re increasing, and the gameplay gets harder and the opponents get tougher at every stage.

So it goes on and on, the payouts increasing. Sometimes less than three players advance to the next stage; and at a certain point, some tables end up short-handed. It all depends on how many survive, and the game is about survival. This is one reason why shoot-outs are so exciting. The play has to be very very tight, or you’ll lose. It’s a hard game, but it’s a relatively rewarding one. For most tournaments you break even just by getting to the second round, possibly more. But it admittedly does not have the high pots that you can find in big tournaments.

Shoot-outs are fun, but they do demand a kind of poker personality. If you are the kind that likes a low to mid level tournament, then by all means sign up. But if you prefer high stakes and slugging it with less experienced players, you may be surprised by the level of competitiveness in shoot-outs. You also need time. The first round takes the longest because of the number of players, and there’s waiting time between rounds. (Remember you can’t start the next round until the other winners have been named.)

Some sites also offer replay features and bonuses for those who don’t make the final cut.