In other words, it's some sort of a casino bonus promotions for the most reliable players. It's clear that the casino players who are making big stakes have more chances to win in such tournaments. To play high stakes a player needs to have a lot of money or to be extremely lucky. Some casinos holds tournaments on specific games, but others would offer to play any game. Sometimes it is just one time action devoted to the birthday of the casino or some other events. Other casinos practice such events as the main incentive method to entice the players. For example, from time to time Microgaming casinos hold such tournaments. So, if you are an casino high roller, then it makes sense to participate in such tournaments, otherwise it is just does not pay.

Well, in fact, I want to tell you about another type of tournaments. It is about the real tournaments where the main thing is about art of playing regardless how deep your pockets are. Probably most of you have heard about poker tournaments, for example, about World Series of Poker (WSOP), where the best poker players meet and compete each other. Similar to the offline casino tournaments, they are popular for quite a long time. There are blackjack or craps tournaments and contests of other casino games. Recently the tournaments became very popular in the online casinos too. Microgaming casinos, Cryptologic casinos as well as Vegas Technology casinos offer their players to participate in different tournaments. The slot tournaments are the most popular among the online tournaments followed by blackjack, roulette and various poker games from video poker to "let it ride" top off  the list.

What is such tournament like? The scheme is rather simple: a casino announces the tournament specifying the time of the start and end of the tournament (ranging from 15 minutes to one month, as a rule they last for one day).

Number of initial chips players receive for their entry fee, the tournament fee (from 0 to $1000) creates the total prize pool for the tournament. The player's aim is to win more money than other players. The Lobby of the tournament usually lists the current leaders so that you can always evaluate your position against your competitors. The total number of prizes awarded in a tournament are dependant on the number of entries in the tournament. You should note that tournament chips cannot be converted into money, but if become one of the prize winners, then you'll get the payoff.

As it is in poker, there are different types of the tournaments. Some players will be very pleased to take advantage of freerolls - free to entry tournaments. You do not have to make a tournament contribution, however the prize fund is small and you would have many competitors. There are also "guaranteed" tournaments with fixed prize regardless of the number of players (so you are sure to get minimum prize fund).