Steps tournaments

Steps or phase tournaments are primarily sit and go tournaments that serve as a satellite for a larger tournament. Usually main poker rooms offer steps tournaments for big money prizes or packages on big events like the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. Playing in steps tournaments you can turn a small amount of money invested in the first step into a large prize working your way up to the last step.

Steps tournaments are based on a tiered system. This means that if you end up in the first places you will receive a ticket to the next step. If you place in the middle you can get a ticket to repeat the phase or to return to previous steps. If you end up on the last places you are out of the tournament but usually you can reenter at any step if you buy in directly with cash. The more advanced is the step you want to enter the more expensive the buy in will be.

Beside the fun part of winning big money prizes or packages to major poker events, steps tournaments have a downside: you are caught into them. Steps tickets are not convertible for cash or any other value and not transferable to other players.

Poker Stars Step system has 6 steps. The buy in begins at 7.50 for Step 1 and goes all the way up to $2100 for Step 6. On every step the first two places get a ticket to the next step and on the final step winner gets a prize package for a major live or online poker event (European Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour, World Championship of Online Poker, World Series of Poker, etc). The third to sixth places usually receive a ticket to replay the same step or to replay a previous step. Last three places send player out of the tournament.

The Ten-Seat Phase Tournament on PKR has 6 steps too. The buy in for the first phase is $3.60 or $0.40 cents if you qualify from a one hand satellite. Here you can see an exact diagram of the steps system tournament offered by PKR.

Titan Poker also offers steps tournaments that serve as satellites for big live poker events. For example ATP Macau Super Satellite with a prize package for Asian Poker Tour Macau 2009. You can enter ATP Macau Super Satellite paying a $250 + $18 buy in or you can qualify from a two steps tournament. With a buy in of $4.40 + $0.40 you can enter to the APT Macau Stage 2 which is the first phase of the tournament. In this phase only the first place wins a seat to the final phase of the tournament. The buy in for APT Macau Stage 1 is $40 + $4 and the first place wins a seat into the ATP Macau Super Satellite. The next five players are paid back the buy in + fee meaning $44.