formats
Poker formats.
The rules of Texas Hold’em do not change between these five. What changes is how many players sit down, how quickly the blinds rise, and whether the chips in front of you are money or a claim on a prize pool. Almost every difference in strategy follows from those three things, and none of them are about the cards.
pick a format
Three players
Spin and go
How do I play a hyperturbo three handed?
Three players, a clock that never stops rising, and a prize pool that is drawn before the first card. Most of the decisions happen between ten and fifteen big blinds.
Two players
Heads up
Which hands do I play against one opponent?
You are in a blind on every single hand, so folding has a price you pay twice per orbit. The worst hand in the deck still wins better than a third of the time.
One table
Sit and go
What changes when the money comes into view?
A single table that starts when it fills up and pays the top few places. As soon as a payout is in sight, a chip won stops being worth what a chip lost costs.
Chips are money
Cash game
How do I play a deep stack after the flop?
The blinds never rise and you can top your stack back up, so the stack stays deep. That is the one format where the flop, the turn and the river all get properly played.
Many tables
Multi table tournament
How do I play a stack that keeps shrinking?
Hundreds of players, one prize pool, and a stack measured in big blinds that drifts down all evening. Your depth decides more about the hand than your cards do.
format is not variant
Same game. Different arithmetic.
Two different questions hide behind the phrase poker variants, and it is worth separating them before anything else. If you want a genuinely different game, with different cards and a different showdown, that is Omaha or short deck, and the rules pages cover what changes in each one. Everything on this page is the same game. Every format below deals two cards to each player and five to the board, exactly as the Texas Hold’em rules describe. Only the arrangement around the hand is different.
Start with the clearest of those differences, because it is pure arithmetic and it drives more than people expect. One orbit costs you the same everywhere: the small blind plus the big blind, so one and a half big blinds, once per lap of the table. What is not the same is how long a lap takes. Heads up a lap is two hands, so folding everything costs 0.75 big blinds per hand. At a nine handed table the same lap is nine hands, so the same cost spreads out to 0.17 per hand. A twelve big blind stack that folds every hand is gone in sixteen hands heads up and lasts seventy two hands at a full table.
| Table | Players | Blinds cost per hand | 12 bb lasts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heads up | 2 players | 0.75 bb | 16 hands |
| Spin and go | 3 players | 0.50 bb | 24 hands |
| Six handed | 6 players | 0.25 bb | 48 hands |
| Full ring | 9 players | 0.17 bb | 72 hands |
Folding every hand, no antes. One orbit always costs 1.5 big blinds; only the number of hands in an orbit changes.
The second difference is what a chip means. In a cash game a chip is a euro, so winning one and losing one are worth exactly the same and every decision is a straight comparison of money. In anything that pays out places, a chip is a claim on a prize pool, and the two stop matching: ICM is the model that converts the one into the other, and it is the reason a call that gains chips can still lose money near the bubble.
The third is how deep you are, and it moves in opposite directions. A cash stack sits at around a hundred big blinds and stays there because you can top it back up. A tournament stack only drifts down, which is why the hand charts you would use before the flop are not the same across the board. The opening ranges on the preflop chart assume you have room to play after the flop, and the push fold calculator takes over once you no longer do. Which of the two you need is a question about your stack, not about the format on the tab you clicked.
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Pick one format and learn it properly.
Spreading yourself over five is how people stay mediocre at all of them. Start with the spin and go: it is the format where the differences bite hardest, three players and a fast clock mean you meet every decision within minutes rather than hours, and what you learn about short stacks there transfers to every tournament you will ever play.
questions about formats
What are the different poker formats?
Spin and go, heads up, sit and go, cash game and the multi table tournament. They all use the same Texas Hold’em rules. What differs is how many players sit down, whether the blinds rise, and whether your chips are money or a claim on a prize pool.
Is a poker format the same thing as a poker variant?
No, and the two words get mixed up constantly. A variant is a different game with different rules, such as Omaha or short deck. A format is the same game arranged differently: the same Hold’em hand played three handed on a fast clock is a spin and go, and played nine handed for money on the table it is a cash game.
Which poker format is best for a beginner?
A low stake sit and go asks the least of you at the start. You know exactly what the evening can cost before it begins, there is only one table to follow, and the hands come slowly enough to think. A cash game demands post flop skill from the first hand, and a spin and go gives you almost no time to decide anything.
Does strategy really change between formats?
Yes, and mostly through two numbers: how many players can still act behind you, and how many big blinds you have left. A hand that is an easy all in three handed at twelve big blinds is a clear fold nine handed at eighty. The rules stayed the same; the arithmetic around them did not.
Which format is the fastest?
The spin and go, by design. Three players instead of nine means the blinds reach you three times as often, and the levels are short, so the whole thing is decided in a small number of hands.
Can I play all these formats for free?
You can practise the decisions for free here. The tables on this site use play chips, and the calculators run in your browser without an account. Nothing on this page requires you to deposit anywhere.