Shootout

1. A multi-table poker tournament in which the winner of each table advances to face the other winners. As players are eliminated, the tables are not rebalanced.

Origin

In real life (well, hopefully not REALLY in real life), a shootout is a quick, action-packed battle. Similarly, the single-table competitions in a shootout tournament are fast compared to the tournament as a whole.

Organizational Challenge

The difficulty in organizing a shootout tournament is working the numbers. Because the ultimate goal is to have a final table with a specific number of players (usually nine or ten for a full table or six for a shorthanded table), the size of the field, the number of players per table in the preliminary rounds, and the number of tables must all be carefully calculated.

For example, if you want a ten handed final table, you must have ten tables in the round leading up to it so that you have ten winners. If you want ten players per table in that round, you must have one hundred tables in the round before it, and so on and so forth.

Payout Structure

All players who make a certain round earn the same amount of money. For instance, everyone who makes the second round may make money, the players who advance to the next round will take a jump in pay, etc. The members of the final table are typically paid based on the order of finish.

Isn't it Just a Series of Sit-and-Go's?

Basically.