A shootout tournament is a special variety of multi table tournament. In a standard multi table tournament, tables are periodically balanced as players are knocked out of the tournament so as to keep the tables of the tournament as full as possible up until the final table. With shootout tournaments, players play at the same tables until only one player remains at each table; there is no table balancing. Players winning their tables advance to the next round and play other table winners. This process continues until the final round of the shootout tournament where the remaining players battle it out at the final table of the tournament. Typically, shootout tournaments will either be double or triple shootouts.

In order for a player to win a double shootout tournament, they are required to win two tables. Each of the starting tables in a double shootout play out to their conclusions and the final table is made up of the winners of the first round tables. Let us take the example of a double shootout that opens with ten 10 player tables for a total of 100 participants. Each of the 10 tables play down to one winner in the first round. The second round sees the 10 winners from round 1 facing off at the final table in round 2.

A triple shootout tournament plays out much in the same was as a double shootout except there is a third round. An example of a triple shootout would be a tournament that opens with a hundred 10 player tables for a total of 1,000 participants. Each of the 100 first round tables play down to a single winner. The 100 winners from the first round tables move on to the second round where 10 tables of 10 first round winners again play down to a single winner at each table. The third round sees the 10 winners from the second round moving ahead to the final table of ten players.

While the most common types of shootout tournaments are double and triple, they could easily extend to quadruple and more. Payout structures of shootout tournaments will vary. Some shootout tournaments will pay out to the top three winners of each round with a big payout for players reaching the final table and others will only pay out to players reaching the final table. It is suggested that players look at the payout structure for a shootout tournament prior to registering so as to eliminate any confusion.

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