Turbo
A tournament format with faster blind level increases than standard, typically 5-minute levels.
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What Is Turbo?
Turbo tournaments compress the standard tournament structure into a shorter overall time, which increases variance and reduces the amount of deep, post-flop play compared to slower structures. Hyper-turbo formats push this even further with extremely fast blind levels and shallow starting stacks, sometimes finishing in under an hour.
Examples
A turbo Sit and Go with 5-minute blind levels finishing in roughly 20-30 minutes.
A turbo Main Event satellite designed to fit into a lunch break.
Strategy Tips
Shift toward push-fold strategy earlier than you would in a standard structure, since effective stacks in big blinds shrink much faster in turbos. Widen your opening and shoving ranges to account for the increased frequency of shallow-stack situations throughout the tournament. Prioritize preflop study, such as Nash equilibrium push-fold charts, since post-flop decisions make up a much smaller share of overall strategy in turbo formats. Manage variance expectations carefully, since turbo and hyper-turbo formats produce far swingier long-term results than standard-speed tournaments.